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. David Whelan 2. Meurrens on Immigration 3. Susannah Tredwell on Slaw 4. Civil Resolution Tribunal blog 5. Flex Legal Blog

David Whelan
In With the In Crowd

One thing that I attempt with this blog is to share what I know. It may not be much and it may not be exactly what someone is looking for, but I always think that knowledge is accretive. Like a puzzle, a bit gets added here and there until the picture comes into being. I don’t know what pieces other people are missing. I often find a missing piece by going to other sources (although, increasingly, those sites are becoming poisoned by the after-effects of artificial intelligence). Sometimes I don’t know what pieces I’m missing until I write something down. It’s a professional struggle, then, when I find myself in a closed group. …

Meurrens on Immigration
Dual Intent

One of the most common questions that immigration lawyers and consultants get asked is whether someone can visit, work or study in Canada if they either have a permanent residence application in process or plan to submit one. The issue is often especially pronounced in Canada’s family reunification programs, as families do not want to wait the years that it can take Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (“IRCC” ) to reunite, at least temporarily. It can also, however, arise in economic immigration programs, as foreign workers who arrive in Canada may ultimately want to immigrate. The same is true with students. …

Susannah Tredwell on Slaw
Tips Tuesday: Getting the Most Out of Legal AI Research Tools

It’s pretty much impossible to get away from a discussion of how AI is going to affect legal practice these days. From AI tools that allow users to summarize documents to tools that create new precedents to tools that carry out legal research, it feels like there’s an AI tool for every part of the legal process.We’ve also seen the stories about legal research using AI gone bad: for example, this Federal Court case or this Ontario case. (There’s even a database of legal decisions involving AI hallucinations.) The problem in these situations is not that the lawyer used AI, but rather that the lawyer did not independently confirm that these citations were correct. …

Civil Resolution Tribunal blog
Participant Survey – June 2025

The Civil Resolution Tribunal anonymously surveys people who have gone through the tribunal process. We use this feedback to improve the way we serve the public. We report the results every month on this blog. We had 31 responses to our participant survey in June 2025. We’re pleased to report that participant satisfaction remains strong in all areas except timely resolution. We’re taking measures to address a high volume of claims and improve timeliness in all areas of the dispute resolution process. …

Flex Legal Blog
New Study Shows Solo Lawyers are Surprisingly Quite Happy (But Still Struggle with Support)

There has been a welcome shift in recent years in the legal profession: conversations around lawyer well-being have become more open, more researched, and more action-oriented. But one key group has often been left out of these discussions: solo practitioners. That’s why the 2025 Solo Attorney Well-Being Trends Report, published by ALPS, is so valuable. It offers a clear, data-driven look at the unique challenges and satisfactions of solo practice. …

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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.