Timing is one of the hardest parts of teaching. At the very beginning of lesson planning, I sometimes have the fear that I cannot fill the time, but my more common problem is having too much content and too little time. I’ve learned to plan my timing down to five-minute increments, to hold a pause for questions far longer than I would like, and to set expectations and then set a visible timer.

When I write or revise my class plans, I mark the parts of the plan with time limits, rounded to the nearest five minutes. Normally, I think . . . [more]

The published information relating to the disposal, by Informa to Montagu, of Lloyd’s Maritime Intelligence is, thus far, relatively light on detail and plans, certainly as regards that part of the business unit which might be described as law publishing, perhaps with i-Law.com as its future hub. It may be that it will sit well and flourish within its new corporate environment and even offer added value opportunities for other former Informa businesses such as Emerging Portfolio Funds Research (EPFR) and/or businesses which previously were not with Informa, notably Jane’s. However, that would be a surprise to me. . . . [more]

I wish to respond to the NSRLP’s August 9^th post entitled The Failure of Unbundled Legal Services to Meet the Crisis in Access to Justice. While I loved the article, the title gave me pause.

The title implies that unbundled legal services have been a failure. Yet the body of the article says:

For all these reasons, unbundled service ought to be a practical and useful alternative for increasing access to justice for many more litigants, for a more efficient legal system, and for a mutually satisfying service model for both clients and lawyers.

Perhaps the title was intended . . . [more]

It’s about two years since my first forecast column for Slaw, and as the future is always rising to meet us, I thought I would do an updated version as we approach 2023. Some of my forecasts have stayed the same, some have moved from medium or long term to near or medium term, some are new, and some have been removed, but the forecast isn’t very different than the first one I wrote. As before, I’m interested to see any comments you may have on my predictions or things you think I’ve missed.

Here is my revised forecast . . . [more]

Having recently done my first in-person mediations in more than two years, I’ve been thinking again about how much benefit there really is over mediating online.

This was prompted by a recent mediation where the parties and their lawyers had travelled from across Canada and the United States to meet in person for a full day mediation in Toronto. At the end of the day the parties had not settled – and were still very far apart. The participants were anxiously checking their flights and travel time to the airport.

“I really thought we would get a lot more out . . . [more]

In 2019, a case came before the Magistrate’s court in Lagos state, Nigeria involving a micro-lending company looking to recover a loan from a borrower. A lawyer represented the micro-lender. The borrower represented himself because he could not afford to retain the services of a lawyer. The lawyer filed an application for summary judgment for the entire loan sum. The borrower responded through an affidavit and a written memorandum. He argued that judgment could not be summarily given to the micro-lender because he had repaid part of the loan.

However, all the material aspects of the borrower’s affidavit were arguments . . . [more]

When Canada signed the WIPO Copyright Treaty in 1997 it required Canada to give copyright owners the exclusive right to make their works available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access these works from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.

This was implemented in 2014 by adding Section 2.4(1.1) to the Copyright Act. Section 2.4 (1.1) modified the definition of sSection 3(1)(f) by holding that a work is communicated to the public as soon as it is made available in a way “that allows a member of the public . . . [more]

On September 4, 2022, a much-anticipated plebiscite to approve or reject a new constitution took place in Chile with voters overwhelmingly rejecting the proposed text. Another constitutional referendum took place this year on July 25, 2022 in Tunisia. In this case, voters approved the new constitutional text by a high margin, despite a low turnout and increasing consolidation of presidential power by President Kais Saied. These two constitutional processes are not the only ones taking place around the world. Haiti, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Central African Republic and Barbados are among those countries who have pursued, are . . . [more]

“A bad settlement is better than a good trial.” Every year, I pass along this old lawyer saying to students in my Civil Procedure and Legal Ethics classes. The idea is that pushing on to a hearing is expensive, risky, and time-consuming. Even a far-from-ideal settlement might be better overall.

Thus, lawyers must “advise and encourage” clients to settle their disputes so long as there is a “reasonable basis” to do so, according to the Rules of Professional Conduct. Courts and tribunals strongly encourage settlement with mandatory mediation, cost incentives to settle, and judicial pretrials among other mechanisms.

Of . . . [more]

Every law society in Canada places one key condition on candidates for law licensure: Unless you are an internationally trained candidate, you must hold a three-year degree from an accredited law school before you can begin the bar admission process.

As a result, virtually every domestically trained lawyer in Canada has a law degree, and most of us who entered the profession this way have never questioned that. We assume that, well, naturally you need a law degree to become a lawyer — even though it’s not “natural” at all, but the result of a decision by the profession’s regulators. . . . [more]

Video can be an absolute game changer in your business development arsenal. It provides the same benefits of developing great written content while allowing users to feel a connection with you as a person. It’s versatile, fun, informative and shareable on so many platforms.

If there is one thing that the pandemic has done, it has made people more comfortable on camera. Whether it is Zoom, Teams or Google Meet, we are more comfortable seeing each other on video now than ever before. When done right, video can capture the attention and understanding of your target audience in under two . . . [more]

“Only by understanding the biases of the media through which we engage with the world can we differentiate between what we intend, and what the machines we’re using intend for us–whether they or their programmers even know it.”[1]

Slaw previously published an excellent post written by Amelia Landenberger, Legal Information Librarian at the Boston University Fineman and Pappas Law Libraries. It outlines a research activity where students are asked to find a pair of black dress shoes online. The exercise reveals the complexity behind a simple research question. Students learn about personal bias, what questions to ask prior to . . . [more]