We have The Court for Canada, the New Zealand Supreme Court Blog, for New Zealand, and SCOTUSblog for the United States. As of last week, Australia also has a blog dedicated to discussion of the decisions of its highest court: Opinions on High. Indeed, Melbourne Law School, at the University of Melbourne, expressly noted the influence of these three blogs in the development of its own high court commentary site.

It seems an objective of the Opinions on High is to engage a wide audience. Melbourne’s Associate Dean (Engagement) Professor Miranda Stewart not only expects the site to . . . [more]

The Inquest into the death of Brian Sinclair opened yesterday in Winnipeg. Brian Sinclair was a 45-year old homeless, Aboriginal man confined to a wheelchair due to double amputations. On September 19, 2008, he went to the emergency room of Winnipeg’s Health Sciences with a bladder infection, where he spoke with triage staff and was directed to wait. According to media reports, Mr. Sinclair waited as directed, without receiving care, until he died, some 34 hours after arriving at the hospital.

Provincial Court Judge Timothy Preston will hear testimony over the next several months in the Inquest called under . . . [more]

The most recent issue of the Weekly Checklist of Canadian Government Publications lists a series of research reports released by Justice Canada in recent months. The Checklist is a catalogue of publications produced by Government of Canada agencies and departments that are made available for distribution to a network of Depository Libraries in Canada and abroad.

Two of the reports caught my attention because they deal with non-traditional approaches to criminal justice. A few years ago, I had helped organize a session at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries on these topics:

• Gladue Practices in the

. . . [more]

In Is Timex Suffering the Early Stages of Disruption? Grant McCracken describes the crowd-funding approach taken by bespoke watchmakers, Hudson Watch Company and asks whether this business model challenges longstanding watchmaker Timex in the marketplace. His point isn’t that this small upstart is a threat to Timex, but that Hudson’s arrival in the market creates an opportunity for the old guard to reexamine their business models and assumptions about consumers and the marketplace they operate in.

McCracken suggests that the questions for Timex to ask are:

1. “What could HWC be telling me about the world? What’s out here that I

. . . [more]

Edward Snowden’s recent disclosures have revealed a need to rethink the way that the current legal structure governing the clandestine activities of intelligence agencies provides for proper oversight by Congress and the public at large.

As I like to point out, law reform bodies can be a great source for legal research. They often conduct widespread consultation with stakeholders, compare how other jurisdictions deal with the same problem and frequently dig into the history of an issue.

Here are a few examples just from this month:

• Law Commission of Ontario Final Report on Increasing Access to Family Justice: “The family law system has been the subject of much comment in recent years and many reports recommending changes to the system. Since 2010, there have been reforms in relation to procedures to address domestic violence

. . . [more]

One interesting scrap of legal news that passed under the radar recently was a testy exchange involving Hideaki Ueda, Japan’s human rights envoy to the United Nations at a session of the UN torture committee in Geneva, Switzerland. The donnybrook arose when a fellow envoy called-out the Japanese criminal system for not mandating electronic recording or the presence of counsel at police interrogations. Mr. Ueda sprang to his nation’s defence, only to be met by the audience’s muffled laughter. In true diplomatic fashion, Japan’s emissary responded by telling his esteemed colleagues to “shut up” not once, but twice. . . . [more]

The long-standing monopoly on delivery of legal services is eroding across Canada. The current of consumer demand is steady and strong, seeking out a broader range of legal services and information, driven largely by cost, supply issues and technological change.

There is evidence of this erosion all around us, both within and without the bounds of the formal legal profession. Paralegals, notaries and agents provide specified legal services across the country, assisting with real estate transactions, wills, traffic offences and more. Courts are recognizing the needs of the self-representing litigant by providing self-help centres and creating online resources. Administrative tribunals . . . [more]

JustAccess is a Toronto startup that, as of today, is seeking donations via the Centre for Social Innovation‘s crowdfunding site, Catalyst. The notion is that with a $10,000 infusion JustAccess can launch its own venture, which will:

support plaintiffs and defendants who can’t afford proper access to the justice system[,] share their stories with like minded people and request financial support towards their legal fees.

JustAccess is the work of a team of three people, Sam Saad, Chris Barry, and Kay Dyson Tam, none of whom is a lawyer or has legal training. Saad, the Managing Director . . . [more]

To add to to your summer reading list:

The 2013 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction goes to Stanford law professor Paul Goldstein for his novel Havana Requiem:

“The novel chronicles efforts by a lawyer, recovering alcoholic Michael Seeley, to help a group of aging Cuban jazz musicians and their families reclaim copyrights to their works. When his main client, Héctor Reynoso, goes missing, Seeley begins to realize that there is more to the story than music, and that a far deeper conspiracy is involved that might include both the Cuban secret police and his former law firm.”

The . . . [more]

The revelations by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency has been conducting widespread snooping against pretty much everyone, everywhere, all the time has provoked more than just political and diplomatic fallout.

As can be expected, there are several new lawsuits.

The American non-profit investigative journalism website Pro Publica has created the NSA Surveillance Lawsuit Tracker that lists the “key legal challenges to [U.S.] government surveillance and secrecy” since 2006. The last lawsuit added to the list was filed on July 8th.

For a Canadian take on government whistleblowers, I recommend the work of the NGO FAIR (Federal . . . [more]

We all know someone, or have been someone, who has worked in the restaurant industry under precarious working conditions. Working for tips and less than minimum wage, working long and strange hours and split shifts, dealing with for harassing customers and/or bosses, physically tasking conditions, and most notably having little job security.

In our practice we’ve talked to servers who have been underpaid, discriminated against, sexually harassed or sexually assaulted by their employers and who have been fired without receiving their last pay cheques let alone pay in lieu of notice. We’ve negotiated settlements for some people, drafted human rights . . . [more]