On Sept. 23, 2013, the New York Times published an article with the headline, “In Supreme Court Opinions, Web Links to Nowhere,” by Adam Liptak. The article stated that a recent study had found that 49 percent of the hyperlinks cited in US Supreme Court decisions no longer worked.

The article cited the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as a potential model for other courts. That court maintained an archive of .pdf versions of all websites and documents cited in its opinions, at https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/library/webcites/. (These are now available via PACER since Jan. 1, 2016.) The article also . . . [more]

The Story So Far

The saga of Bill C-75 and its impact on student legal clinics has staggered to an end – sort of. Unfortunately a significant access to justice issue remains. Here is a brief summary of what happened.

When Bill C-75 was introduced by the federal government in 2018, the bill raised the maximum penalty for summary conviction offences to two years. However, the bill did not amend s. 802.1, which stated that “agents” (including law students and articling students) can only appear on criminal matters in summary conviction matters where the maximum penalty is six months.

Law . . . [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. Threlfall v. Carleton University, 2019 SCC 50

[49] When, in other parts of the absence regime, the C.C.Q. intends that reality be ignored, this is stated expressly. In particular, the declaratory judgment of death mechanism clearly illustrates when a legal fiction will triumph over the true state of affairs. Indeed, the presumption of life and the declaratory judgment of death . . . [more]

Commentators on private member’s Bill 207, Conscience Rights (Health Care Providers) Protection Act, introduced in the Alberta Legislative Assembly on November 7, 2019, have disagreed about whether it is different from the current system in Alberta.

Here I consider the extent to which it would be different from the current requirements of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA). I also consider how it would give doctors (and other health professionals) the greatest freedom in Canada to refuse to treat patients on religious and conscientious grounds and fail to put the interests of patients first, as . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

Fancy for the Sake of Being Fancy
Neil Guthrie

‘Keep it simple’ is good advice – but advice that many lawyers fail to heed. As soon as I am able: Seen in automatic out-of-office e-mail replies or heard on voicemail. There is nothing wrong with as soon as I can, and it certainly sounds less pretentious. … . . . [more]

During my final year with Mediate BC, I had the opportunity to study the use of “dispute resolution clauses” (“DR Clauses”) within the BC business community. By “DR Clause” I mean a clause in a contract that sets out how the parties will deal with any disputes arising out of the contract, including the interpretation of the terms of the contract itself (Note 1). As part of the research, I interviewed several inhouse counsel as well as outside counsel/solicitors who acted for prominent BC businesses. I was surprised to find that (Note 2):

1. Most had not given much thought to

Limitations in personal injury litigation can be contentious, especially since the nature of the damages suffered by a plaintiff may not necessarily be known at the initial time of loss. This is especially true in claims that include chronic pain, as these types of medical conditions are not diagnosed until several weeks after an injury.

In these contexts, a plaintiff may rely on discoverability to exceed the two year presumptive limitation found in s. 4 of the Limitations Act. Courts have extended this notion of discoverability even further, the Ontario Divisional Court finding in Pereira v. Contardo that the . . . [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.

TRAVAIL : Lorsque l’employeur lui-même est l’auteur de harcèlement psychologique, de connivence avec un tiers, il contrevient gravement à la loi et mérite d’être sanctionné au moyen de dommages punitifs.

Intitulé : Prado Paredes et Entreprise de placement Les Progrès inc., 2019 QCTAT 4593
Juridiction : Tribunal administratif du travail, . . . [more]

Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw Jobs to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.

Current postings on Slaw Jobs (newest first):

• Insolvency Lawyer (Full-time) | Toronto, ON
  (The Heller Group)
• Construction Lawyer–Senior Associate or Partner (Full-time) | Toronto, ON
  (The Heller Group)
• Senior Legal Counsel (Full-time) | Toronto, ON
  (The Heller Group)
• Family Law Lawyer (Full-time) | Sherwood Park,

A recent Ontario appellate decision confirms that employer flexibility in granting occasional requests, such as the time to start and end work, does not always modify the original employment contract.

Quick facts

The employee in this case worked as a scheduler from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with earlier morning work on occasion. The employee claimed that she had a verbal agreement with the employer that she was allowed to arrive any time before 10:00 a.m. to allow her to manage her childcare obligations. However, the employer claimed that he had discussed her irregular arrival times with her and told . . . [more]

Periodically on Thursdays, we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form.

Policy, Practice and Privatized Prison Telephones in Saskatchewan
(2019) 8:1 Can J Hum Rts 1

Sarah Buhler is an Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law. Amanda Dodge did legal and systemic advocacy at the Community Legal Assistance Services for Saskatoon Inner City (CLASSIC) for 8 years. She is . . . [more]