Last month, the Washington Post ran a story about the abrupt removal from a form sent “to thousands of judiciary staffers who work for federal judges” of a question regarding workplace misconduct. An official quoted in the story characterized the initial inclusion of the question as “an unfortunate administrative error.” Before the question was removed, however, “34 of about 40 employees — nearly everyone who responded — indicated that they had observed some form of inappropriate behavior.” While the small sample size, and reported concerns about the broad wording of the question, make it inappropriate to draw definitive conclusions from . . . [more]

We are very happy to announce that the National Self-Represented Litigants Project has opened an East Chapter (NSRLP-E) to serve and advocate for the needs of self-represented litigants (SRLs) in Atlantic Canada. While we have only just begun the Project, our staff and students have been preparing directories of services for all the Atlantic Provinces, primers, public legal education materials, and case summaries.

Importantly, our students are hard at work reaching out to SRLs and writing reports that will help guide our work on the needs and experiences of SRLs in Atlantic Canada.

For example, one of our researchers recently . . . [more]

Over the past few years, the precipitous fall of Hong Kong seems to be a saga no one wants to stick around to see the ensuing episodes. Widespread censorship, crackdown on press and academic freedom, and backlash on dissenting voices are enforcing a total takeover of Beijing over the city. Xi Jinping is making clear that the special administrative region will not escape his dictatorial and authoritarian vision of government and the world. Nowhere is this repression more acute than in the Hong Kong universities that were pivotal in giving the city its internationally renowned intellectual and academic . . . [more]

Law firms are in the midst of one of the most difficult “talent” markets they’ve ever faced. Every law firm I’ve worked with over the past two years has been desperately seeking qualified (or, you know, breathing) Associates and staff members to deal with business expansion, partner retirements or in particular, gaps left by those who left one firm for another.

Those Associates are being lured away by sometimes weekly calls from recruiters in search of a new commission. They’ve somehow convinced law firms to pay salaries well over industry standard, and to create signing bonuses more in line with . . . [more]

The Battle Royal: Hybrid or Back to the Office?

You might as well resort to reading goat entrails and tea leaves to predict the future of law practice, because it is woefully unclear what law firms will decide. There are two large and outspoken groups, those who believe that we need to get back to the office if we haven’t already and those who believe that some combination of going to the office and working from home is the way to go.

As COVID continues to complicate our lives, most law firms we deal with are opting for the hybrid . . . [more]

The purpose of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. B-3 (BIA) is to relieve an honest and unfortunate debtor of their debts and liabilities. A discharge from bankruptcy releases the insolvent debtor from pre-bankruptcy debts or liabilities provable in bankruptcy subject to certain exceptions.^[1]

An exception to this rule is s. 178(1)(e) relating to “any debt or liability resulting from obtaining property or services by false pretences or fraudulent misrepresentation”.^[2] Where the exception applies then such debt or liability is not released, and continues to remain enforceable against the debtor after bankruptcy.^[3]

A successful claim . . . [more]

2021 was a better year than 2020, but has ended badly with soaring virus outbreaks. Our U.S. Congress still has a lot of leftover legislative work carrying over into 2022. But the federal information worker bees have continued to add more content and finding aids to their many online resources.

On December 20^th the Law Library of Congress posted A Trove of Information: The Congress.gov Coverage Page and then on December 21^st their 2021 Congress.gov Top 10 and Year in Review. Next on December 27^th they posted their list of The Most Viewed In Custodia Legis . . . [more]

While access to legal journals in printed form is still desired, many have transitioned to a purely digital format. But what exactly does moving from print to digital entail? To better understand this process, I asked Susan Barker, retired law librarian from the University of Toronto and current acting editor of the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR), about her experience when the publication took the leap to online-only in 2015.

1. What were the motivations for CLLR to go purely digital?

When I came on board as editor in 2013, the decision to go digital had been tentatively made . . . [more]

Happy New Year! Welcome, 2022. Whether you are starting the New Year in a positive situation or find yourself facing many challenges, it can be helpful to remember there is always much within your ability to control and influence.

To help kickstart some reflection and to not overburden and overwhelm, what 2 questions would you ask yourself about what you want to give focus and attention to this year? To help you along, I have enlisted the help of my colleagues and fellow coaches at AMP (Associate Mentoring Plus).

Kathryn McNaughton, AMP Director of Education and Coach

1. How

On December 10, 2021, New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Associate Minister for Māori Development, Nanaia Mahuta, and Minister of Trade and Export Growth, Damien O’Connor, announced the successful conclusion of the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Arrangement (IPETCA) and invited other APEC economies to declare their intention to join.[1] Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Mary Ng, announced Canada’s endorsement of IPETCA on the same day.[2]

The IPETCA represents to unique new step for Indigenous participation in the global economy. It is a trade arrangement collaboratively developed by New . . . [more]

Recently, I had the pleasure of joining a half-dozen Canadian and U.S. open science advocates in an online meeting with Senator Laure Darcos of the French Parliament. In advance, we were provided with the Second French Plan for Open Science: Generalizing Open Science in France, 2021-2024, published in July 2021 (with the first French plan launched in 2018). During our meeting, more than one of us commented on how the Plan set a far more advanced and progressive national agenda than anything we could point to in our countries. At the conclusion Senator Darcos expressed surprise at this, saying . . . [more]

Colombia has long been one of the most dangerous places in the world for human rights advocates, but the danger intensified in 2020 and 2021 with a surge of massacres and assassinations of human rights defenders and community leaders. The dire situation in Colombia has drawn the attention of the international coalition for the annual Day of the Endangered Lawyer marked each year on 24 January.

This year, LRWC is working with the Law Society of Ontario’s Human Rights Committee and Human Rights Watch to organize an online event to discuss the situation of lawyers at risk in Colombia. The . . . [more]