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Archive for April, 2025

Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners

As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted.

Appeal Judgments

Bankruptcy & Insolvency: Student Loans
Piekut v. Canada (National Revenue), 2023 BCCA 1812025 SCC 13 (40782)

Single date approach re student loans in bankruptcy context. . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

By 2035 Society Will Abandon Walking: Encouraging Multi-Modal Legal Research

By 2035, society had largely abandoned walking as a means of transportation. Urban planners, motivated by efficiency and data-driven optimisation, redesigned cities around autonomous electric vehicles. Pedestrian streets were repurposed into rapid transit corridors. Walking was confined to indoor spaces, explicitly private residences and commercial complexes. Walking was only executed to partake in menial, non-essential tasks such as a grabbing a cup of coffee from a Brew-fficiency 5000 system (with algorithmic precision in every sip!). To walk outside was seen as impractical, even obstructive, a habit of the past that no longer fit within the streamlined flow of modern urban . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information

Time for an NDA Redesign: Airbus’s Approach to Startup Partnerships

Listening to Season 29 of Wondery’s Business Wars, it’s clear that AIRBUS is outpacing its competition. Several factors contribute to AIRBUS’s dominance, but one stands out: its corporate culture of innovation[1] extending even to its legal and procurement teams. As of at least 2015, AIRBUS has a “contract innovators team” that seeks to improve contract digitization and procurement.[2]

A few years ago, this multinational aerospace corporation took an innovative approach to its non-disclosure agreements (NDA) (I can imagine the eye rolls and sighs but trust me—this NDA is different. Keep reading).

The Role of NDAs in Business

. . . [more]
Posted in: Practice of Law

The Inevitability of AI in Court: What Does It Mean for Self-Represented Litigants?

A recent CBC article from British Columbia indicated that a self-represented party used Microsoft Copilot to assist with legal research: the artificial intelligence (AI) program generated 10 cases, nine of which were hallucinated. The hallucinated cases were ‘caught’ during a proceeding at the Civil Resolution Tribunal, but this incident and the possibility of others like it raises challenging questions for access to justice. It can be assumed that public-facing AI will continue to gain ground as a means of providing legal information and assistance, and as that happens, there will be more examples of hallucinated cases making their way into . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues

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. Michael Geist 3. OsgoodePD Blog 4. Appointed podcast 5. Litige municipal au Québec

Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada
AI in Recruitment — Here’s What Companies Can Learn

Many companies are now using AI tools to sort through

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners

As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted.

Appeal Judgments

Criminal Law: Included Offences; Air of Reality Test
R. v. Pan, 2025 SCC 12 (40839)

Clarification of air of reality test in included offences context.

Oral Judgments

Criminal Law: Sexual Assault
R. v. R.A., 2025 SCC 7 (41421) Judgment rendered . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

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) : L’accusé qui, après avoir consommé de l’alcool, a effectué le raccompagnement rémunéré de 2 préposées aux bénéficiaires qui ont été blessées lorsqu’il a perdu la maîtrise de son véhicule, est condamné à une peine d’emprisonnement avec sursis; le tribunal a considéré le parcours personnel difficile de l’accusé . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Examining Financial Incentives in Dental Services

A few weeks ago, I went to the dentist for the first time in years—thanks to finally having work benefits. I expected a routine cleaning, some X-rays, and maybe a reminder to floss more. Instead, the appointment took an unexpected turn when the dentist launched into a sales pitch for Invisalign.

At 29, with relatively straight teeth, I’d never been told I needed any kind of teeth straightening. Yet, almost immediately, I was shown an AI-generated “after” image that looked nearly identical to my current teeth. The dentist admitted the difference was minimal but claimed it might help protect my . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues, Practice of Law

Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII? – March 2025

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

For this past month, the three most-consulted English-language decisions were:

1. R v Cichacki, 2025 ABKB 96

[5] The Crown alleges that the Accused assaulted eight complainants. The Crown alleges that he used his position as the manager, boss and owner of various nightclubs to ply young women with alcohol, and allegedly spike their drinks with drugs, rendering them incapable of consenting to

. . . [more]
Posted in: Wednesday: What's Hot on CanLII

Business Development in Law Firms: An Insider’s Guide

Recently I was asked to speak to a group of individuals about how to get involved in business development in the legal space. It is not a career that necessarily has a straight path like other professions and many of the best doing it, fell into the profession and then fell in love with the profession.

What Is Legal Business Development?

At its core, business development in law firms bridges the gap between legal expertise and client needs. It can include identifying opportunities, understanding relationships, and creating value propositions that resonate with clients. Unlike traditional sales, legal business development requires . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Marketing

Bridging the Gap Between Access to Justice and Business Law

At first glance, access to justice (A2J) might seem more relevant to areas like family, criminal, or poverty law. But through my unique position as both an Osgoode Hall Law School JD/MBA student and a research assistant for the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ), I’ve come to recognize a crucial and sometimes overlooked intersection between A2J and business law. That is: the challenges people face in accessing justice are not confined to traditionally “personal” legal matters. Everyday legal problems—ranging from contract disputes to consumer rights challenges—are deeply intertwined with business law, shaping both individual experiences and the broader economy. . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues

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. Canadian Class Actions Monitor 2. Family LLB 3. FACL BC Podcast 4. Timely Disclosure 5. PierreRoy & Associés

Canadian Class Actions Monitor
Recklessness as a Willful Violation of Privacy: B.C. Court of Appeal Decision has Implications for Private and Public Sector Organizations

In 2024, the B.C. Court

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix