For a few years now, I have participated in academic and professional projects, publications, events and conversations about territories located in Canada, the United States and across the world. These efforts have allowed me to build relationships with people working on the state of legal and government information in these territories, at the access and preservation levels. As a Foreign, Comparative and International Law Librarian as well as Professor of Legal Research, I know firsthand that without widespread access to these foundational materials as well as proper preservation plans, we risk losing relevant materials and data useful for all researchers . . . [more]

What motivates you the most in the workplace? Is it the sense of accomplishment from completing a challenging project? Or maybe the camaraderie of collaborating with a great team? No, of course not. Silly of you to think that! The thing that motivates all of us, of course, is fear and paranoia that comes from workplace surveillance! It is the sentiment of an invisible omnipresence—with the threat of criticism, punishment, or even unemployment—that will deliver managers the best results. What else could drive productivity quite like the Orwellian nightmare of constantly being watched by your superior?

This seems to be . . . [more]

Unless you are one of those legendary litigators who focuses on court and leaves all of their writing to someone else, lawyers spend a lot of time writing. It would be wonderful if legal and professional writing escaped the demons of creative writing, but in my experience, the demons of procrastination and self-doubt and the lure of online shopping can only be overcome by the looming dread of a deadline or the personal guilt of a missed deadline. It’s impossible for one book to banish a writer’s demons, but this summer a pair of complementary books brought me tiny slivers . . . [more]

Keep a record of research questions you have answered and the next time you have a demonstration of a new product, use one or more of these questions (amended as appropriate). You get a much better idea of how a resource performs when you can compare its results to what you have retrieved using other resources than you do from a vendor’s prepared searches.

Alternatively, when a product is being demonstrated to end users, encourage attendees to bring questions that they have run into recently to the session. It is much easier for for users to evaluate the quality of . . . [more]

This July I was able to attend the American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting in Chicago. I had a wonderful time reconnecting with old friends and colleagues. Many of the sessions focused on how to handle AI in law libraries. I was glad to go to a presentation on project management where I learned that my colleagues at the Law Library of Congress are planning to work on a project to make the records and briefs of the Supreme Court of the US available online. This is a very exciting project that will take many years to complete and . . . [more]

In his recent post “A Relationship Model of Dispute Resolution”, Jordan Furlong proposes a relationship model of dispute resolution:

The choice of dispute resolution environment should take into account the nature of the relationship that is the subject of the dispute. The more important or valued or future-looking the relationship, the farther away from trials and courtrooms it should be kept.

I wholeheartedly agree. There is value in considering ‘alterative dispute resolution’ processes outside of the courtroom when relationships are at stake. As he notes, “…trials, when they do occur, inevitably damage or destroy any relationship that existed . . . [more]

This was mentioned this in a SLAW Tip back in 2013, but I thought it worth revisiting.

AccessCLE is a free resource that allows you to search and retrieve Law Society of Ontario CPD program materials from 2004 onwards. Articles are available as PDFs and can be downloaded free of charge.

You can either search materials for keyword or browse by topic. There is also an advanced search option that allows you to restrict your search by author, title, or full text. 

— Susannah Tredwell . . . [more]

I recently attended the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries / Association canadienne des bibliothèques de droit (CALL/ACBD) held from June 25 to 28 in Montréal, and it was a highly enriching experience. The conference was meticulously organized under the theme of “Languages of Law”, offering a robust lineup of sessions and activities that catered to various interests within the law library community.

One of the standout sessions was the keynote titled “Navigating Bill 96: Legal, Linguistic, and Societal Perspectives,” presented by Jean-Pierre Corbeil and Julius Grey. This session provided valuable insights into the multifaceted implications of . . . [more]

If you need to research legislation in British Columbia, Gail Nash’s publication Legislation Made Easy has now been made freely available on BC Laws. 

This publication, well known to law librarians, is “a guide to the complexities of the various aspects of statutes, regulations and orders.” It covers such things as the legislative process, how bills, regulations and orders come into force (along with helpful flowcharts) along with some helpful definitions.

— Susannah Tredwell . . . [more]

The Canadian Open Access Legal (COAL) Citation Guide/Guide canadien de la référence juridique en accès libre (RJAL) is now available: https://canlii.ca/t/7nc6q

Over the course of two years, law librarians from across Canada worked together to create the COAL-RJAL Guide. The English version of the Guide is now freely available and hosted on CanLII (2024 CanLIIDocs 830), and the French version is in progress. The Guide is intended to be used throughout the legal field and incorporates feedback contributed by reviewers from Canadian courts, law firms, law journals, law societies, and law schools.

The COAL-RJAL . . . [more]

The bar examination landscape in the United States seems to be in a state of upheaval. The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is in the midst of developing a new bar exam, called the Next Gen Bar. Meanwhile, California’s State Bar considered scrapping NCBE entirely and hiring Kaplan to write an exam for California.^[1] Though California has now paused this plan, it’s clear that they were looking for other options and thought it might be possible to write a new exam.

I once heard a teaching expert joke that she could teach anything. She would take a bet . . . [more]

In my last post, “The Potential for Reducing Claims with Plain Language”, I noted that poor communication is a leading cause of professional liability claims against lawyers. Convoluted client letters and emails may lead to clients making decisions on matters they don’t fully understand. A plain language approach offers the potential for reducing claims risk for lawyers and their clients in addition to making the law and legal processes more comprehensible for self-represented litigants. Fortunately, a plain language approach in legal training and an increased emphasis on plain language legal writing, including judicial decisions, is underway.

But has . . . [more]