The federal government has announced proposed regulations that will allow banks to opt out of a national customer ombudsman service in favour of private ADR services that they will choose and pay for.

This seems like a bad idea.

If banks can simply shop around for another ADR service provider whenever they are unhappy with the decisions of the current provider, how can consumers and small businesses have any confidence in the integrity and impartiality of decisions?

The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) currently has more than 600 participating firms including banks, credit unions, trust and loan companies, . . . [more]

Between 1993 and 2003, Canada’s overall divorce rate fell by more than 11%. The most recent statistics available, compiled in 2005 by Statistics Canada, indicated that the divorce rate was hovering around 40%.

However, the same study found that divorce rates for persons over 50 years of age had increased markedly. Similarly, a recent study conducted by Bowling Green State University confirmed that American divorce rates among couples over 50 had doubled within the last 20 years.

The conclusion is clear: Boomer marriages are falling apart at a growing rate, bucking an overall trend towards fewer divorces among members of . . . [more]

The new issue of LAWPRO Magazine includes an article entitled Diversify without dabbling: before expanding your practice, expand your competence!. It looks at how how lawyers who are considering expanding the scope of their practice can do so safely and avoid a malpractice claim (dabbling outside one’s comfort zone is often a cause of claims). Watch for the full version of this article at www.lawpro.ca/magazine.

Here are five tips from the article on how to expand your practice skills safely.

1. Expand purposefully
If you decide to expand your scope of practice, make sure that the decision to . . . [more]

Last week news broke of the epic hacking of Gizmodo’s Mat Honan. By exploiting security flaws in both Amazon’s and Apple’s account verification and reset procedures, a hacker was able to obtain access to a wide variety of Honan’s accounts, including his iCloud account. Once they’d gained control of Honan’s iCloud account, the hackers were able to remotely wipe his iPhone, iPad, and his Macbook, destroying his personal data, including irreplaceable pictures of his one-year-old daughter:

In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my

. . . [more]

Now this could be seen as a pretty strange question for one to ask . . . if it weren’t for the fact that so few law firms seem to have effectively answered this question.

Twice a year I have the privilege of conducting a one-day master class for new practice group leaders, usually held at the University of Chicago and hosted by the Ark Group. Over the years I have now conducted about a dozen of these sessions and in all cases the participants comprise firms of over 100 attorneys in size including the likes of Jones Day, . . . [more]

Until very recently, most knowledgeable class actions practitioners in Canada would have said that there have been very few full-blown class action trials in this country. The conventional view was that any plaintiff who could achieve a certification order in a class action would shortly arrive at a settlement agreement in the case. Trials and verdicts? Like Sasquatch, they were more frequently cited than sighted.

In 2011, after undertaking a well-contested 45-day class action trial of our own, and with another of our class action matters scheduled for trial shortly thereafter, my colleagues (Sarah Graham, Genevieve Meisenheimer, Lauren Nielsen) and . . . [more]

It’s an ongoing debate in the law firms that actually care. How do you measure your law firm diversity? Is it based on actual lawyers, looking at an associate/partnership ratio, or do you look at diversity and inclusion policies and procedures?

The former approach has become a standard now among American firms, where young recruits routinely scan diversity statistics when considering employers. Many young lawyers and law students review diversity figures even if they are not “diverse” themselves, because they prefer working in a supportive and open environment.

Canadian firms have not been so forthcoming primarily because the base numbers . . . [more]

It’s been a while since Slaw invited a law firm to blog with us for a week, but we’re happy to say that the firm of Harrison Pensa has agreed to help us break that fast. They’ll be joining our regular bloggers each day this coming week. Harrison Pensa LLP is a mid-size, full-service law firm headquartered in London, Ontario, with an office in Toronto. Known for its expertise in litigation and business law, Harrison Pensa also offers a strong consumer focus in family, wills and estate, and personal injury law.

Of course, you’ll recognized one member of the firm . . . [more]

This is a discussion of principle and principal.

As ever, it wouldn’t hurt to have a glass or cup of your favourite beverage at your side while you ponder. . . . [more]

Today, a brief interview on PBS with US Supreme Court Justice Scalia, who published in June Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts. In the interview he says the book sets out in detail the full range of originalism as he understands it (with the help of co-author Bryan Garner, Editor of Black’s Law Dictionary). The first part is a rationale, reportedly, and the second a how-to. To my knowledge, this is quite novel for a sitting judge.

Originalism does not have much purchase in Canada, apparently, on the grounds that it is unnecessary to conceal the policy making . . . [more]

A B.C. woman who won a personal exemption from Canada’s ban on doctor-assisted suicide will keep that right as the case makes its way through the province’s Appeal Court.

One of the reasons I’m no great fan of winter is that it moves you away from nature, at least the quick and the colourful; embrace winter how you will, the smells, sounds, and hues of flora and fauna are all seriously muted. In summer nature is very much in your face, flashing, cheeping, biting, croaking and generally redolent. This is when you take the car trips on which you count the cows, when you fish (and release), when the garden’s profusion nearly overwhelms.

So it seemed a good idea to offer you and the family something straightforward about this . . . [more]