Fearmongering and fretting about impacts of the Big Four on the legal services sector are the equivalent of tilting at windmills and just as pointless.

I’m tired of overheated headlines and breathless reporting. No, I’m not talking about the trials and tribulations of tariffs and trade. I’m talking about the handwringing and blathering around KPMG’s successful application to practice law in Arizona.

For the love of all that’s holy, handwringers and blatherskites – knock it off.

Scaremongering and Stress

Many lawyers are triggered by fear. Anyone who deals with lawyers in any way, shape, or form knows that the . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur’s Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse. By Denise Chong. Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada, 2024. 298 p. Includes photographs and author’s note. ISBN 9780735274150 (softcover) $24.95; ISBN 9780735274174 (eBook) $13.99.

Reviewed by Kyla McCallum
Student Librarian
University of British Columbia

In 2011, Rumana Monzur, a . . . [more]

Lawyers should “encourage public respect for and try to improve the administration of justice,” according to our code of professional conduct.

The “try to improve” part is fairly straightforward. When we see problems in our legal system we should try to fix them, whether or not we personally or our clients are affected. We should be part of the solutions, not part of the problems.

But what about “encouraging public respect” for the justice system? Improving it is one way to encourage respect for it: by making it more worthy of respect. But I don’t think that’s all the . . . [more]

If you’re fed up with seeing the AI summary at the top of your Google search results you have several options. The easiest thing to do is just add -AI to your search. 

However, if your search includes the term “AI”, this obviously won’t work:

In this case you have two options. You can either click on the web tab:

Or you can add profanity to your initial search:

(Admittedly this last method may give you results you weren’t expecting.)

— Susannah Tredwell . . . [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) : Un homme ayant érigé la soumission chimique en système et ayant agressé sexuellement plusieurs femmes rencontrées sur une application de rencontre, auxquelles il infligeait des sévices après les avoir droguées, est condamné à une peine globale de 25 ans d’emprisonnement.

Intitulé : R. c. Moderie, 2025 QCCQ . . . [more]

Have you ever glanced into a passerby’s stroller, anticipating the sight of a cooing baby, only to lock eyes with a chihuahua or a pomeranian instead? In Canada’s urban centers, this sort of scene is no longer out of the ordinary. In many households around the world, pets are starting to be seen less as property, and more as family members. This newfound status is reflected in everything from gourmet pet food to elaborate birthday parties (guilty as charged). With over 60 percent of Canadian households now including at least one pet, the bond between humans and their animals has . . . [more]

Section 73(3)(b) of the Patent Act permits the Commissioner of Patents to reinstate a patent that is deemed to be abandoned if he receives a proper application on time and if “the Commissioner determines that the failure occurred in spite of the due care required by the circumstances having been taken and informs the applicant of this determination.”

The Manual of Patent Office Practice sets out the due care standard.^[1] This standard was introduced by the Patent Law Treaty, which Canada adhered to and implemented with amendments to the Patent Act and Patent Rules on October 31, 2019.

The . . . [more]

Chief Justice Richard Wagner has made one of his objectives steering the Supreme Court of Canada (“the SCC” or “the Court”) in a way that makes it more accessible to Canadians for whom in the normal course the Court may seem inaccessible and out of touch.

For example, he began the practice of “plain language” summaries of SCC decisions: see Cases in Brief, described as “short summaries of the Court’s written decisions drafted in plain language”. He has taken the Court on field trips to cities other than Ottawa, so far to Winnipeg and Quebec City. As the Court’s . . . [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) : Lors du procès de l’accusé pour meurtre et complot pour meurtre, les directives du juge au jury, bien qu’elles aient été imparfaites, ont suffisamment équipé le jury pour évaluer le témoignage des 2 autres personnes ayant comploté avec l’accusé; les mises en garde de type Vetrovec auraient . . . [more]

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized many industries, the legal sector among them. Furthermore, it will continue to do so in the foreseeable future in ways that we haven’t even begun to comprehend. However, I fear that its promise of solving and revolutionizing every single legal challenge or area is often overstated, especially when it comes to Foreign, Comparative, and International Legal (FCIL) research. AI promises of easiness, rapidity, and exclusively results-oriented approaches fundamentally clash with FCIL work, which demands robust research steps, awareness of processes, and a sense of curiosity in a globalized world that . . . [more]