Ontario Court of Appeal – Two December 2025 Decisions

December’s (2025)  Ontario Court of Appeal family-law-related decisions are a useful reminder that an appeal is not a chance to run the case again. In Lau v. Tao, the Court largely upheld the trial judge’s property/equalization result, permitting only a narrow correction, underscoring the deference owed to trial judges on factual findings and mixed fact-and-law determinations in family litigation. For counsel, the practical message is to focus appellate arguments on true legal error (or a clear, material misapprehension of evidence), not dissatisfaction with how the trial judge weighed competing narratives.​

The same “no do-over” theme appears in M.E. v. Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, where the Court refused late appeal relief in a family-adjacent civil claim tied to child-protection proceedings, characterizing the proposed appeal as frivolous and effectively an effort to re-litigate matters already constrained by leave requirements. Together, these decisions reinforce a disciplined approach: build the record at first instance, and treat appeals as error-correction—not a second trial.