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Monday’s Mix

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from forty-one recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Legal Post Blog 2. Social Media for Law Firms 3. Le Blogue du CRL 4. BC Injury Law Blog 5. Entertainment & Media Law Signal

Legal Post Blog
Lawyer speaks out against an antiquated family law system
It is a common refrain among regular Canadians, “I’m not sure I can afford to get divorced.” Even lawyers are fed up with a process that at times appears to be designed to create conflict rather than solve problems efficiently. Toronto divorce lawyer, Andrew Feldstein, has taken his views to the public in a new paper. “In It’s Time For Justice, I ask the politicians responsible for divorce law to recognize their obligations to all Canadians,” he says. “Just because 9-year-olds can’t vote doesn’t mean the local MP, MPP, or MLA does not represent them when laws about their parents’ split are being improved, stalled, or ignored,” he says. . . .

Social Media for Law Firms
5 Effortless Ways to Get Maximum Blog Commenting Love
Publishing your own legal blog is a huge accomplishment and take a lot of blood, sweat, tears and late nights. All serious bloggers will tell you the keys to a successful blog include consistency, dedication, inspiration and motivation. The best blogs feature an additional secret ingredient: a loyal fellowship of readers that love to comment. Blog commenters come with the added perks of: increased search engine optimization (naturally), building your reputation as a thought leader in your practice and/or industry and that general feel-good feeling you get when people “hang out” on your wall. . . .

Le Blogue du CRL
Congédiement hâté en raison d’une assignation à devenir juré
Lorsqu’un fait hâte le congédiement, par ailleurs inévitable, d’une employée lors de sa période de probation, prudence s’impose lorsque ce fait est relié à des présomptions de pratiques interdites! Ainsi, dans Fiset c. Femmes autochtones du Québec inc. (2013 QCCRT 0401), la Commission des relations du travail arrive à la conclusion que puisque le congédiement de l’employée a été hâté par le fait qu’elle avait été assignée à devenir juré, elle devait être réintégrée et indemnisée par l’équivalent du salaire et des autres avantages dont l’a privée le congédiement, et ce, jusqu’à la fin de sa probation. . . .

BC Injury Law Blog
$95,000 Non-Pecuniary Assessment For Permanent Knee Injury Likely Requiring Replacement
Adding to this site’s database addressing non-pecuniary damages for knee injuries, reasons for judgement were released recently by the BC Supreme Court, Vancouver Registry, addressing such an injury. In the recent case (Majchrzak v. Avery) the Plaintiff was injured in a 2007 motorcycle collision when the Defendant’s vehicle failed to yield the right of way. The Plaintiff suffered a knee injury which continue to pose problems at the time of trial and likely would need full replacement in the future. In assessing non-pecuniary damages at $95,000 Madam Justice Brown provided the following reasons: . . .

Entertainment & Media Law Signal
Wiping the Slate Clean: When Fake Movie Products Have Real-World Counterparts
Often when practicing entertainment law, particularly in Canada, attempts to analyze a particular situation run up against a road-block: there seems to be no caselaw covering the issue, and you’re stymied as to how to advise your client (beyond offering the most banal observations like “Well, there’s a risk”). Then, of course, the second-guessing begins: there must be some caselaw on this topic, and I’ve just missed it – right? It’s nice to have a decision like Fortres Grand Corporation v Warner Bros Entertainment (USDC, N.D. Indiana, 2013 WL 2156318) which covers multiple grounds: it provides some judicial guidance on a matter and confirms that you weren’t wrong when you couldn’t find any other decisions. Though the decision is an American one, and the analysis doesn’t perfectly map onto Canadian law, it is still a decision worth the attention of film & TV production lawyers. . . .

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