Can you spare 10 minutes to help researchers understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to legal services and its effects on the legal profession in Ontario?

A team at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Ryerson University is studying how the pandemic has affected legal clinics, law associations, law firms (lawyers, practitioners, paralegals, etc.), and other legal entities.

The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to legal services and in particular, how the changing circumstances have affected civil law firms, including their key performance indicators, revenue, costs, . . . [more]

Spring greetings!

Following up on an announcement we made in November of 2019, CanLII and Slaw.ca are proud to announce the addition of 14 new ebooks to CanLII’s commentary collection. The series now encompasses 27 ebooks that feature legal writing on a variety of subjects.

Each ebook contains a set of selected columns from a Slaw.ca contributor that have been edited and formatted for display on CanLII:

• James Côté on Legal Technology
• Doug Ferguson on Legal Education
• Gabriel Granatstein on Employment and Labour Law
• Ian Hu on Legal Innovation
• Mark Hunter on Legal Marketing and Communication
• Martin Kratz on

Reflections by Gerry Ferguson, distinguished professor, faculty of Law at the University of Victoria.

Joe Arvay was a good friend to many of us and a shining star in our legal universe. When I think of Joe, I cannot get Elton John’s tribute song to Princess Diana (and Norma Jean) out of my head – “his candle burnt out long before his legend ever will.” Joe died of a sudden heart attack while still in full flight at age 71. Joe was viewed by many as Canada’s pre-eminent legal advocate for the civil rights and liberties of us all, . . . [more]

 “I think it’s fantastic that there is a university program in Canada dealing with E-Discovery, as education in this area is severely lacking. It’s a difficult area to come to grips with. The Osgoode program covers more than just E-Discovery, it also delves into the areas of information governance and privacy which are very important in every E-Discovery matter.”

Ann Halkett CEDS, Manager, eDiscovery Services, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP, Vancouver

We live in an information age, and the practice of law is built on information. Rapid advances in technology means that the volume of data being generated is . . . [more]

Calling all Lexbox power users!

Lexum announced today that it’s looking for beta testers to try out the new Lexbox Premium service. These early adopters will get to use the service for free until the official launch; this includes up to 100 alert feeds and 5GB of storage (with more available if needed), 3rd party integration, unlimited search and hyperlinking in your documents, unlimited history and more.

See Lexum’s announcement for more details and to sign up for your beta user account. . . . [more]

Reaching December means that it’s time to look at the year in review and share what most interested you in the preceding twelve months through the lens of what court decisions you were all reading. 2020 feels like it’s been a year like no other, but there are things that have been constant and Canadians accessing case law via CanLII has been one of them.

That said, there are four current cases on the top ten list this year, compared to three in 2019, and none in 2018. It seems this is because of a break with prior . . . [more]

The British Columbia Provincial Court is implementing a new regime for resolving family law disputes beginning this week. The new regime involves making dispute resolution the first step in the court process. The BC court announcement states that: “The early resolution model includes new, simpler forms and procedural changes that help set a collaborative tone. For example, instead of making their first appearance in a busy, adversarial courtroom, people attend a family management conference with a judge as the first step in court proceedings”. This new model is being implemented first in the regions of Surrey and Victoria, BC.

I . . . [more]

Apportionment of Fault In Tort (1981) – David Cheifetz

An unrestricted PDF of Cheifetz, Apportionment of Fault in Tort is now available. The text has been out of print for about 2 decades.

The “price”, for Canadian purchasers, will be a donation of CDN $20 to either the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children or the Vancouver Children’s Hospital. Purchasers from other countries should chose a suitable children’s hospital or equivalent in their jurisdictions.

If you want the PDF: Send a request to me at dcheifetz21@gmail.com with a copy of the donation confirmation and the email address to which you want . . . [more]

It’s December 1st and that means one special thing in my world: the Clawbies are on! 15 years ago, I sat at my desk and wrote up an inaugural “Canadian Law Blog Awards” (styled awkwardly for the first many years as CLawBies – glad we scrapped the camel case!). That first edition was inspired by Dennis Kennedy’s Blawggies and was meant to be a playful homage to the unsung blogging heroes sharing Canadian perspectives on all things legal. It felt important to recognize how they made our community a little stronger and more connected. It’s safe to say we’ve never . . . [more]

[Editor’s note: Slaw.ca does not typically publish releases or announcements, but we are making an exception here below. We wish Colin the best of luck in his new non-profit initiative.]

Ottawa, September 21, 2020 – The Legal Innovation Data Institute brings the power of many to meet the interests of all. Imagine trying to write a story with only a partial alphabet. Or trying to write a song with access to just a few notes. It’s the same with legal data – the more you can access, the more you can do. Through a unique member and collaborator model, LIDI . . . [more]

You’ve likely come across Peter Sankoff’s #100interns project over the past few months. Peter executed a very successful campaign of connecting law students with various practitioners, small firms and educational institutions around the country. Students with an interest in Criminal law were paired with practitioners or researchers; giving them the experience they would normally have found during summer intern positions. The idea of filling this “COVID gap” for law students is incredibly admirable; though the project has since finished, and was limited to those seeking criminal law experience. Over the past couple weeks I have been contacted about two student-led . . . [more]

Introducing the Innovating Justice Forum 2020: The Innovating Justice Forum is a premier event working towards Sustainable Development Goal 16 and taking justice innovation to the next level. This edition of the annual gathering will focus on “how justice innovation can be financed and why it makes sense to invest in it”. Embark with us on a discovery of the avenues and alleys leading towards building the business case for Financing Justice Innovation. We aim to make these two full days a lively exchange of ideas, co-creation, scrum sessions on matters directly related to getting justice innovations financed, . . . [more]