This morning I went to the College Park box office for the Toronto International Film Festival to pick up my 25 tickets for my daypass to the festival this year. Saw a lineup of over 300 people snaking outside the building and almost gave up. Fortunately, there was a separate line inside (with no lineup) for people like me merely picking up their packages. I got 25 out of 25 of my film selections; my wife only got 21 of 25.

On movies and their connection to law: if you Google “law-related movies”, I am the first hit! Well, . . . [more]

Well, I got half way there: I’ve upgraded to the latest version of WordPress and I’ve introduced the new categories. Of course, you won’t really see any changes — except to observe, perhaps, that the categories have been removed from the right sidebar. The new design and structure needs more work, so it’s back to the drawing board for a bit until I can command the pixels to behave as I wish. In the meantime, and as always, please enjoy the great posts from our contributors — and please continue to respond with comments.

I’ll keep you posted. . . . [more]

For the next few hours, Slaw will be in a state of disarray as I upgrade our WordPress, introduce a new design, new categories and a bunch of new features — all while juggling a beach ball on my nose.

Expect to see strange objects, no objects and all manner of error message. Do not adjust your sets. The problem is temporary (with any luck).

Come the morning, a bright new Slaw should appear, about which I’ll have more to tell you when that comes to pass. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at the new design via a . . . [more]

I gave up my cell years ago after I got soaked for local calls while out of my home network. I think in the end I was charged at both ends of long distance from my location to my home network, and then from my home network to my location (4 long distance charges in total for on local call). Here’s a link to Michael Geist’s latest column in the Tyee, which outlines the issues around “locked” cell phones, and how Canadian law and policy stands at the moment. In the breach, there are a number of open source . . . [more]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced the appointment of Steven Point as British Columbia’s newest Lieutenant-Governor.

Steven Point’s experience includes being a provincial court judge based out of Abbotsford BC, the Chief Commissioner of the British Columbia Treaty Commission, and is an elected Chief of the Skowdale First Nation. . . . [more]

On the first day of the new school year (since this is my first time in a while not actually going back to school, I’m feeling a little nostalgic) people are often optimistic about what the year holds in store. In the spirit of this optimism, I thought I’d point out an online application for any students reading here.

Notemesh, a “social note-taking” application, is based on a philosophy that can seem a little out of place in law school. In their own words, “the goal is that everyone will work together to create a set of lecture notes . . . [more]

Earlier this year, Simon Fodden wrote about Scrybe, an online calendar that was in beta at the time. Although it is still not generally available, Scrybe was written up in this weekend’s NY Times.

The calendaring functions look pretty intriguing, but as Simon pointed out, they may not be enough to cause people to leave their familiar programs. I’m still interested, though, if they can find some sort of solution that allows me to sync up my various calendars – my Google calendar for my personal life, Outlook for my work life, and my phone for important nags when I’m . . . [more]

As of tomorrow, the modern remnant of the “Long Vacation”[1] is over for us Canadian civil litigators. Some of us might be starting trials, tomorrow.

Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays
I want to shoot
The whole day down

from I Don’t Like Mondays (c) The Boomtown Rats, Bob Geldof (1979)

Especially if one isn’t prepared. Preparation means facts and law. One can’t know what facts might be relevant unless one knows the relevant law. And, one owes it to one’s client, and the judge, and the jury where there is one, to go to court with the . . . [more]

done to the tune of Donovan’s Season of the Witch (Kooper – Still’s Super Session version, of course).

When I look out my window,
Many sights to see.
And when I look in my window,
So many different people to be
…
Must be the season of the switch.

OK, so I switched a word. Sue me.

Simon F’s taken heart in hand, foot in mouth, tongue in cheek, etc. and allowed me to shift from occasional to core contributor, on threat of dire consequences if I stray too far from “hailing distance of research/IT/legal-information”. 

“Sue me” is within “hailing . . . [more]

In praise of… free law

Leader – The Guardian
Monday September 3, 2007

History tends to forget that the Sheriff of Nottingham had a greater purpose than hunting down Robin Hood. Like every county sheriff, he was supposed to ensure that the burghers of Notts knew the law of the land, however recently it had been proclaimed in distant Westminster. The injustice of this myth of convenience never troubled Robin Hood, but it did worry Hobbes, Bentham and, more recently, the magisterial Lord Brooke, a former chairman of the Law Commission and appeal court judge. In the internet era, . . . [more]

Nice to know we are being read on the Monterey peninsula . . . [more]