We’ve talked briefly about paper for the paperless office, and now it’s printers that are in the news. “Particle Emission Characteristics of Office Printers,” by Congrong He, Lidia Morawska, and Len Taplin in Environmental Science & Technology [abstract], has kicked up a dust storm because of its finding that 40% of printers studied emitted particles when printing, 27% being “high emitters.” The particles are small and can find their way into your alveoli, apparently, from where they may enter the bloodstream.

Digital Koans has a good overview and citations to a number of online articles and reports. . . . [more]

Good news and bad news. The good news is that you can now leave comments on Slaw once again. The bad news is that we have not yet been able to restore most of the comments that have already been made. We are continuing to work on it. Please bear with us. . . . [more]

Today — the first Monday in August — is a holiday in most of Canada (Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Yukon are the exceptions) — which is a good thing, because we’re still working hard here at solving the problem that’s blocking access to our large (over 3000) and valuable (because you wrote them) comments. I hope to have good news by the end of the day, and will pass on the status of comments then, whether good or bad. . . . [more]

We are experiencing difficulty with Slaw’s comment database. Until it’s repaired you will not be able to see any comments and I would advise against making any comments.

Then main database of posts doesn’t seem to be affected. . . . [more]

Last year I remember Slaw-ers having a discussion about email and technology avoidance whilst on vacation. Well I’ve succeeded in the avoidance category quite well this summer. But lest anyone think I’ve gone away, I did notice this story and thought some might find it interesting. I’ve wondered how You Tube gets around that whole copyright snaggle and this story goes some way to answering the question.

YouTube Preps Video Fingerprinting . . . [more]

In reading what now passes for a headnote in most of the cases reported by Carswell, I came across the phrase, “efforts and exhortions”. See Dumbrell v. Regional Group of Companies Inc. (2007), 25 B.L.R. (4th) 171. I had originally thought that I might post this neologism—if that’s what such a collection of letters can be called—and invite members of Slaw to add any others they might come across from any legal source.

On a whim, I did a search in CanLII for “exhortions” and, to my surprise, discovered that there were over 400 cases where this word appeared . . . [more]

Linex Legal, a service based in the United Kingdom, is offering access to newsletter material produced by big law firms and organizations in jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada, France, the United States, the UK and others.

I registered for free and signed up for e-mail newsletters containing material from Canadian, UK, US and Australian law firms and organizations. It is also possible to sign up for RSS feeds.

Among the Canadian law firms whose newsletters are available are: Torys, Stikeman Elliott, McCarthy Tétrault, Gowling Lafleur Henderson, Goodmans, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, Blake, Cassels & Graydon, Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh, . . . [more]

Here’s a novel way of tackling the email problem. Carolin Horn, as part of her MFA work, created a way to view your inbox as though each email was a microbe belonging to one of six families (family and friends, school, job, e-commerce, unclassified, and spam). These critters change their nature depending on their status: unread “anymails” are hairier and more vigourous, as you might suppose. There are a couple of movies that show the wigglers in action here and here.

This wouldn’t be a workable way to manage the e-flood, but it sure would be fun if one . . . [more]

Xerox has come out with a somewhat “greener” paper for your not-yet-paperless-and-probably-never-will-be office. According to the press release, the High Yield Business Paper uses fully 90% of the paper-making tree, as opposed to the typical 45%, and requires less water and fewer chemicals than otherwise. The paper is bright, has good weight and is optimized for digital printing, the only drawback being its unsuitability for long-term archival purposes.

[via ZDNet Between the Lines] . . . [more]

…I still believe that lawyers in general, and litigators in particular, are yet to confront the realistic limits of [the] competitive environment. And in this regard there is no more vicious culprit than the practice of basing our fees solely on the time spent on a matter.

Dollars times hours sounds like a formula for fairness. What could be more equitable than basing a fee on how long and hard a litigator worked to resolve a matter? But as a system, it’s a prison. When you are selling your time, there are only three ways to make more money—higher rates,

I’m in England and was only just notified that the Oxford Law Faculty has for the first time in its history appointed a Dean.
And it’s a Canadian Rhodes Scholar, who studied and practiced law in Toronto – Tim Endicott . . . [more]

This is Week Two for our firm’s 2007-8 Articling Students. Week One consisted of full-time training and orientation sessions. Week Two consists of part-time training and orientation, together with “free time” to take on lawyer assignments. My role was to deliver a one and a half hour session on law firm knowledge management/how to use precedents.

As usual, I find myself wondering if there is a better way to deliver so much content in such a short time. A few weeks ago, a speaker at a program on Office 2007 (not a program one can expect to see in large . . . [more]