For over 30 years, every Canadian law student has read these words:

Mr. Pettkus and Miss Becker came to Canada from central Europe, separately, as immigrants, in 1954. He had $17 upon arrival. They met in Montreal in 1955. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Pettkus moved in with Miss Becker, on her invitation. She was thirty years old and he was twenty-five. He was earning $75 per week; she was earning $25 to $28 per week, later increased to $67 per week.

To protect their privacy interests, is it too late to re-style the case P (L) v. B (R)?

I . . . [more]

Well, well…what a surprise. The LexisNexis sale rumours have raised raised their ugly head above the parapet again. This time after a report authored by Ian Whittaker of Liberium Capital ( http://www.liberumcapital.com/research/research.aspx) published in early July. Obviously this report that won’t make many employees at LN feel particularly comfortable about how long they’ll have a job at the company

Whitaker’s report suggests that the days of Reed being one large publishing conglomorate are numbered and that one of the first sensible steps for splitting up the company would be to sell off the Lexis Nexis division.

We’re not sure . . . [more]

As time marches on it is clear that one of the most important recent cases of the Supreme Court of Canada in the field of copyright law has been CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada, [2004] 1 S.C.R. 339 (“CCH”) in which the Court breathed real meaning into the fair dealing exception, now called a user’s right.

CCH was preceded by Théberge v. Galerie d’Art du Petit Champlain inc., [2002] 2 S.C.R. 336, where the Supreme Court of Canada explained that copyright law provides a balance between creators and users, namely:

the purpose of

I am a horse for a single harness, not cut out for tandem or team-work…for well I know that in order to attain any definite goal, it is imperative that one person do the thinking and the commanding.
–Albert Einstein, quoted in Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

A new book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking has rocketed to the New York Times bestseller list. The author, Susan Cain, is a former Wall Street corporate lawyer. I got an early taste of Susan’s . . . [more]

Some Slaw readers may soon become members of a class that is suing one of the leading sources of online legal information in Canada. In 2010, Lorne Waldman, a Canadian attorney, filed a statement of claim against Thomson Reuters Corporation for infringing Waldman’s moral right to control the reuse of his writings included in Thomson’s “Court Documents Collection” (CDC) database (available via Carswell Litigator). CDC permits subscribers to download documents Thomson copied from court files in Canadian cases. The court files include briefs and other documents written by Canadian lawyers, including Waldman. Thomson does not ask the authoring lawyers for . . . [more]

The story of the commercial, professional and administrative uses of electronic communication is a search for trust. Who are we dealing with? How do we know? How certain can we be – or do we need to be? I have reviewed the basics in my column on Authentication and Trust .

Trusted technology

Sometimes the search focuses on the technology that purports to offer trust. This can be described in terms of a specific technology, such as dual-key encryption in the framework of a public key infrastructure (PKI ), for example. At other times the focus attempts to be . . . [more]

Few people welcome the experience of arguing in court over intensely personal issues. Fewer people would pay a single nickel for the experience. With the very odd exception, ordinary people appear in court because they have no real choice in the matter. A mother fights for the custody of her infant son out of concern for his safety. A factory worker seeks wrongful dismissal damages to pay his mounting bills. A disabled man resists eviction from his subsidized apartment to avoid homelessness. And yet in spite of these common scenarios and the human need to correct actual or perceived injustice, . . . [more]

The course reader, that photocopied bundle of readings for a course, and now its more recent iteration, the digital e-reserves, have proven to be hot spots for “fair use” legal entanglements with copyright law in the United States. In the 1990s, the big cases were Basic Books Inc. v. Kinko’s Graphic Corporation (1991) and Princeton University Press v. Michigan Document Service (1996) which put an end to royalty-free photocopying for class use of copyrighted materials, for, the courts rule, the course readers were being sold for a profit and were competing against the original books (with 5-30% of the . . . [more]

When certain aspects of life become accepted practice, part of the texture of everyday life, one tends to forget that they are there at all. They become part of the wallpaper. One forgets that putting them in place involved massive effort, and that things may not always be the same. To stretch my metaphor to the breaking point, someone might come in and paint over the wallpaper. It is important not to take for granted those things which we should cherish. Access to information is just such a phenomenon. The point was brought home to me this year.

Each spring . . . [more]

Some tribunals routinely tape record proceedings while others consistently prohibit it. And within those tribunals that allow tape recording of proceedings, practices on the use of the tape or transcript also vary. It is pretty clear in law that administrative tribunals are not required to record the proceedings, unless required to do so by statute: Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 301 v. Montreal (City), [1997] 1 S.C.R. 793

Administrative tribunals were designed to be less formal than courts, yet the recording of proceedings is a hallmark of the judicial process. Why do some tribunals routinely tape proceedings and . . . [more]

Since I seem to be the only tech author who hasn’t yet shared his list of “must-have” SmartPhone apps for the lawyer on the go, I thought maybe I’d go ahead and give you mine. Of course, you’ve seen these plenty of times so I’ll try to focus on the ones that might be a little less obvious. You’ve been told a million times about QuickOffice, Evernote and Instagram (and if not, you might want to check those out too).

The apps I’m going to talk about are for Android, but unless I note otherwise there is also a version . . . [more]

Passion… We tend to think that you either have it or not. But for a firm? Yes it can be cultivated with some intent. Fast Company ran an article by Paul Alofs… 8 Rules For Creating A Passionate Work Culture. Alofs’ rules are written for companies, however could have great impact on law firms as well.

1. Hire the right people. Hire for passion and commitment first, experience second and credentials third.

I know this seems counter intuitive for lawyers who are building a firm. Credentials are usually first, right? Well, what if you tried Alofs’ rule, . . . [more]