When the rules were changed in the 1990’s in the UK granting extended rights of audience to solicitors, I had no difficulty believing what was so commonly heard on the street at the time – the independent profession of barrister was going the way of the dodo.

I spent a week in London last month mostly among trust litigation lawyers. Of them, about half were barristers and half were solicitors. It became clear to me that the profession of barrister is alive and well. And I think I know why.

It always struck me as odd why solicitors and the . . . [more]

by Amy Salyzyn

Tweets from space! Far from a futuristic vision of social media, this is a current reality thanks to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield who has been tweeting from the International Space Station in recent days. Informative and occasionally entertaining (the tweets now include an amusing and well-publicized exchange with William Shatner), Hadfield’s use of social media is providing the world with a wonderful and intimate account of his time in, and view from, outer space.

At the same time that Twitter is soaring past the earth’s boundaries, however, it will soon face new limitations here on terra . . . [more]

The Uniform Electronic Materials Act (UELMA) is slowly making that trust more of a reality in the United States. The Act was drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL or Uniform Law Commission) and was approved by them in July of 2011. As of now it has been adopted by two states, Colorado and California, and is under consideration in four more. The Uniform Law Commission’s summary webpage on the Act has up-to-date information on the progress of it in the states and much more A good summary of the origins and drafting of it, . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada's award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from thirty-five 2010 & 2011 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. Entertainment & Media Law Signal   2. BC Injury Law   3. Small City Law Firm Tech   4. Legal Post    5. Canadian Legal History Blog

Nobody likes it when someone cuts the cheese. But if it happens at work, repeatedly, is that grounds for claiming a “hostile work environment?”

The U.S. Social Security Agency (SSA) issued this warning letter to one of its employees on December 10, 2012.

The employee was warned during a performance review by his supervisor on May 18, 2012 that his co-workers were complaining, and was warned again on July 17 and August 14. He provided medical documentation at one point that he was lactose intolerant, but the supervisor stated in the letter, “It is my belief that you can control . . . [more]

Summaries of selected recent cases are provided each week to Slaw by Maritime Law Book. Every Sunday we present a precis of the latest summaries, a fuller version of which can be found on MLB-Slaw Selected Case Summaries at cases.slaw.ca.

This week's summaries are in Search and seizure, Landlord and tenant, Criminal seduction, Matrimonial property & Hearsay:

An interesting trade-mark battle is emerging between between Major League Soccer (MLS), and the Supporter Groups (SGs) for three of its franchises — Vancouver, Portland and Seattle. The battle is over the term ‘Cascadia Cup’, an award given to the best of those three teams, based on head-t0-head competition. For the uninitiated, one would think the MLS was in good standing to make such a claim; and obviously they thought so, filing their TM application with CIPO in mid-December.

The troubles begin when you look at the Cup’s origin; and consider that the Cascadia Cup:

• Was created by

. . . [more]

I recently had the occasion to spend some time at one of Nova Scotia’s more famous sites, Oak Island. Despite the relatively small footprint of the island, there is a wealth of legend regarding the island. Growing up in the Maritimes I thought Oak Island was a real life Treasure Island and in fact I may not have been far off. Dating from 1795 when a youth noticed some lights on the island and began to dig, the legend of the Oak Island Treasure has traveled far and wide. It is reputed that a pirate (or Spanish or French) treasure . . . [more]

Clients will, understandably, get upset if they are treated badly or confronted with surprises. Make sure you appreciate how your words, actions, or inactions can annoy or even distress your clients. Here are some resolutions you can make to avoid doing the most common things lawyers do that annoy clients:

• I will promptly return phone calls: Unacknowledged or unreturned phone calls are some of the most common complaints about lawyers. To avoid these problems, set and control client expectations at the very start of the relationship. Establish a reasonable policy on how quickly calls will be returned (e.g., within

. . . [more]

The Canadian generic pharmaceutical industry has recently been successful in invalidating several brand name drug patents on the basis of “The Promise” doctrine. Eli Lilly would like to put an end to this, using Canada’s international treaty obligations under NAFTA.

Can you see the difference?

In the mid 2000s one could start to see Canadian patent cases “turning” somewhat. Before this, the general sense was that a mere scintilla of utility was enough to obtain a patent. However, if the patentee made an explicit and unequivocal “Promise” of a certain use or result, recent cases have held the patentee to . . . [more]

As I think I’ve remarked before in this space, there are a number of things fundamental to being human that science still cannot fully explain. These “mundane marvels” interest me — I’m thinking of laughing, crying, sleeping . . . and yawning. We yawn 25,000 times in our life. Fetuses do it, apparently. We do it when we’re bored, anxious, hungry, tired.

But why?

And that’s the problem. Nobody has the answer. Or, there are too many answers. Have a look at this article, which gives you something of the essence of Wolter Seuntjens’s dissertation, a work in . . . [more]

Among the many things altered by the Internet is the sense of what it means to make things public. The world is simply a much more public place, in the sense of what is made visible and accessible, whether image or text, whether from your neighbour or an organization on the other side of the globe. For my part, I have been fascinated by and involved in what this means for the research and scholarship that universities produce. One element of this new public quality involves the publishing of data on new scale. The fifteenth-century emergence of the printing . . . [more]