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Law Students and Language

A comment by Karen Sawatzky on Simon’s Scrolling post inspired me to think about the language that is most appropriate when teaching law students legal research. Sometimes a funny anecdote is more than just a funny anecdote!

I used to use the expression “it’s a gong show” until a law student asked me what I meant by that. Thanks D. for asking what you thought was a silly question and what became a realization that I was totally pop-culture-less.

Articling student intake is mostly in June at my firm, and by my calculations, this year’s students might be as young . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information: Libraries & Research

SCC Strikes Blow at Mail Sweepstakes

“You may have won a million dollars!” … or not, if you don’t happen to have the pre-selected winning number. Various bonus prizes for early birds are also offered. This is a common marketing device, but the Supreme Court of Canada held unanimously in Richard v Time 2012 SCC 8 that it offended the Quebec Consumer Protection Act. Mr. Richard got $1000 in damages for being misled (no misles were involved), plus $15,000 in punitive damages, plus his costs at trial (where he had won) and on appeal (where he had lost), and on a solicitor-client basis in the SCC. . . . [more]

Posted in: Case Comment, Substantive Law: Judicial Decisions

Slaw Site News – 2012-02-23

Site news for those who read Slaw only via RSS or email

1. Comment Watch:

In the last week there were 34 comments. You might be particularly interested in these:

  • The erudite comment by John Davis on “The Friday Fillip: Time… and Time Again”
  • the comments elaborating on Adam Dodek’s post, “Reform-Minded BC Ready to Tackle Sacred Cows of Justice System”
  • Nate Russell’s comment with the link to an XLS file of all the tweets involved in the recent Twitter moot introduced in Dave Bilinsky’s post, “First Ever Twitter Moot: #Twtmoot”.

You can subscribe to the comments on Slaw either . . . [more]

Posted in: Slaw RSS Site News

Watching the Odometer Click Over With Mr. TechTips

We pause to salute Mr Tech Tips, Dan Pinnington, whose eminently practical post takes Slaw to its six thousandth post.

From Simon’s initial post on July 8, 2005, let’s look back at what happened on July 20 each year. Start with Connie on corporate filing services, then to Heather Acton’s post on O’Brien’s forms four years ago, Ted Tjaden on the Simpsons and Legal Research, Agnes in 2008 on Animal Law, Gary on how lawyers can help feed the hungry a year ago, this has been an eclectic ramble to say the least.

Thanks . . . [more]

Posted in: Administration of Slaw

Mid-Week Miscellany

Here it is, just about half way between Friday Fillips, and I’m feeling the urge to share some frivolous findings with you. I hope that those who read Slaw for our contributions to your understanding of law and practice will forgive me this mid-week miscellany, most of it blithely immaterial.

But let’s start with law, in a way. The Globe and Mail this morning reported on a British scholar’s announcement (assertion?) that the 1613 Elizabethan drama, Cardenio, is in fact (mostly) by Shakespeare, and not Fletcher (his ghost blogger?) or Theobald, the later plagiarist. In the brief excerpt cited I . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Lawyer Type (4): Ragged Is Right

In legal documents it’s the job of print to deliver the message smoothly and then get out of the way as fast as possible. Lots of things go into making this possible, as any book or magazine publisher will tell you, including the choice of typeface, point size, space between lines (leading) and colour of paper. Yet, when it comes to the preparation of legal documents the profession seems to be willfully ignorant about what makes for persuasive print, favouring remnants of the typewriter age combined with bad aspects of word processing technology.

I want to focus now on only . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information, Legal Information: Publishing, Reading, Substantive Law: Judicial Decisions

‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’, From the British Museum

This may seem like a Friday Fillip, but it’s such an interesting idea that I thought Slaw readers might be interested.

Today, Radio 4 officially launched a major new series ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’, written and presented by the Director of the British Museum, Neil Macgregor. In brief segments over the next year, the history of mankind will be discussed by reference to a variety of objects. . . . [more]

Posted in: Education & Training, Legal Information, Miscellaneous, Technology

Notes on the Panopticon

Simon makes a very good point. Some footnotes from this week’s internet eye:

How difficult is it to disappear, now that most routine life events require a login? Wired article:

Financially he was beyond overextended. A gadget lover whose spending always seemed to exceed his income, he had begun shifting his personal expenses to his corporate credit card — first dinner and drinks, then a washer and dryer, then family vacations. In early February, when an Eaton official emailed to inquire about his expense reports, he felt everything closing in. He began devising a plan to escape.

Even . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information, Substantive Law, Technology

Lawyer Type (3): Of Squigglies, Pilcrows, and Gaspers

One of the reasons I might like to practice in the United States is that I’d get to use the squiggly in my documents. Otherwise known as the section symbol or mark, § is one of my favourite typographical elements, having an elegance and symmetry that please me in a way that the mere “s.” we Canadians use to denote a section of a statute simply cannot. It is, literally, twice (as good as) our section character, being two esses, one above the other. Feel free to sprinkle your comments in Slaw with this lovely mark: easy to do: simply . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information, Miscellaneous

A July Pot Pourri

These news items likely aren’t worthwhile putting as separate posts, so this is a silly season round-up of odd notes from the legal media.

We’re Staying in Dayton

Despite what we speculated last year about the outsourcing of jobs from Dayton, Lexis told the local paper last week that it has no plans to move and that 3,000 jobs in town are safe.

Amazing ROI in Legal Publishing

Want to quadruple your money in 55 months? Sounds like a Madoff line.

Well, in 2004, a London fund put £750,000 of fund money into a Lexis spin-off, a MBO . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information, Legal Information: Publishing, Miscellaneous, Technology

Kalman Visits the U.S. Supreme Court

About eight months ago I spent a Friday Fillip on the TED video of Maira Kalman, an illustrator and writer perhaps best known for her New Yorker covers. Kalman also does a monthly column in the New York Times called “And the Pursuit of Happiness,” where she tells a simple tale with drawn text and lovely illustrations. In April her column was “May It Please the Court,” telling of her visit to the Supreme Court of the United States, her interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her reflections on a number of women important in American history.

Take . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Substantive Law