Canada’s online legal magazine.

Archive for October, 2022

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. Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada 2. Condo Adviser 3. RT Blog 4. BC Estate Litigation Blog 5. Know How

Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada
The Importance of Being Honest and Sensitive: The $50k+ Moral and Punitive Damage Award

Employers may want to reassess

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

On Time in Teaching

Timing is one of the hardest parts of teaching. At the very beginning of lesson planning, I sometimes have the fear that I cannot fill the time, but my more common problem is having too much content and too little time. I’ve learned to plan my timing down to five-minute increments, to hold a pause for questions far longer than I would like, and to set expectations and then set a visible timer.

When I write or revise my class plans, I mark the parts of the plan with time limits, rounded to the nearest five minutes. Normally, I think . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Education, Legal Information

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

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) : Une peine de 6 ans d’emprisonnement est imposée à une enseignante ayant plaidé coupable notamment sous le chef d’accusation de contacts sexuels à l’endroit d’un enfant âgé de 8 ans auquel elle offrait des services de tutorat.

Intitulé : R. c. Lévesque, 2022 QCCQ 6808
Juridiction :  . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Friday Jobs Roundup

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:a

. . . [more]
Posted in: Friday Jobs Roundup

Whither or Wither: I-Law and Its Traditional Family

The published information relating to the disposal, by Informa to Montagu, of Lloyd’s Maritime Intelligence is, thus far, relatively light on detail and plans, certainly as regards that part of the business unit which might be described as law publishing, perhaps with i-Law.com as its future hub. It may be that it will sit well and flourish within its new corporate environment and even offer added value opportunities for other former Informa businesses such as Emerging Portfolio Funds Research (EPFR) and/or businesses which previously were not with Informa, notably Jane’s. However, that would be a surprise to me. . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Publishing

A Tip: It Pays to Know the CRA Rules on Gratuities

Written by Daniel Standing, LL.B., Editor, First Reference Inc.

Thankfully for servers who work in restaurants, most patrons aren’t like Mr. Pink from the movie Reservoir Dogs who refused to tip. The practice of tipping used to strictly involve cash, but in more recent times, when customers pay for their meals electronically, they often include a tip, leaving it up to the employer to dole them out. The question at issue in 2022 FCA 151 is whether the employer’s payout of tips to its servers is to be considered contributory salary under the Canada Pension Plan, and insurable earnings under . . . [more]

Posted in: Case Comment, Substantive Law, Substantive Law: Judicial Decisions

How to Move Unbundling Forward

I wish to respond to the NSRLP’s August 9th post entitled The Failure of Unbundled Legal Services to Meet the Crisis in Access to Justice. While I loved the article, the title gave me pause.

The title implies that unbundled legal services have been a failure. Yet the body of the article says:

For all these reasons, unbundled service ought to be a practical and useful alternative for increasing access to justice for many more litigants, for a more efficient legal system, and for a mutually satisfying service model for both clients and lawyers.

Perhaps the title was intended . . . [more]

Posted in: Dispute Resolution

LSO Motion on Law Society Fees Ignores Impact on Courthouse Libraries

A motion set to be debated at a Convocation this week calls for the Law Society of Ontario to fix 2023 licensing fees at their 2022 level. Writing in The Lawyer’s Daily, the bencher moving the motion, Chi-Kun Shi, says her motion arises out of concern for “fiscal responsibility” and “especially” the survival of “small and sole practices”.

The motion, which is seconded by bencher Cheryl Lean, appears to be setting the stage for a 2023 bencher election in which the ‘Stop SOP’ slate hopes to campaign on the basis of fiscal restraint and reducing fees. In fairness, there . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law

Looking Forward: Forecasting Technology Developments in the Legal System, Redux

It’s about two years since my first forecast column for Slaw, and as the future is always rising to meet us, I thought I would do an updated version as we approach 2023. Some of my forecasts have stayed the same, some have moved from medium or long term to near or medium term, some are new, and some have been removed, but the forecast isn’t very different than the first one I wrote. As before, I’m interested to see any comments you may have on my predictions or things you think I’ve missed.

Here is my revised forecast . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Technology

Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII

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

For this last week, the three most-consulted English-language decisions were:

1. R. v. Tessier, 2022 SCC 35 (CanLII)

[141] In what follows, we refer to the standard police caution as a warning to differentiate it from the Charter cautions that police provide to fulfill their informational duties under ss. 10(a) and 10(b) of the Charter. While this Court referred to “warning[s]” and . . . [more]

Posted in: Wednesday: What's Hot on CanLII

Tips Tuesday: Use an RSS Feed to Track the Progress of Federal Legislation

In a previous tip, I talked about how you could use an RSS feed to track the progress of Canadian federal government legislation. The website has since been updated and how you set up an RSS feed has changed. 

To set up an RSS feed now, go to https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bills and then click on “Show More”. You have the option to set up a feed using a text search, bill type, and current status as well as a number of other options.

For example, if you wanted to be alerted any time there were proposed legislative changes to the Canada . . . [more]

Posted in: Tips Tuesday

Master the Evolving Landscape of Compliance and Risk Management

Financial institutions – and their legal advisors – need to keep up with new regulations, deal with ongoing issues, emerging trends and technologies and manage the human and technological resources required to get the job done. The speed of change is rapid, and the demands are increasing.

The Osgoode Certificate in Regulatory Compliance and Legal Risk Management for Financial Institutions will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of crucial regulatory compliance requirements, the intersection of compliance and enterprise risk management in financial services and the practical strategies you need to meet them.

Practical, relevant and engaging.

Join the ranks of . . . [more]

Posted in: Announcements