Monday’s Mix

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from forty-one recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Canadian Legal History Blog  2. ABlawg.ca  3. BC Injury Law Blog  4. Rule of Law  5. Le Blogue du CRL

Canadian Legal History Blog
Mohr, Irish perspective on Statute of Westminster
In the most recent issue of the Law and History Review, Thomas Mohr has an article, “The Statute of Westminster, 1931: An Irish Perspective.” The Statute of Westminster looms so large in Canadian constitutional history that I for one often forget the larger imperial context, which Mohr’s ‘Irish Perspective’ does much to illuminate . . .

ABlawg.ca
Psychological Stress and Workers’ Compensation in Alberta
Cases commented on: Martin v Alberta (Workers’ Compensation Board), 2012 ABCA 248, appeal heard December 10, 2013 (SCC); Ashraf v SNC Lavalin ATP Inc., 2013 ABQB 688. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of Canada heard argument in an Alberta case involving the interplay between federal and provincial legislation providing for the compensation of workers injured in workplace activities. Workers’ Compensation Commissions from British Columbia, Quebec and Nova Scotia intervened in the case. The Court, which reserved judgment after its hearing, offers the following description of the case on its website: . . .

BC Injury Law Blog
Follow Up Medical Reports After The Passage Of Time Are Not “Extravagant” Disbursements
Reasons for judgement were released this week by the BC Supreme Court, Vancouver Registry, addressing the reasonableness of multiple physician reports ordered in the course of a personal injury prosecution. In this week’s case (Zhang v. Heikkila) the Plaintiff was injured in a motor vehicle incident. In the course of her lawsuit she obtained multiple medical reports. The first from her GP in 2009. This report opined on prognosis. Following this the Plaintiff obtained a report from a physical medicine specialist and as trial neared the Plaintiff obtained an updated report from her GP. ICBC challenged the reasonableness of these disbursements arguing they were excessive. District Registrar Cameron disagreed finding these disbursements were properly recoverable. In reaching this decision the Court provided the following reasons: . . .

Rule of Law
How Will B.C. Courts Interpret Section 58 (Curing Deficiencies) of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act?
Perhaps the most controversial provision of British Columbia’s new Wills, Estates and Succession Act coming into effect on March 31, 2014, is section 58 which will allow the Court to give effect as a will to a document, or an electronic record, that does not meet the formal criteria for a valid will in British Columbia, if the Court is satisfied that it represents the “testamentary intentions of a deceased person.” For example, the court could give effect to a document that might purport to be a last will, but might not be witnessed by two witnesses, or perhaps the deceased person might not even have signed it. . . .

Le Blogue du CRL
Compétence spécialisée et révision judiciaire
La Cour supérieure, ayant entrepris sa propre analyse de l’affaire plutôt que de se rallier aux principes de la décision raisonnable lors de la révision judiciaire d’un jugement de la Commission des relations du travail, voit sa décision renversée par la Cour d’appel dans Benedetti c. Syndicat des chargées et chargés de cours de l’UQAM (CSN), 2013 QCCA 2088. . . .
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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.