I was born in Calgary, Alberta
I graduated from St. Francis High School in 1984 and received my Bachelor of Education Degree at the University of Calgary in 1988.
I received my Bachelor of Laws Degree at the University of Calgary in 1991 and was admitted to the Law Society of Alberta in 1992.
I completed my articles with the law firm of Davidson & Williams in Leth bridge, Alberta and joined the firm as an associate lawyer there after. I articled under the Honourable Justice R. Jerke. In 1993, I returned to Calgary and joined the firm of Fleming Kambeitz where I practised until 1996. I joined the firm of Vickers & Associates as an associate in 1996. I became a partner of the firm in 2009 and asaresult the firm name changed to Vickers Hendrix LLP in 2009. The firm became Hendrix Lawin 2014.
Over the years, I have established various scholarships for the development of junior high and highschool students to honour life balance, athletic and academic achievement in Calgary, Alberta.
I am the past chair of the South Alberta Canadian Bar Association Foreclosure Subsection and I have been a member of the Executive of the Subsection for the past 20 years. There are few other members of the subsection that has participated more directly and actively with the Foreclosure Subsection and Executive than I have over the past 20 years.
I am Admitted to and am in Good Standing with the following Law Societies:
Alberta – July 24, 1991
Northwest Territories – January 16, 2012
Nunavut – November 2, 2012
Yukon – May 14, 2019
Contribution to the Court:
I have always tried to lead in seeking improvements in the legal system and the practise of foreclosure law, I am and have been active in the development of the foreclosure practise in Alberta and have worked with the Alberta Bar and closely with the Masters in Chamberson the development of precedents, fee guidelines, practise and procedures for foreclosure lawyers over the past 20 years.I have actively contributed,on a solution based orientation, with our formal Foreclosure Subsection meetings with the South Alberta Masters in Chambers.
Recently, and after 20 years, we achieved a huge leap towards consistency and efficiency with the court clerks in having an approved fee and disbursement tariff in place. This started with a meeting with myself, Master Waller, Master Alberstat, JoeMorin, Angie Renkeland a few other foreclosure lawyers back in 1998. Together with Cass Lintott, in the past few years, we have spent hundreds of hours working together with the Masters in Chambersto establish fair, equitable and best practises with respect to fee consistency and expectations on taxed foreclosure files resultingin as ustainable indexed guideline that was produced in 2017. This has served the public in terest as well, in having a concrete expectation of reasonable fees that should be incurred in a fore closure setting.
I have worked directly with Master Prowse on establishing the foreclosure precedent forms that are now available on the Queen’s Bench web site and have engaged with the all of the Masters directly on continuing to improve and adjust those precedent forms as the ever changing land scaping of lending and real estate continues to evolve.
I have been privileged to attend before the court to make submissions and reference son relevant areas of lawfor the foreclosure CBA subsection. Any time that there has been an issue to be resolved by way of Court application, I have always volunteered to make the application for the courtre ference or judgment that assists the practise.
Contribution to the Legal Profession:
I pride myself on being a mentor and a teacher within the industry. I am registered as a Mentor with the Law Society of Alberta in the areas of Foreclosure Law and Real Estate. I assist lawyers on a weekly basis with questions they may have in relation to foreclosure practises and procedures. I have always been available to provide guidance on processes to follow and precedents to use to fellow members of the bar. I have always been quick to lend a hand, or a precedentor advice and direction on practise and procedures to members of the bard. I have assisted junior lawyers at fellow firms on a regular basis when their senior members are away from the office or on holidays and take pride in making myself available for this service.
I have helped numerous lending organizations develop mortgage terms, forms, requirements and standard mortgage terms. I have prepared standard mortgage terms and standard mortgage form which are currently being used across Alberta for such lenders as CIBC, Home Trust, Bridge water Bank, Resmor Bank, Haventree Bank, Home Bank, Capital Direct Lending Corp., Aaron Acceptance, Alpine Credits, AltaWest Mortgage Capital Corp., hundreds of private lenders and Mortgage Investment Corporations.
We have also assisted our clients in development of practise requirements for under writing, review of funding requests and instructing default processes. We have prepared and provided foreclosure step summaries to new lenders and institutions as well as checklists on fundings and mortgage enforcement. I regularly provide all of our clients with email updates on mortgage lending and enforcement practises. I have reviewed and provided input to all of our clients on the updates to the practise, including but not limited to:
mortgage renewals and changes to the Fair Trading Act(now the Consumer Protection Act) and reviewed their renewal forms and procedures to ensure compliance with the legislation;
collateral mortgages and re-advanceable mortgages in consideration of Section 104 of the Land Titles Act;
the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on implied consent so as not to violate privacy laws;
condominium corporations priorities to registered mortgages based upon their by laws;
enforce ability of Notices of Security Interests in priority to or for payout from Mortgagees;
updated on appropriate deletions to ongoing real estate list ingagreements and real estate purchase contracts for in foreclosure and post foreclosure sales;
mistaken discharges of mortgages and remedies resulting from that circumstance;
failure of lawyers and title insurers to register mortgages on parkings talls and other encumbrances;
release of the personal covenant and the effects of Bankruptcy;
the ability to collect for damages to a property on possession;
the impact of the Limitations Act on mortgage enforcement and how that applies when you area mortgagee and another mortgagee on title is foreclosing, and;
he impact of residency on “in foreclosure” third party sales.
Hendrix Law has also built their own internal copy written and trademarked foreclosure administration program that our clients can login to and see at a moment the status of any one of their files, the parties to the action, any interested parties, the documents associated with that file, all communications, what steps have been taken on the file and when the next steps are to take place. This program also assists us in using a team approach to the handling of foreclosures so that any paralegal can work on a file and be familiar with that because they are all coded and organized in the same fashion. This program assists me in firm management as I can assign tasks to my staff, or re-assign tasks when staff are away, at a click of abutton. This program creates our merge field codes for our document production which ensures that all our information is accurate and consistent throughout the file. With any phone call or email, I can have the complete file information available instantly to me. The program ensures that every step is taken when due and that next steps are assigned concurrently so the matter continues to proceed effectively and efficiently. Our files can be cloned for repeat defendants which also stream lines our process. The program and our system s meet all of the National Banks extensive security requirements.
We have worked extensively on the FCT Collect link Default Solutions platform, the National Recovery System and the Prospect platform which are all on line programs which assist lenders inthe monitoring of foreclosure actions and communication on foreclosure files.
Recently, wehave been accepted by the Alberta Lawyers Indemnity Association to provide defence counsel and repair work.
Contribution to the Administration of Justice:
A Foreclosure practise can be difficult. You are removing people from their homes. While our process is efficient we always discharge our dutiest oour clients fairly and honourably. We are respectful and courtesy to all borrowers, no matter their circumstances. I have always maintained my dignity, decorum and courtesy to all other counsel and self represented litigants in and outside the court room. I am consistent in sharing all information obtained from self represented litigants with the court, so that the court can make in formed decisions,even when the defendants do not appears in Chambers.
It is rare that foreclosure defendants have legal counsel. I ensure that I advise any self represented defendants that I am acting for a party adverse in interest to them, and there fore can not provide them with legal advice. However, I alwaysensure thattheforeclosureprocessisexplained to them, andrecommend thatthey either obtainindependentlegaladvice, or contacttheLawyer ReferralProgramfor the opportunity to speak to counsel regarding the foreclosure process and procedures.
As everyone does, our office does provide free legal services, to clients on a regular basis. This is usually 2 or 3 times a month, since I have joined the firm and become a partner at the firm. Sometimes it is a lot more. These usually relate to Wills and Estate matters, Real Estate matters, monitoring prior or subsequent foreclosure files for Lenders, landlord/tenant disputes and general litigation files. These pro-bono services have ranged in fees waived of from $1,000.00 – $50,000.00 per file.
We also regularly consider reductions or waivers of our legal fees on foreclosure matters if it would accomplish a borrower being able to redeem a mortgage or where the borrowers circumstances are particularly heart breaking in terms of illness or deaths in the family. While I do this regularly, I also give each of my staff the opportunity to choose files where we make special concessions on our legal fees or outside payment arrangement of our legal fees(with the consent of our clients always) with the borrowers as a consideration of their personal circumstances.
With the inclusion of the Amicus program at the Court House, on those rare occasions where defendants appear on foreclosure matters, we ensure our applications are stood down to provide the defendant(s) with the opportunities to speak to Amicus counsel before our matters are heard.
I provide free advice daily to our various clients on mortgage fundings and foreclosures to help them with their practices and procedures. I give them step by step solutions on inquiries they don’t know what to deal with, or unusual files they want direction on, or even request for funds that they feel are suspicious. I review outstanding charges on titles for priority issues and recommendations. We have formulated standard mortgage terms, standard mortgage forms and supporting mortgage documents for our clients and consistently work with them to update those documents as practise and procedures change. My motto in that regard has always been that the more we all know, the better we all do!
As I have a Bachelor of Education as my first degree, my most effective way of giving back to the community and my greatest passion relates to being able to provide Educational services to members of the bar and to the public.
My Contributions to the Community by teaching, lecturing, providing presentations or written articles/materials have been with:
Mount Royal University – portions of the Alberta Mortgage Brokerage Course for over 10 years.
St. Vincent D’Paul Junior High – career days
Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association yearly, for over 20 years at various conferences and education day seminars.
AMBA matters publications.
Calgary Herald article on Foreclosures
Calgary Real Estate Counsel jointly with Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association – panel on real estate transactions 2018
Alberta Real Estate Association webinar on foreclosures 2017
Twice yearly, taught the CPLED Course for approximately 10 years teaching about real estate when it was part of the Bar Admission course and then on career days about a realestate practise.
Legal Education Society of Alberta
Taught and Chaired “Civil Enforcement Fundamentals” – 2019
Taught and Chaired “Foreclosure Fundamentals” – 2017
Faculty, Presented with JimReich – “Foreclosures” at the 45th Annual Refresher Court on Real Estate – 2012
Taught and Chaired “Introduction to Foreclosures for Paralegals” – 2009
University of Calgary, Faculty of Law- moot court judge
Canadian Bar Association – numerous Foreclosure luncheons
Alberta Foreclosure Stoppers – various blogs on foreclosure process.
Appraisal Institute of Canada – Calgary Chapter
Mortgage Alliance, Mortgage Professionals and Invis.
CIBC Bank, Home Trust, Equitable Bank, National Bank, AltaWest Capital Corporation, Calvert Home Mortgages, various mortgage brokerages and real estate agencies in Calgary
Some of the many ways I have encouraged public respect for the legal community and public confidence in my abilities is through my affiliations with:
The Appraisal Institute of Canada
The Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association
won the 2017 Partner Award and
a member of the Board of Directors for 2019 and 2020
Mortgage Professionals Canada
First Canadian Title Insurance- member of their Legal Advisory Counsel in Alberta
Alta WestMortgage Corporation -member of their Legal Advisory Counsel in Alberta
Kirpal Dhinsa Scholarship Committee, Calgary
Canadian Bar Association
Member of the Foreclosure Subsection Executive approximately 20 years
Previous repeated Chair and Co-Chair of the Foreclosure Subsection
Calgary Bar Association
Divorce Angels
Stnce
Allignable – Small Business Network
Calgary Chamber of Commerce
Ocato.ca
Member of the Calgary Winter Club
Member of the Silver Springs Golf Club
Mortgage Lenders Association of Alberta
Private Mortgage Lenders Forum Alberta
Lunch and Learns with Real Estate agencies, Mortgage Brokerages and banks.
Powerpoint presentations on foreclosure and real estate updates to private lenders, mortgage investment corporations, trust companies and National Banks. I usually try to do this twice a year with all of my clients.
I have also actively Sponsored the following Charities or Other Events:
Calgary Catholic Education Foundation
Canadian Red Cross
The Heart & Stroke Foundation
CIBC Run for the Cure
CIBC Golf for Breast Cancer
Tom Tremouth Charity Golf Tournament
Mortgage Alliance Charity Golf Tournament
Mortgage Alliance Charity Rally of Hope
MCAP Shineramaevent in support of Cystic Fibrosis
Previous volunteer with Law Day events- Calgary
Partnered with Mortgage tree to create a yearly coloring contest for Autism Awareness which started in 2017 and reached over 500,000 people in 2019 and had approximately 5000 entries. In 2019 I gave out over200 prizes with a total value of approximately $8,000.00.
Developed the John Hendrix Scholarship Award at St. Francis High School ince 2004 which gives approximately $9,000.00 ayear to 3 scholar shiprecipients who have evidenced success academically and in some form of extra curricular activity all while carrying on a job.
The Sky is my Limit program-having paid for 2 wells to African villages so they can have fresh water (and working on our 3rd)
The Sisters of Precious Blood, Calgary
The Knights of Columbus
Various local community Hockey Teams
up to 2017, the Canadian National Broomball team
Social Impact Entrepreneurs – “Find your Why” workshops.
MLAA Charity Golf Tournament
JNF Negev Tribute Gala dinner
YWCA- Ywhisper Gala
Calgary Italian Sportswoman’s Dinner
InvisAngels in theNight
Women of Vision Luncheons
Sunlife Rideto Defeat Diabetes
Calgary Catholic School District – raised over $100,000.00 directly for kitchen stobe built in 10 schools for breakfast and lunch programs and supported the build ofthe kitchen directly at St. Rita’s Elementary School.
Art of Leadership conferences.
Ongoing education and professional development of my associates and staff.
