Rectification is a remedy whereby a court orders a change in a written document to reflect what it ought to have said in the first place.
[1] In the Canadian case of Bercovici v Palmer (1966) 59 DLR (2d) 513, a lawyer's "inexplicable error" extended a conveyance of real property to include a cottage.
[2] Rectification is available if the parties intended to give effect to the whole of an antecedent agreement in the written contract and, by common mistake, they failed to do so.
[3] It may be granted in cases in which the instrument sought to be rectified constitutes the only agreement between the parties but does not reflect their common intention.
[4] The plaintiff needs to advance 'convincing proof' that the written contract does not embody the final intention of the parties.