While significant in clarifying the defence of necessity in criminal law, Regina v. Dudley and Stephens has had an even larger cultural influence.

That’s the case of the Mignonette, which capsized on its way to Australia and whose shipwrecked crew faced tough choices in an under-provisioned lifeboat.

The latest NYT Best Seller list features a new book The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan – the author tells that her inspiration came from her husband’s criminal law text.

What hooked me was stumbling on my husband’s old criminal law texts and reading about the cases of sailors who survived shipwrecks and then

On Friday online legal services provider LegalZoom filed for a $120m Initial Public Offering. For those unfamiliar with LegalZoom (likely only our Canadian readers, shielded from the ubiquitous LegalZoom advertising in the US), Richard Granat has authored an excellent series of posts on his eLawyering Redux blog.

As with Facebook’s S-1 filing from a few months ago, LegalZoom’s S-1 filing offers up a wealth of information on the company’s progress to date:

• LegalZoom has served approximately two million customers over the last 10 years;
• In 2011 consumers placed 490,000 orders on the site;
• 2011 revenues were $156m, up

Ideally, your office should have clearly established internal controls for handling and documenting all types of financial transactions. These internal controls are really just policies and procedures that direct what steps should be taken when various financial transactions occur. Although a lack of internal controls does not necessarily constitute a breach of the Rules of Professional Conduct or By-laws, you may consider implementing internal controls to assist your efforts to comply.

The following are some suggested internal controls you may consider implementing
at your office:

Cheque requisitions

When dealing with cheque requisitions for both your general and trust accounts, consider . . . [more]

I got the heads-up from a Brazilian law librarian colleague about a significant opinion published on April 12, 2012. I decided to use the opinion for a kind of case study in how to find cases in English translation. The Supreme Court of Brazil ruled that pregnant women carrying fetuses with anencephaly can legally abort them. The Court’s press releases describing its votes and reasoning are here and here. They’re in Portuguese, which I can make out since I know Spanish, but Google Translate helps give the gist in English. Also, because abortion is a hot issue worldwide, there . . . [more]

I try to make sure that my posts about technology have some sensible bearing on law in one way or another. But occasionally I come across a development that strikes me as worth sharing whether or not I can see anything peculiarly legal about it, and Touché is one such.

Disney Research (who knew the Mouse did science?) has developed Touché, a technique for converting pretty much any surface into a “touch screen” that is able to control a computer — and not merely a binary “finger / no finger” system, but one able to recognize hands, elbows, four fingers, . . . [more]

At yesterday’s lawTechCamp, Garry Wise, Bob Tarantino, Mitch Kowalski and I hosted a panel session on law, ethics and technology, where we facilitated a discussion on issues ranging from the cloud and confidentiality to the ethics of purchasing Twitter followers. One of the most enthusiastic discussions centered around whether we should have cameras in the courtroom.

Given that the audience was comprised of both lawyers and members of the public, including several media members, the conflicting principles at play over the issue of cameras in the courtroom were carefully teased out.

The call for the cameras emerge from the . . . [more]

I’ve just returned from the 2012 CALL/ACBD Conference where I always enjoy engaging with my colleagues from across the country and further afield, renewing old acquaintances and making new friends. This year’s conference marked the kick-off of CALL/ACBD’s 50th Anniversary celebrations as part of that celebration we were encouraged to share our reminiscences and I would like to share one of mine here.

My first CALL/ACBD conference was in 2002 in Victoria. My memories from that conference include being somewhat awed by the conference itself and impressed with my new-found colleagues but what rings more than that was the . . . [more]

Here’s a smart little website that finds free eBooks for your Kindle on the Amazon site. It searches the best sellers and updates them regularly. Plus, the creator of the site includes a nice article on how to find and use free Amazon eBooks, even if you do not own a Kindle. via LifeHacker . . . [more]

An Oakville lawyer advised us of a new scam that appears to be a brazen attempt to gain access to a law firm’s computers.

Someone identifying himself as Mason Saunders called the firm this morning and asked to speak directly to the lawyer by name. He indicated to the lawyer that he was calling further to a discussion with a clerk at the firm 3 weeks ago. The caller referenced the clerk by name and indicated he had been authorized to create a website for the firm. The caller then asked if the clerk had spoken to the lawyer. “No” . . . [more]

There’s not a lot to say about this week’s fillip: it’s to see. So if you’re reading this as email, fire up your browser and have a boo. Neonflames invites you to draw spectral shapes and lines, modifying colours, intensities, “noise,” fuzz, and other mysterious things. The net effect — of my trials, at least — is galaxies and glorious sweeps of stellar dust. I can see some nifty computer wallpaper coming out of this.

Be sure to hold down your mouse button for a while in order to see how intensity develops. Play with the controls, and try out . . . [more]

Any Smartphone in a Storm

There is no perfect smartphone for lawyers. In fact, the most important part of the smart phone is probably the phone part, since it enables you to keep in contact with your clients, your office, and other parts of your life. Once you’ve established that baseline – your phone is a phone – then it becomes a matter of very personal choices. It’s not about who has market share, it’s all about you. This has always been true for solos and smaller firms, but choice is even emerging at larger law firms. Most of . . . [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.