According to Fraud Watchers, the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC) has just over 1,000 authorized members, but the watchdog group estimates an additional 5,000 unauthorized “ghost” consultants operate in Canada, and likely many thousands more in other countries...

The Law Society of Upper Canada is having a teleseminar at noon today entitled “The New Guide to File Retention and File Destruction.”

I’m one of the speakers – talking about issues relating to electronic records.

One of the fundamental principles of electronic records from a records retention and destruction perspective, is that electronic records should be retained and destroyed on the same schedule as paper records.

As I was thinking about the issues, it occurred to me that if I had to hazard a guess, I suspect many law firms, and many businesses for that matter, have . . . [more]

Sharon Davis at Hull & Hull has a new blog entry reminding lawyers that while they often remind clients of the importance of good estate succession planning, they should also give thought to succession planning for their own practices.

Will your clients be looked after in the event of your sudden death or incapacity? You’ll find some good practical tips here, including: making arrangements in advance with another lawyer, having your critical information stored in an easily accessible (to the assisting lawyer, at least) location, and having appropriate Powers of Attorney in place. You’ll also find links to guidelines and . . . [more]

CNA releases 2009-2010 FOI Audit. Federal government not doing well. Exceptional Valedictory address.

Online Dispute Resolution is being adopted world-wide but particularly in the developing world. This post looks at the most recent developments from the ODR Conference held in June in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This post comes from the Practice Tip column in the most recent issue of LAWPRO Magazine (which will hit the desks of Ontario lawyers in a few weeks). A hat tip to LAWPRO claims counsel Pauline Sheps for suggesting this great tip – unfortunately it is a malpractice claim scenario she sees all too often.

Many wills include one or more bequests to charitable or religious institutions. In spite of the testator’s good intentions, these bequests often lead to claims when there is confusion over which institution was to receive the bequest. These mistakes often come to light only when . . . [more]

One of Oscar Wilde’s aphorisms is “There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is NOT being talked about.” This is sometimes paraphrased as “there is no such thing as bad publicity.” The “I don’t care what they say about me as long as they spell my name right” statement is apocryphally attributed to P.T. Barnum.

Writing for law and other professional magazines, and law tabloids such as The Lawyers Weekly or the Law Times, is a not-expensive (at least to the writer) way of getting publicity and, perhaps, of educating the readership. I have no . . . [more]

The Ontario Civil Legal Needs Project released a report today, Listening to Ontarians, funded by the Law Society of Upper Canada, Legal Aid Ontario and Pro Bono Law Ontario. The study focused on middle-to-low-income populations, defined as a household income of under $75,000.

Tracey Tyler provides a summary of the report at The Star.

The study shows that one-third of those interviewed had a legal problem in the preceding year, with low-income populations facing the greatest hurdles,

While the rate of incidence of legal problems within this group was consistent with Ontarians in the total survey

. . . [more]

Many of you will likely have picked up the news yesterday of the cross-Atlantic merger between Sonnenschein and UK-based Denton Wilde Sapte. One element of the media push I found interesting was the use of a dedicated website, or microsite, to explain things.

It’s not so much the content of the website that I found effective, but rather that the firms chose not bury the information on their respective websites. They could have each created dedicated internal pages on their websites; or, they could have taken the new combined firm domain name and started their transition process. Indecently, the domain . . . [more]

The Lawyers’ Insurance Association of Nova Scotia (LIANS) has begun publishing a bimonthly electronic newsletter, LIANSwers. The May edition is available in PDF. The publication will include:

substantive issues as well as members’ insurance updates and risk and practice management advice . . . also . . . tips on technology, office management, health and wellness, as well as information on conferences and upcoming events

Of course, much or most of the content will be of specific interest to our Nova Scotia readers, but it never hurts for those practicing elsewhere to check for good advice outside their jurisdictions. . . . [more]

I have had calls from lawyers in the midst of handling apparent fraud attempts who were wanting to verify whether the lawyers named as the drafter of the collaborative family law agreements presented to them by the fraudsters were in fact real lawyers. There were names and signatures in the agreements – but nothing else. No firm names, telephone numbers, addresses etc. Red flag!! Searches of the internet failed to turn up anything.

So where can you go to attempt to establish if you are dealing with a real lawyer that is in good standing?

A newly updated LLRX article, . . . [more]

I am speaking today to the CBA BC Branch Civil Litigation and Young Lawyers Sections in Victoria on “how to make a law practice more manageable.” A “manageable” law practice is akin to “work-life balance” – one of those lovely theoretical concepts which is invariably noted by a perceived lack of achievement thereof. With that proviso in mind, here are some humble thoughts in this regard:

1. Money

One of our lawyers is fond of stating the truism that “charity starts at home,” meaning that if we aren’t taking the right steps to stay financially afloat, then we will be . . . [more]