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 more than 80 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.Labour Pains 2. Meurrens on Immigration 3. Clicklaw Blog 4. BC Injury Law Blog 5. Legal Feeds

Labour Pains
Judge Finds Poor Reference is Not Defamation

Can an employee sue his former employer in defamation for a poor reference? In a to-the-point decision authored by the Honourable Justice Gisele M. Miller of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Papp v. Stokes et al, 2017 ONSC 2357, the answer was not if what was is said is truthful and/or free of malice.

In the result, Justice Miller found that Mr. Papp had not been smeared as a result of an honest, but less than flattering reference. …

Meurrens on Immigration
10 Pieces of Advice Before Entering First Year

Half way through my second year of law school I drafted a list of 10 pieces of advice that I would give to anyone entering their first year. I passed this list on to between 5-10 people, and everyone seemed to appreciate it. After not having thought about the list for a few years someone who had heard of it recently asked me for a copy. It took me a fair bit of time searching through old Facebook messages to find it. I accordingly decided to publish the list here so that if I was ever asked again I could easily find my recommendations rather then spend time during a sunny Sunday looking for it.

Remarkably, while I have updated the rationale behind each suggestion, my recommendations for people entering first year law remain the same now as they did when I was a second year law student.

So here they are. …

Clicklaw Blog
2017 Bi-Monthly Update Series: March/April

To keep you informed, here are some highlights of changes and updates made to Clicklaw in March and April: …

BC Injury Law Blog
$120,000 Non-Pecuniary Assessment for Chronic Pain with Somatization Issues

Adding to this site’s archived postings of ICBC chronic pain cases, reasons for judgement were released this week by the BC Supreme Court, reasons for judgement were published this week by the BC Supreme Court, Vancouver Registry, assessing damages for chronic pain in a Plaintiff pre-disposed to somatization.

In the recent case (Alafianpour-Esfahani v. Jolliffe) the Plaintiff was involved in a 2012 rear end collision that the Defendant was responsible for. The Plaintiff alleged brain injury altogether this claim was not proven at trial. The court found the plaintiff was pre-disposed to somatization and suffered from a chronic pain disorder following the collision. In assessing non-pecuniary damages at $120,000 Madam Justice Sharma provided the following reasons: …

Legal Feeds
Legal news roundup – May 11, 2017

Canada

Feds collect data to stamp out illegal marijuana trade, Canadian Press

Strident opponent of assisted dying won’t chair advance request review, Canadian Press

Four killed, 2 injured in seven-vehicle collision on Highway 401, Canadian Press …

_________________________

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