According to dictionary.com, communication is “the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.” That sounds pretty simple, but wait, can a word with that many syllables and so many modes of connectivity really be that simple? In the library world we know that if communication were easy, straightforward and not prone to misinterpretation, a lot of our time would be saved. Library school was all about the “reference interview”, and if I’ve learned anything since then, it is that the art of understanding and deconstructing someone else’s question is one of the most difficult . . . [more]

A comment by Karen Sawatzky on Simon’s Scrolling post inspired me to think about the language that is most appropriate when teaching law students legal research. Sometimes a funny anecdote is more than just a funny anecdote!

I used to use the expression “it’s a gong show” until a law student asked me what I meant by that. Thanks D. for asking what you thought was a silly question and what became a realization that I was totally pop-culture-less.

Articling student intake is mostly in June at my firm, and by my calculations, this year’s students might be as young . . . [more]

Last week LinkedIn suffered a major security breach where millions of “hashed” passwords were leaked. Dan Pinnington wrote an excellent post last week outlining how you can tell if your LinkedIn password has been compromised.

This security breach has prompted many to reset their password at LinkedIn and other sites. However, as Dan points out, you shouldn’t reset your password to a password you use at other sites. Why? The LinkedIn password leak gives us a perfect case study.

What was leaked at LinkedIn was not your exact password, but rather a hash of your password. A hash is . . . [more]

There has been a bit of discussion on a couple of Canadian lists lately of the appropriateness of commissioning an affidavit (or declaration or affirmation) by video link or by Skype (which is just another form of video, at least for the purposes of this question, is it not?).

Ontario law, and most other Canadian common law at least, requires that the person making the affidavit must be “in the presence of” the person commissioning it (notary, lawyer, commissioner for taking affidavits). See Commissioner for Taking Affidavits Act (Ontario) s. 9.

Question: Is one sufficiently “in the presence” of . . . [more]

A short post for today – a New Jersey woman alleges having been fired for being too attractive (she worked at a lingerie) store. ABC News reports… An interesting concept and interesting law suit. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out. . . . [more]

My involvement in law publishing spanning now over 15 years, it was difficult to resist a title like “How West Law Was Made: the Company, its Products, and its Promotions” (Ross E. Davies, Charleston Law Review, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 231-282, Winter 2012; George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 12-34. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2034499). Who in this industry is so distracted by their daily toil so as to neglect reading a paper promising to share such an important piece of wisdom? How indeed was West Law made? Maybe some know, but I didn’t. So when I . . . [more]

In what the London Times describes as a “groundbreaking” decision, the UK High Court last week ordered Facebook to disclose the email and IP addresses and other information of anonymous internet tormentors – “trolls” – who set up a fake profile of a woman using her photograph.

The order must now be served on Facebook in the US. It has declared it will comply with the order.

How easily Nicola Brookes became a target is described by Women’s Views on News. She was labelled a paedophile and drug dealer. (She has since set up a face book page Trolls . . . [more]

I met with my client after supper on a Friday in the vestibule of a church. It was near my place and, it being a pleasant spring evening, I walked there, pushing my then-infant daughter in her stroller. He was a regular at this particular church, and Fridays were reserved for family social events. His young children were also at the church – a rare and special occasion, authorized in this instance by the family court. The child welfare officer was due to return shortly so we chatted only briefly before he signed over his $2700 tax return and rejoined . . . [more]

Last week I shared a slide deck from an introduction to Knowledge Management. If you didn’t have a chance to look at it, I will wait until you have a quick look now.

The slide I heard most about was slide 14 (below) which charts the functionality of various types of enterprise technology against one another. Unfortunately visual presentations do not include a lot of explanation, so I thought it would be of interest to pull out this specific graph and discuss it a little further. Click for a larger image:

This graphic was put together by fellow presenter . . . [more]

For some potential investors, the hype over Facebook’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) was obvious, largely around inflated expectations over advertising revenues and business model.

Facebook is already facing a couple class actions in the U.S., directed against the funders of the IPO. But now Facebook is facing a series of Canadian class actions against Facebook itself.

A class action was filed this past week in Saskatchewan, with another being filed in Ontario tomorrow, and B.C. to follow thereafter. The class action allege that the bank analysts involved were privy to insider information regarding revenue expectations for the second . . . [more]

Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of June 1 – 8.

♨ 1. R. v. Roy 2012 SCC 26

[1] Dangerous driving causing death is a serious criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Like all criminal offences, it consists of two components: prohibited conduct — operating a motor vehicle in a dangerous manner resulting in death — and a required degree of fault — a marked departure from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in all the circumstances. The fault component is critical, as it ensures

Diamond Jubilee talk was nearly inescapable about a week ago, the Queen of Canada has been on throne for 60 years. This got me ta thinkin’ about Canada in 1952 and more specifically (because this is a law blog) about our legal institutions and specifically the Supreme Court of Canada 60 years ago.

In 1952 the SCC was adapting to recent changes as the court and indeed the nation entered a new phase of maturity as appeals to the Privy Council had been abolished in 1949 by 13 Geo IV c 37, whereby the SCC became the final court of . . . [more]