Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of November 14 – 21.

♨ 1. R. v. Pelech 2012 ABCA 134

[1] This appeal addresses the proposal that a trial judge needs to have in contemplation the rule in Hodge’s case, when considering evidence of impaired driving.

♨ 2. Bruni v. Bruni 2010 ONSC 6568

♨ 3. R. v. Maybin 2012 SCC 24

[2] This appeal raises the question of when an intervening act by another person severs the causal connection between the accused’s act and the victim’s death, thereby absolving the accused of legal responsibility

. . . [more]

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but when it comes to things, they “go.” They may go well or go badly, of course. And occasionally they go very badly indeed. In which case English has a pile of idioms ready to apply to the disaster, a great many of them, unsurprisingly, involving the verb “go.”

At times, then, things go south. I’m not sure why that should be — that south should be the direction of disaster, I mean. As a Canadian, I’m pleased, I guess, that nothing going south can geographically land in my country, but it still . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada has refused leave to appeal the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Tucows.com v Lojas Renner 2011 ONCA 548

That decision had held that Tucows.com could bring an action for a declaration of its rights to a domain name in an Ontario court, on the ground that the dispute involved “real or personal property located in Ontario”. In this case, Tucows.com was the registrar and the owner of the domain name Renner. com. The other party was a Brazilian company that owned the trade mark ‘Renner’ (though not apparently in Canada.)

The Court . . . [more]

Upcoming events: Tragically Hip concert in Victoria, a summer of civic engagement in Quebec, and on May 29 at the Fairmont Hotel in Edmonton, the 2012 Western Premiers’ Conference. Have a look at the extensive program they provide:

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

08:15 – 08:30 Media Photo Opportunity
Jasper Room

08:30 Session begins
Jasper Room, closed to the media

15:00 Closing Press Conference
Fairmont Hotel Macdonald

. . . [more]

Along with being an excellent lawyer, if you want to build a great practice you need to do a few things. One is ensuring that your clients receive the ultimate experience and in turn creating the Super Fan.

What is a Super Fan?

• Not simply a client that is simply satisfied with your work but truly loyal to you
• Active referral vs. Passive referral for new work
• Business development advocate
• A client that values you both as a person and professional
• Cheerleader

These are clients that will promote you at any opportunity possible. They understand the value that you bring . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

. . . [more]

The Claude Robinson plagiarism case is not yet over! The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear the case on appeal.

The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC), which for the purposes of clarification is not the regulator of Nunavut but of Ontario, has just released the Interim Report by the Articling Task Force.

The Task Force has previously been commented on Slaw by Adam Dodek and John O’Sullivan. The five options under review include:

1. Maintaining the status quo

2. Status quo with added quality assurance measures

3. Replace pre-license transition requirement with post-license requirement

4. Allowing students to do a practical legal training course (PLTC) during or after law school

5. Abolishing articling in favour of a PLTC . . . [more]

Ever wonder how Google responds to copyright violations? Or, how many URL removal requests it receives from copyright holders? Take a look at Google’s Transparency Report.

The numbers are pretty interesting; and the site is probably worth a bookmark for anyone involved in IP law. You can see, for example, that BPI made 5X more copyright enforcement requests than the RIAA last month. You can also identify which domains are being taken offline, or which file sharing services are receiving the most attention.

An interesting window inside Google…

. . . [more]

Recently I spoke at lawTechcamp at the University of Toronto about the future practice of law. The session generated a great deal of discussion with the audience, some of it quite heated – particularly when I raised the question, “Why should we hire students or junior associates?” The point of my question was to force lawyers to question everything we do – not take any process or practice as a given. The players in the legal industry who are able to forget the past and re-invent how legal services are delivered will be wildly successful.

One of the questions from . . . [more]

The New York state legislature is reviewing two proposed laws that would seemingly make it mandatory for operators of blogs, websites, etc., to take down anonymous comments upon request “unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name and home address are accurate”.

Also included is an obligation for any website “where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages” must develop infrastructure and contact mechanisms for a.) allowing takedown requests to be submitted and b.) for contacting anonymous posters and seeking their . . . [more]

The National Post recently presented the interesting case in which a New Jersey judge must decide whether someone can be “electronically present” in a car, even if they physically aren’t there, and, if so, whether the person can be held liable for events that take place, or that are caused by their electronic presence.