The Quebec Court of Appeal recently rendered a decision clarifying the restriction set out at section 128(1)(a) of the Act respecting the Barreau du Quebec (“Act”), which reads:

128. (1) The following acts, performed for others, shall be the exclusive prerogative of the practising advocate or solicitor:

(a) to give legal advice and consultations on legal matters; […]

According to this section and in order to ensure the protection of the public, certain acts are reserved for lawyers called and registered with the Bar. The illegal exercise of the legal profession reserved to lawyers constitutes a penal offence. Unless a . . . [more]

We have discussed on Slaw the mandatory disclosure of information from Facebook pages in civil litigation, and the disclosure of FB passwords to prospective employers. I do not believe that we have discussed the disclosure of information from FB in the course of a criminal investigation.

A German court has recently ordered disclosure of the content of private messages and pictures from a suspect’s FB pages. A write-up of the case appears in International Law Office.

Is this just another search warrant for a computer? Would courts where you are have any difficulty with an application for such a warrant? . . . [more]

I attended an excellent session on collection development for law libraries at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference last week. The session was titled “Collection Development in an Era of Shrinking Budgets”. The program stated:

Aimed at those involved in collection development in all types of law libraries, this practical session will discuss strategies and best practices for coping with rising prices and shrinking budgets. Our two panelists will share their experiences in courthouse, private and academic law libraries. The session will then be opened up for discussion and comment by all attendees. Come prepared to share your good

♫ I know you’re waiting and you’re so damn nervous
I know you’re hoping that I could explain this
Look in my eyes
I will try and show you…♫

Lyrics, Music and recorded by Rains.

Two different articles hit my desk this morning and I thought they provided a sharp contrast into the divisions within the legal profession and ultimately, the future of the legal profession.

The first was from Kirk Makin writing for the Globe and Mail. His article, “Courts turn to Wired Justice in Push to Cut Costs” contained some interesting quotes. The article is . . . [more]

Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of May 7 – 14.

♨ 1. Bruni v. Bruni 2010 ONSC 6568 [Second week at #1]

[1] Paging Dr. Freud. Paging Dr. Freud.

[2] This is yet another case that reveals the ineffectiveness of Family Court in a bitter custody/access dispute, where the parties require therapeutic intervention rather than legal attention. Here, a husband and wife have been marinating in a mutual hatred so intense as to surely amount to a personality disorder requiring treatment.

[3] In addition to the volatile issues of custody and access, this

Prominent in-house lawyers have warned Australian law firms that legal process outsourcing is no passing fad. Speaking at the Australian Corporate Lawyers Conference, Telstra general counsel Sue Laver said LPO in Australia is the “next wave” in legal services and as clients, Australian corporates needed to be actively encouraging firms to take action.

Malisons’ Stephen Jaques announced last month that it would be offering LPO to all clients where appropriate, following a trial run on a discovery project. According to Sue Laver, as a result of the quality of work and cost savings on the discovery project Telstra would now . . . [more]

While significant in clarifying the defence of necessity in criminal law, Regina v. Dudley and Stephens has had an even larger cultural influence.

That’s the case of the Mignonette, which capsized on its way to Australia and whose shipwrecked crew faced tough choices in an under-provisioned lifeboat.

The latest NYT Best Seller list features a new book The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan – the author tells that her inspiration came from her husband’s criminal law text.

What hooked me was stumbling on my husband’s old criminal law texts and reading about the cases of sailors who survived shipwrecks and then

On Friday online legal services provider LegalZoom filed for a $120m Initial Public Offering. For those unfamiliar with LegalZoom (likely only our Canadian readers, shielded from the ubiquitous LegalZoom advertising in the US), Richard Granat has authored an excellent series of posts on his eLawyering Redux blog.

As with Facebook’s S-1 filing from a few months ago, LegalZoom’s S-1 filing offers up a wealth of information on the company’s progress to date:

• LegalZoom has served approximately two million customers over the last 10 years;
• In 2011 consumers placed 490,000 orders on the site;
• 2011 revenues were $156m, up

Ideally, your office should have clearly established internal controls for handling and documenting all types of financial transactions. These internal controls are really just policies and procedures that direct what steps should be taken when various financial transactions occur. Although a lack of internal controls does not necessarily constitute a breach of the Rules of Professional Conduct or By-laws, you may consider implementing internal controls to assist your efforts to comply.

The following are some suggested internal controls you may consider implementing
at your office:

Cheque requisitions

When dealing with cheque requisitions for both your general and trust accounts, consider . . . [more]

I got the heads-up from a Brazilian law librarian colleague about a significant opinion published on April 12, 2012. I decided to use the opinion for a kind of case study in how to find cases in English translation. The Supreme Court of Brazil ruled that pregnant women carrying fetuses with anencephaly can legally abort them. The Court’s press releases describing its votes and reasoning are here and here. They’re in Portuguese, which I can make out since I know Spanish, but Google Translate helps give the gist in English. Also, because abortion is a hot issue worldwide, there . . . [more]

I try to make sure that my posts about technology have some sensible bearing on law in one way or another. But occasionally I come across a development that strikes me as worth sharing whether or not I can see anything peculiarly legal about it, and Touché is one such.

Disney Research (who knew the Mouse did science?) has developed Touché, a technique for converting pretty much any surface into a “touch screen” that is able to control a computer — and not merely a binary “finger / no finger” system, but one able to recognize hands, elbows, four fingers, . . . [more]

At yesterday’s lawTechCamp, Garry Wise, Bob Tarantino, Mitch Kowalski and I hosted a panel session on law, ethics and technology, where we facilitated a discussion on issues ranging from the cloud and confidentiality to the ethics of purchasing Twitter followers. One of the most enthusiastic discussions centered around whether we should have cameras in the courtroom.

Given that the audience was comprised of both lawyers and members of the public, including several media members, the conflicting principles at play over the issue of cameras in the courtroom were carefully teased out.

The call for the cameras emerge from the . . . [more]