On my recent trip to London, England, it was arranged for me to be part of a panel discussion at Middle Temple Hall, one of the oldest legal buildings in London. Indeed, the room in which I spoke (Parliament Chamber) hosted the very first performance of Twelfth Night in 1602. By way of background, Middle Temple is one of four Inns of Court in London that are able to call men and women to the Bar.

So there I was, at the beating old heart of the common law, criticizing the current model of legal services delivery; suggesting that it . . . [more]

The Federal Court of Canada ruled on Tuesday October 2, 2012 that the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal erred in law when it refused to apply Section 13 of the Canada Human Rights Act following a hearing into a complaint by Ottawa lawyer and activist Richard Warman.

The Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations (SOR/93-133) provides the framework for most of Canada’s patent litigation. The Patent Act and the PM (NOC) Regulations seek to balance “effective patent enforcement” over new and innovative drugs with the “timely market entry” of lower priced generic versions once the patents have expired. The PM (NOC) Regulations provide innovators of pharmaceutical patents (‘innovator’) with an ability to list their patents on a Patent List. A generic drug maker who wishes to obtain consent from Health Canada to market a drug based on the same active ingredient (called a Notice of Compliance or . . . [more]

Lexum, the company that puts the opinions of the Supreme Court of Canada online, has updated the judgments page. The new page shows off Lexum’s product Decisia, software to assist courts and tribunals to put their decisions online.

The new page offers you a few recent decisions and a few news releases, with the option in each case of browsing through the entire database. Judgments can be browsed by date, case name or subject. Sophisticated searching is also possible, of course.

The only suggestion I’d make (after a very few minutes of using the Decisia layout) is that . . . [more]

I presented today at the London Bridges to Better Business conference on the top 10 legal issues when taking your business online, along with colleagues Mana Khami and Mike Mumby who presented on other top 10 legal issues. I thought Slaw readers might like to see the slides.

David Canton online business

Mana Khami top 10 – employment

Mike Mumby top 10 business . . . [more]

Julie Bilotta became a mother on September 29, 2012. She gave birth to her son Gionni alone in solitary confinement in the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC), after laboring for nine hours while allegedly being ignored and/or taunted by staff who did not believe that she was in the process of delivering a baby. Julie remains in detention pending a bail hearing.

According to news reports, Julie was only allowed to hold her baby in the ambulance on the way to the hospital after his birth, and will see her baby through a sheet of Plexiglas during closed OCDC visits.

Ontario’s . . . [more]

by Daniel Gogek*

When Justice Hackland renders his decision in the now-famous Toronto Mayor Rob Ford ‘conflict’ case, which could be any day now, he is virtually certain to find that the case, contrary to the widely reported views, actually wasn’t a conflict case at all.

Justice Hackland will no doubt explain this in clear detail, and it will be a welcome day, since the public has so far seen little more than misleading and muddled confusion on the matter.

The judgment will almost certainly make this key finding: there was no ‘conflict of interest,’ and therefore the Municipal Conflict . . . [more]

Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of October 9 – 16.

♨ 1. Meads v. Meads 2012 ABQB 571

[1] This Court has developed a new awareness and understanding of a category of vexatious litigant. As we shall see, while there is often a lack of homogeneity, and some individuals or groups have no name or special identity, they (by their own admission or by descriptions given by others) often fall into the following descriptions: Detaxers; Freemen or Freemen-on-the-Land; Sovereign Men or Sovereign Citizens; Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International (CERI); Moorish Law; and

. . . [more]

Germany has recently enacted legislation to implement the EU Consumer Rights Directive. Here is an article (from the International Law Office) describing the German legislation. Those familiar with Canadian consumer law will notice that it is considerable more detailed and directory than the Internet Sales Harmonization Template [PDF] that is the law in most provinces.

What do you think? Would our law be improved by provisions like those in the German law?

Your clients who do consumer e-commerce in the EU will run into this kind of law in all member states before long. (It must be in force . . . [more]

The second #lawstudent #twtmoot competition will take place November 20, #twtmoot organizer @WCELaw recently announced. Participating #lawschool teams will again #twtmoot an #envlaw question, addressing before the #STCC (Supreme Twitter Court of Canada) the question of a public right to a healthy global atmosphere. West Coast Environmental Law was successful last time in raising awareness not only of the #twtmoot event, which trended in #Canada at the time, but also of #envlaw issues—the focus the environmental #lawfirm brings to the event. Last time around—just this past February—#Osgoode was the #winning team. I could be #biased, but I seem . . . [more]

As 2012 draws to a close you will likely be invited to a number of holiday celebrations with your clients and co-workers. Many important business relationships have been formed around the buffet table or the bar. Unfortunately if you go to enough parties, and you’re bound to see a few good reputations crumble.

Holiday parties offer a great opportunity to mingle and network but you need a game plan and plenty of common sense. The type of party will determine your game plan. If it is an internal party, are there people in the firm you want to get to . . . [more]

We’ve learned of a new Practice Direction on Filing Electronic Versions of Documents in Civil Appeals and Judicial Review Applications in the Divisional Court which will be implemented next month – it establishes a regularized process to satisfy the requirement to file electronic versions of factums and transcripts – a requirement that is already in place under Rules 61.09 and 61.12 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. The Practice Direction also encourages parties to file all electronic documents with the Divisional Court in certain proceedings. The Practice Direction does not relieve the requirement to file documents in paper format as . . . [more]