I’ve just returned from the 2012 CALL/ACBD Conference where I always enjoy engaging with my colleagues from across the country and further afield, renewing old acquaintances and making new friends. This year’s conference marked the kick-off of CALL/ACBD’s 50th Anniversary celebrations as part of that celebration we were encouraged to share our reminiscences and I would like to share one of mine here.

My first CALL/ACBD conference was in 2002 in Victoria. My memories from that conference include being somewhat awed by the conference itself and impressed with my new-found colleagues but what rings more than that was the . . . [more]

Here’s a smart little website that finds free eBooks for your Kindle on the Amazon site. It searches the best sellers and updates them regularly. Plus, the creator of the site includes a nice article on how to find and use free Amazon eBooks, even if you do not own a Kindle. via LifeHacker . . . [more]

An Oakville lawyer advised us of a new scam that appears to be a brazen attempt to gain access to a law firm’s computers.

Someone identifying himself as Mason Saunders called the firm this morning and asked to speak directly to the lawyer by name. He indicated to the lawyer that he was calling further to a discussion with a clerk at the firm 3 weeks ago. The caller referenced the clerk by name and indicated he had been authorized to create a website for the firm. The caller then asked if the clerk had spoken to the lawyer. “No” . . . [more]

There’s not a lot to say about this week’s fillip: it’s to see. So if you’re reading this as email, fire up your browser and have a boo. Neonflames invites you to draw spectral shapes and lines, modifying colours, intensities, “noise,” fuzz, and other mysterious things. The net effect — of my trials, at least — is galaxies and glorious sweeps of stellar dust. I can see some nifty computer wallpaper coming out of this.

Be sure to hold down your mouse button for a while in order to see how intensity develops. Play with the controls, and try out . . . [more]

Any Smartphone in a Storm

There is no perfect smartphone for lawyers. In fact, the most important part of the smart phone is probably the phone part, since it enables you to keep in contact with your clients, your office, and other parts of your life. Once you’ve established that baseline – your phone is a phone – then it becomes a matter of very personal choices. It’s not about who has market share, it’s all about you. This has always been true for solos and smaller firms, but choice is even emerging at larger law firms. Most of . . . [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.

. . . [more]

The 2012 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing was announced earlier this week at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries in Toronto.

This year’s Award goes to JuriBistro UNIK, the global search engine on the website of CAIJ, the network of courthouse libraries in Quebec.

With this single interface, one can simultaneously search Quebec Bar Association continuing education materials, the CAIJ catalogue, the full text of Quebec and federal caselaw and legislation, the full text of secondary literature from publisher Wilson & Lafleur, and the TOPO knowledgebase of answers by CAIJ researchers to . . . [more]

A Ministry of Justice press release dated this Monday announced that British Columbia will become the first province to institute a system of online dispute resolution. Bill 44 — 2012, the Civil Resolution Tribunal Act, creates a tribunal with jurisdiction and powers very much the same as those of the small claims court but mandated to:

2 (1) . . . provide dispute resolution services in relation to matters that are within its authority, in a manner that
(a) is accessible, speedy, economical, informal and flexible,
(b) applies principles of law and fairness, and recognizes any relationships between parties

. . . [more]

If a lawyer is caught in a Canadian forest, and their phone battery dies leaving them without e-mail and phone access, are they still a lawyer? We don’t need to contemplate this technologically-modified philosophical question any further, because soon you can power your cell phone with a camp fire.

You can now charge your phone by burning simple wood from said fire using a new product called the BioLite CampStove. You’re also being environmental by using this product, because it only takes excess heat from the stove to convert into electricity.

The worst part is that clients will no . . . [more]

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has come up with some wonderful numbers on our digital habits over the years. A new report titled The rise of e-reading, released on April 4th, is just such an example, and will likely be of interest to many of us here at Slaw. Some of the soundbites included:

• “One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read an e-book in the past year” — up from 17% in mid-December;
• “Readers of e-books stand out in almost every way from other kinds of readers.”

• “They are relatively avid readers of books

. . . [more]

On the 20th anniversary of the deadly Westray explosion that killed 26 miners in Nova Scotia, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) has released a guide for investigating corporate criminal negligence in the event of a serious injury or fatality in a workplace

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently confirmed that when an employee was terminated for stealing from his employer, he was still entitled to his annual bonus because it was clearly an integral part of his contract, even if he had breached his fiduciary duty.