We all like to avoid thinking about bad things like earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. We also tend to avoid thinking about other things that might impact on our personal and professional lives. However, major and minor disasters abound, are a fact of life, and will occur whether we like it or not, due to natural causes or by human error or malicious actions.

And while major natural disasters are typically the ones that get the most attention and headlines, even minor disasters – a burst pipe in the server room or the sudden and unexpected departure of a . . . [more]

The North Carolina State Bar has revisited its proposed Formal Ethics Opinion (FEO) on cloud computing and addressed many of the concerns the legal cloud computing community had previously expressed.

The main point of concern with the previous opinion was a list of minimum mandatory requirements that an attorney had to ensure was met by their cloud computing provider. In an open letter to the NC State Bar, the Legal Cloud Computing Association outlined its concerns with the proposed FEO; prominent bloggers such as Carolyn Elefant, Stephanie Kimbro, Erik Mazzone and Niki Black also outlined their concerns about . . . [more]

In Canada there are companies that provide “litigation financial services” for personal injury, class actions and many other types of claim. These “Plaintiff’s Loans” are generally up to 10% – 20% of the value of the claim. No payments of principal or interest are required until the settlement or judgment is paid. If the amount recovered is insufficient to repay the loan, some lenders hold the borrower liable for the balance. Other lenders make non-recourse loans in Canada.

The loans made by these Canadian companies are frequently to personal injury plaintiffs and in the region of $10,000 – $20,000.

In . . . [more]

The Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia is coordinating a withdrawal of legal aid duty counsel services in support of the campaign to restore Legal Aid funding in the Province of British Columbia.

We’ve talked a bit before on Slaw about Matthew Butterick’s great book, Typography for Lawyers, copies of which should be found wherever lawyers’ thoughts are committed to print (digital or otherwise). Now Butterick’s created Equity, a typeface specifically for lawyers. He says, in an article in Co. Design, that he designed Equity:

to be every bit as space-efficient as TNR [Times New Roman], but eminently more readable—and a tad sexy. “I wanted Equity to be like a navy-blue Armani suit: a classic updated with contemporary virtues.”

The typeface includes 24 fonts—a face is a design and a . . . [more]

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2011 issue of LAWPRO Magazine. All issues of the magazine can be found at www.lawpro.ca/magazinearchives.

Technology is becoming an ever greater part of our lives, both personally and professionally. On a daily basis most of us use a cellphone or smartphone, a desktop computer and the Internet. Many of us will have an iPad or other tablet device and be posting updates on Facebook, Twitter or other social media tools.

Clients expect their lawyers to be technology literate – and there are always new and improved ways for communicating with clients. Here . . . [more]

How far can judicial review go before it trespasses on the proper function of government and the legislature? What is the proper role of the judiciary in constraining the actions of the democratic state?

Last week, UK Supreme Court nominee Jonathan Sumption Q.C.raised these questions in a speech on the subject of the widening scope of judicial review in the UK .

He concluded by warning that if it is perceived judges are reviewing the merits of legislation, there will be pressure for some kind of democratic input into their selection. He would regard this as a very unfortunate outcome . . . [more]

David S. Caudill, “Lawyers Judging Experts: Oversimplifying Science and Undervaluing Advocacy to Construct an Ethical Duty” (2011) 38 Pepperdine Law Review 674

 

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1874947

 

The fact that judges, typically untrained in science, need to “resolve disputes among respected, well-credentialed scientists about matters squarely within their expertise,” a “daunting task,” seems to suggest that lawyers could too. But judges do not always agree on the admissibility of expertise, and discerning reliability has proved to be controversial. To expect attorneys—and this is what the proponents of a duty to vet experts expect—to do sufficient scientific research

. . . [more]

At yesterday’s 5th Annual Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) Conference, Avvy Go and Julian Falconer spoke about mentorship and noted that large firms presumptively have resources that small and solo firms do not.

The future of legal practice management will invariably lie in technological solutions to strategic problems, especially for those with limited resources. I had a private tour earlier this week of the new LexisNexis product launched in Ontario, PCLaw Practice Suite, intended primarily for firms with 1 to 5 lawyers. The platform was developed after years of research and communication with small practitioners to assess . . . [more]

My post this week comes to you from the posh Millenium Hotel in Knightsbridge, London, where the organizers of IBC’s 3rd annual trust litigation symposium (brochure) have been kind enough to instal their speakers and panelists.

My panel “Caught in the Wrong & Possibly Putting it Right” is on a 2011decision of the UK Court of Appeal in two cases in which that court said the law had taken a “seriously wrong turn” over the last few decades. (My post on this decision – 12 September). The panel’s job is to air views on the likely impact of . . . [more]

Over at the Small Firm Innovation blog there’s been a number of terrific posts with some of the legal industry’s top minds sharing their thoughts on time management.

Niki Black kicks the discussion off with a discussion of how the just-released iPhone 4S’s digital assistant Siri can be used to more efficiently manage our time. Niki describes how Siri’s voice recognition facilities not only allow iPhone 4S users to efficiently and easily create appointments, tasks to help with managing their time, but how they can save time by dictating these items while we would otherwise be unproductive (such as while . . . [more]

We have been quick to use the word “crisis” to describe the state of articling in Ontario. Maybe too quick. Certainly the rather abrupt rise in the rate of “unplaced lawyer candidates” – students unable to find articling positions – from 5.8% in 2008 to 12.1% in 2011 is an eye-popper and potentially a game changer. But a crisis, as the Globe and Mail reports today? Maybe.

Those that work in the legal trenches have known for years that another crisis exists – the access to justice crisis – now well documented by the Ontario Civil Legal Needs Project . . . [more]