We’ve made great advances in recent years in Canada in examining mental health in the legal profession, and prior, in law school.

In large part this can be attributed to Orlando da Silva, former President of the Ontario Bar Association, who used his term as the head of the largest legal organization in Ontario to bring attention to his own personal plights. Da Silva was awarded the Law Society Medal last year for these contributions.

Similar conversations are occurring south of the border as well. One of the most prominent ones is a new series on Above the Law called . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : La jurisprudence canadienne reconnaît que la présomption de conformité des actes de l’Administration peut trouver application dans le contexte d’un procès portant sur une infraction de type statutaire ou réglementaire en matière de sécurité routière.

Intitulé : Directrice des poursuites criminelles et pénales c. Watters, 2017 QCCA . . . [more]

One Sunday each month OnPoint Legal Research provides Slaw with an extended summary of, and counsel’s commentary on, an important case from the British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario court of appeal.

Victory Motors (Abbotsford) Ltd. v. Assessor of Area No. 15 – Fraser Valley, 2017 BCCA 295

AREAS OF LAW:   Property assessment; Contamination; Value to owner; Market value

~ In assessing the value of a property, when there is no commercial market for it but it has value to its owner, that owner can serve as a proxy for a competitive market. ~

BACKGROUND:

The Respondent, Victory Motors (Abbotsford) Ltd., . . . [more]

In Part One I explained why proper succession planning is so important. I also touched on why senior partners might be reluctant to retire, and offered advice on how to overcome this hesitancy. In that post I also provided a broader view on the definition of succession, suggesting it be considered more of an evolutionary process than an act in a point of time.

I suggested that strong business management is managing through constant change, and that this change should be actively managed in a law firm at three levels: the Partnership (and eventual transfer of ownership); practice groups, and . . . [more]

Over the summer months, the Law Society of Upper Canada has been conducting a Dialogue on Licensing to prompt information sharing, discussion, input and reflection on the future of the requirements for licensing of lawyers in Ontario. Based on materials disseminated as part of the Dialogue, a series of discussion sessions were held and summary reports released. Submissions were also invited through a broad call open into August. According to a late June update, the Professional Development and Competence Committee (PDCC) of the LSUC will spend the remainder of 2017 reviewing the input, with a view to producing . . . [more]

I just signed up to attend the fall IT-Can conference, and thought the conference was worth mentioning. It is a consistent high quality conference for lawyers practicing in the IT/IP fields, and for others such as CIO’s.

Topics this year include fintech, quantum computing, blockchain and smart contracts, connected vehicles, big data, health care tech, cybersecurity, and control over online content.

Perhaps I’ll see you there in Toronto on Oct 23. . . . [more]

Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and which French-language case have been the most viewed* on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week:

1. Daniel v. Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, LLP, 2017 ONCA 697

[1] The appellant’s core submission is that in finding that she was a partner in the respondent law firm, rather than an employee, the trial judge gave insufficient consideration to the fact that her work was controlled by the partner whose clients she served and that she was dependent on the . . . [more]

I went through law school without ever seeing pictures in the law books I read. And only once did I imagine the parties in a case and give them faces – State v. Williams, 484 P. 2d 1167 (Wash. Ct. App. 1971). There, in my criminal law textbook, was the story of an Indian couple without a lot of education who were charged with manslaughter because their child died after they failed to take him to a doctor. They thought he had a toothache. Ignorance was not an excuse. I still visualize them and their pain at losing their . . . [more]

If you’re managing legal projects, there will be times you need to present information to your boss(es), your clients, or your team.

I’ve seen many successful projects perceived as troubled simply because the project manager couldn’t “manage” a presentation.

In a project management presentation, PowerPoint (or its equivalent) is good for two things, and two things only:

• Visuals, and
• Signposts

It is a very poor tool for the purpose most people use it: transmission of information.

The “Bad” of Slides

Asking people to read a detailed PowerPoint slide will induce a) eyestrain, b) boredom, or c) both. It will rarely . . . [more]