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 sixty 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. ELAN 2. Clio Blog 3. Canadian Appeals Monitor 4. Legal Feeds 5. Labour Pains

ELAN: Electronic Legal Aid News
A Guide to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement now available as an eBook

Our online-only booklet A Guide to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement is now available as an eBook! You can download it to any eBook reader, including Kobo, Kindle, or even your smart phone or iPad or tablet. For advocates, LIOWs, and ACLWs, this means that you no longer need an Internet connection in order to access this publication, and you no longer need to remember to bring printouts to share this information with your clients. Cross-references are linked, making it easy to navigate and get right to the information your client needs. Still not sure about eBooks? Check out Lifehack’s Ten Advantages of E-book Readers….

Clio Blog
Out of the Park: Thoughts and Ideas on Day Two

Sitting here at the airport some 24 hours after the Clio Cloud Conference wrapped up, and thinking about Day Two, all I can say is that I’m both exhausted and exhilarated. But more the latter. We wanted this conference to make a difference, but truly the difference was YOU—the seemingly never ending stream of lawyers, paralegals, and others in the legal sphere that joined us in Chicago for two incredible days of conversations and connections. From our customers to our sponsors to our friends in every corner of this industry, you made this event happen (we just organized it). And we thank you for that….

Canadian Appeals Monitor
Insider Trading: Securities Commission to Think Twice About Excessive Sanctions and Speculation

In a rare appellate court decision, the Court of Appeal in Walton v. Alberta (Securities Commission), 2014 ABCA 273, has set aside a decision by the Alberta Securities Commission and has held that any monetary penalties levied must be proportionate to the circumstances of the offender and supported by reasons. The Court also held that findings cannot be based upon speculation and that the Commission had improperly interpreted the “recommending or encouraging” provisions of the Alberta Securities Act (the “Act”) in a decision that is certain to give pause to Securities Commissions across Canada….

Legal Feeds
National pro bono group to aid with access to justice

As legal aid budgets are squeezed, more members of the public are looking for pro bono services to help with their legal needs. Into that gap comes the recently formed Pro Bono Canada. Incorporated last fall, Pro Bono Canada is an initiative born out of the five provincial pro bono organizations in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec. It will be having it’s coming-out party at the National Pro Bono Conference in Regina this week, which will be for many lawyers their first exposure to the organization….

Labour Pains
Moral Damages for Manner of Dismissal – Meeting the Evidentiary Burden

How much medical evidence must a party seeking damages for mental stress caused by the manner of his or her dismissal from employment, i.e. moral damages or “Wallace” damages, lead at trial in order to receive an award of the same? As with most answers in law, it would appear that the answer is “it depends.” In a recent ruling from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sitting at Ottawa, El-Hawary v. 1202827 Ontario Inc, 2014 ONSC 5265 (CanLII), the Honourable Justice Timothy Ray held that moral damages were not appropriate without medical evidence as to the cause of the plaintiff’s suffering….

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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.