The 2012 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing was announced earlier this week at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries in Toronto.

This year’s Award goes to JuriBistro UNIK, the global search engine on the website of CAIJ, the network of courthouse libraries in Quebec.

With this single interface, one can simultaneously search Quebec Bar Association continuing education materials, the CAIJ catalogue, the full text of Quebec and federal caselaw and legislation, the full text of secondary literature from publisher Wilson & Lafleur, and the TOPO knowledgebase of answers by CAIJ researchers to . . . [more]

A Ministry of Justice press release dated this Monday announced that British Columbia will become the first province to institute a system of online dispute resolution. Bill 44 — 2012, the Civil Resolution Tribunal Act, creates a tribunal with jurisdiction and powers very much the same as those of the small claims court but mandated to:

2 (1) . . . provide dispute resolution services in relation to matters that are within its authority, in a manner that
(a) is accessible, speedy, economical, informal and flexible,
(b) applies principles of law and fairness, and recognizes any relationships between parties

. . . [more]

If a lawyer is caught in a Canadian forest, and their phone battery dies leaving them without e-mail and phone access, are they still a lawyer? We don’t need to contemplate this technologically-modified philosophical question any further, because soon you can power your cell phone with a camp fire.

You can now charge your phone by burning simple wood from said fire using a new product called the BioLite CampStove. You’re also being environmental by using this product, because it only takes excess heat from the stove to convert into electricity.

The worst part is that clients will no . . . [more]

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has come up with some wonderful numbers on our digital habits over the years. A new report titled The rise of e-reading, released on April 4th, is just such an example, and will likely be of interest to many of us here at Slaw. Some of the soundbites included:

• “One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read an e-book in the past year” — up from 17% in mid-December;
• “Readers of e-books stand out in almost every way from other kinds of readers.”

• “They are relatively avid readers of books

. . . [more]

On the 20th anniversary of the deadly Westray explosion that killed 26 miners in Nova Scotia, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) has released a guide for investigating corporate criminal negligence in the event of a serious injury or fatality in a workplace

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently confirmed that when an employee was terminated for stealing from his employer, he was still entitled to his annual bonus because it was clearly an integral part of his contract, even if he had breached his fiduciary duty.

It’s easy and sometimes entertaining to note the negative or bizarre aspects of the major international law publishers but ultimately it is more interesting to identify areas of achievement. Far from the only one, but one such example is the work and evolution of what is now Bloomsbury Professional, based in the UK but increasingly recognisable around the world.

For me at least, it’s hard not to admire the business and the people involved in it, though I have to admit to a bias, though not an interest, in its favour. I consider a number of the people in . . . [more]

Victor Willis, lead singer of the Village People, that camp disco-era singing group, has won an important victory in a California court. Willis wrote YMCA and other hit tunes performed by the group, the copyright to all of which wound up in music companies, as is so often the case for musicians starting out. However, US copyright law was revised in 1978 to include “termination rights,” a provision enabling creators to resume ownership of the copyright after 35 years. Despite various arguments by the music companies, the court accorded Willis the rights to the songs at issue.

According to the . . . [more]

Since Sunday I’ve been at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries annual meeting, which wrapped up moments ago. I’m a new member of the organization and this was my first CALL conference. I’m pleased to have put so many faces to names, avatars, and handles. I also enjoyed reconnecting with many people I’ve worked with over the years in several domains all over the country.

The conference presented much enriching content, and also highlighted that many involved in different legal libraries, in different sectors, share many concerns and challenges. This knowledge came to light during networking times and in sessions. . . . [more]

It is becoming more common for businesses (and law firms) to have a corporate presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google plus. Some take advantage of promotional uses such as contests on Facebook. 

It is important to look at the terms of use if you do that. Facebook, for example, has terms that govern how contests can be run on Facebook. I suspect many Facebook contests run afoul of these terms, and get away with it only because Facebook didn’t happen to catch it. I also suspect that many people running the contests are not aware . . . [more]

Daniel Kahneman’s new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, synthesizes his life’s work as a psychologist. The book is about the systematic errors that limit human judgment.

The six-chapter section on overconfidence is particularly instructive for lawyers in helping them to assist clients to make better decisions and to make better decisions themselves. It appears that excessive optimism and overconfidence are part of the human condition. In fact, an expert’s subjective degree of confidence in his or her predictions is irrelevant to the performance of the expert.

Research has shown that, while computers are better than humans at solving problems . . . [more]

An extraordinary warning today from the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority that fraudsters in Britain have set up phony law firm websites, sufficiently genuine looking that there’s a real risk of fraud.

Bogus firms: Are you at risk of being cloned? . . . [more]