Slaw is pleased to announce that Matt Maurer is joining us as a blogger. Matt (otherwise Matthew P.) is a Queen’s law grad, was called in 2007, and is now an associate in the Minden Gross LLP litigation department, regularly appearing before various courts and tribunals in Ontario.

Welcome to Slaw, Matt. . . . [more]

The UK Supreme Court last week handed down its 5-2 split decision upholding the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden, but later the same day the Court issued a “Further Statement” explaining it had granted Assanges’s lawyer 14 days to apply re-open the appeal for further written or oral submissions.

On reviewing the Court’s reasons Assange’s lawyer submitted the decision was made on a ground that was not argued at the hearing.

The question for the Court was whether it should validate the European Arrest Warrant seeking to extradite Assange to Sweden to be questioned concerning . . . [more]

The Olympics are coming this summer. Imagine the marathoners winding their way through the city of London. As the camera zooms in on the winner crossing the finish line what do you expect to see? Will he be taking a swig of water and saying “I have to run my second marathon now, where’s the starting line for the next event?” Absurd – right? And yet, when it comes to the gruelling demands of intellectual work it is so easy to forget our physical needs and limitations and expect the equivalent of an endless marathon.

Tony Schwartz has founded a . . . [more]

A 41-page internal Department of Justice report obtained by the Canadian Press through a Access to Information Act request shows that the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (SSAGs) appear to be working well in jurisdictions where they have been adopted.

The SSAGs are not legislation and do not have the force of law. However, courts have strongly endorsed their use, and Prowse J.A. of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia described them in Yemchuk v. Yemchuk as a “useful tool,” but emphasized they were only intended to reflect the current state of the law, and did not consider entitlement.

Larlee . . . [more]

We write. And become attached to what we write. We put something of ourselves into it, even if it’s a routine patch of prose for work. How discouraging, then, to have our words thrown back into our faces as unworthy.

One of the steps to becoming a lawyer, I’d say, is learning that professional writing, at least, is a collaborative venture. You give your draft to colleagues who feel free to wield the red pencil, or its slightly nicer Word “comment” version; and with varying degrees of irritation you suck it up and hit “accept changes.” Nothing personal. Still. . . . . [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.

Initially I was going to write about the latest publishing developments and products post the easter break. But as most of you will know a bombshell hit the legal world earlier in the month: the collapse of Dewey in the US will, I suggest, have long term ramifications for both major publishers in the US market, particularly if partners and employees are owed large sums by the firm. We imagine there are more than a few unpaid bills that will remain unpaid or will be paid back on Greek terms over a very long period of time to publishers, content . . . [more]