Despite almost daily reports of privacy breaches and thefts of confidential information, the role of mediators and arbitrators in protecting this information has received relatively little attention in the professional community.

That is rapidly changing.

Now, almost every continuing education session I go to has some discussion on this topic.

Are the mediators and arbitrators in the room complying with privacy laws? This means PIPEDA compliance for those who work in Canada and – more crucially – the new(ish) European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which affects anyone who collects information relating to EU citizens.

This was brought home again . . . [more]

People who cannot afford lawyers (or in some cases paralegals) are at risk of not having their rights vindicated. Or they may not even try to assert their rights in the first place. A great number of ad hoc arrangements have been created to respond to this failure to provide access to justice, but the most systematic is the legal aid system. (I mentioned some of the other arrangements in a previous Slaw post and there are others.) Legal aid is not perfect — even with increased funding that has allowed it to offer legal aid to more people, it . . . [more]

Tiger Woods won the Masters on April 14, 2019. His fifth Green Jacket at Augusta National, earned 22 years after his first when he demolished world-class competition with a 12-stroke margin of victory in a tournament where first and second place are typically separated by a single, well-placed putt. I vividly remember that 1997 final, as it fell smack in the middle of my 3L final exams and I thought (correctly) that the best use of my time that day was to sit my then-infant daughter on my lap and watch history unfold rather than break the spine on that . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Practice

A “Business Coaching for Lawyers” Explainer
Sandra Bekhor

Have you ever had a conversation with someone – a spouse, a colleague, an advisor – that shifted things for you? You somehow felt just a little less burdened or constrained after the fact? More hopeful even? They asked the right questions. …

Research & Writing

More on Verbs From Nouns
Neil Guthrie

In a previous post, we covered the . . . [more]

Law schools have historically been deeply anchored in their local communities. They train jurists who serve, and often lead, these communities. They operate legal clinics that seek to help the most vulnerable members of society. They produce research that, hopefully, improve the legal frameworks governing the life of citizens and the fate of organizations.

But over the years, many law schools have broadened, or pluralized, their definition of the word “community.” Even if it is a cliché to say so, the world has shrunk. As a result, not only are law schools increasingly active on the world stage, the world . . . [more]

The recent release of the provincial budget in Ontario has many lawyers livid over the proposed cuts to Legal Aid, which amount to almost 30% of its funding. The cuts relate to broader reductions to the justice sector of approximately 2%, from $5.0 billion in 2018–19 to $4.7 billion in 2021–22.

These cuts may appear to stem from what appears to be higher figures for actual “Other Non-Tax Revenue,” which includes legal aid, from the interim projections for the 2018-2019 year, suggesting some concern that these expenses have been growing unsustainably. But a closer look at these figures suggests there . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

TRAVAIL : À la lumière des faits de l’espèce, le juge de première instance aurait dû reconnaître que les commis débarrasseurs se qualifiaient à titre de «salariés au pourboire» puisqu’ils rendent les services au client et reçoivent habituellement des pourboires en raison du système de partage mis en place chez . . . [more]

Bob wears masks. As he enters a client meeting he digs into his vast collection and dons his client-facing mask. He straightens up and greets his client with a familiar smile. He speaks in a soothing, rhythmic cadence. He maintains utter composure as his client flails about, in turns lost, angry, and pleading. When the meeting is over Bob takes a deep breath. As he returns to his office it occurs to him that of all his masks, this is the one that never seems to fit quite right. It’s a good time for a coffee and a stroll before . . . [more]

Tom Bruce, who helped launch the Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell University in 1992, will be retiring as its director at the end of June 2019.

LII is the mother of all the “little” LIIs (like CanLII here in Canada), websites in dozens of countries that make legal information available for free to citizens. They all form part of the wonderful Free Access to Law Movement.

In his goodbye message, Bruce writes:

“Most of all, I am proud of all of the things that the LII has become, of all of the ways in which it has

An amended version of the Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2019 (introduced as Bill 66) was enacted into law on April 3, 2019, which revises several pieces of legislation, including the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act. . . . [more]