From the Canadian Judicial Council press release:

The Canadian Judicial Council has released a report on reforms undertaken across Canada to make it easier and more affordable for Canadians to seek justice in the courts. The Chief Justice of Canada, the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, who also heads the Council, has identified access to justice as one of the most important challenges facing the justice system today. …

This report, which was undertaken by a sub-committee of the Council’s Administration of Justice Committee, is based on records developed at its request for the new Inventory of Reforms created by

Thanks to our friends at Spada’s new Swordplay site for links to an article at the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology on INFORMATION INFLATION: CAN THE LEGAL SYSTEM ADAPT which asks, how do vast quantities of new writing forms challenge the legal profession, and how should lawyers adapt?

It’s written by George L. Paul, a partner in Lewis and Roca, LLP and Jason R. Baron, Director of Litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration.

The piece is well worth your attention. . . . [more]

The Court has spoken, and it has said that BCE won.

This is all that is said:

The appeals from the judgments of the Court of Appeal of Quebec (Montréal), Numbers 500-09-018525-089 and 500-09-018527-085, dated May 21, 2008, heard on June 17, 2008, are allowed with costs throughout. The decision of
the Court of Appeal is set aside and the trial judge’s approval of the plan of arrangement is affirmed.

The cross-appeals from the judgments of the Court of Appeal of Quebec (Montréal), Numbers 500-09-018524-082 and 500-09-018526-087, dated May 21, 2008, heard on June 17, 2008, are dismissed with

Chris Paliare was on his feet today, arguing for Friends of the Earth in a Federal Court judicial review to to force the Canadian government to follow the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, passed by Parliament a year ago. The case is a global first in seeking enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty ratified by 180 countries, including Canada.

The Notice of Application from September 2007 is here. Press releases are here and here.

Justice lawyers argued that the Kyoto act is one of a few “unusual” statutes that Parliament never intended the courts . . . [more]

Today’s Wisconsin Law Journal raises a neat issue: whether it’s appropriate for judges to conduct their own research and decide cases on authorities not cited by the parties. I know this is an issue that we’ve blogged on before and because of Semelhago v. Paramadevan Professor Swan feels strongly about the appropriateness of it..

The Wisconsin case (decided by the Court of Appeals) settled that it wasn’t improper for a circuit court to do independent research, since a competent judge has a duty to ensure the correct law is being applied.

The case is Camacho v. Trimble Irrevocable Trust . . . [more]

That’s what the Globe described the Steele Collection as this morning.

But for Slaw readers, the description better applies to The Times unveiling of the most significant cases reported in the paper from 1785 to 1869, including links to the actual reports from The Times of that period.

David Pannick introduces the concept. . . . [more]

The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice has released a 70-page report “Justice for Nunavummiut: Partnerships for Solutions” [PDF]. (Nunavummiut are Inuit living in Nunavut or who regard the territory as their home.)

This extensive study “presents recommendations for the following key issues:”

1. Access to public legal education and information
2. Access to legal services and legal professionals
3. Litigants with unequal power
4. Enforcement of court rulings, laws and entitlements
5. Specific issues related to Family, Civil and Administrative Law
6. Geographic parallels and variations
7. Creating an evidence base – A recommendation for research

To start, huge tip of hat to our colleague Jim Middlemiss, who was live blogging all morning on the three hour hearing into the BCE Bondholders dispute.

The court reserved. . . . [more]

Here are a couple of links to interesting pieces that editors (in their infinite wisdom) decided didn’t need to appear in the print versions of either the Globe and Mail or Canadian Lawyer.

Martha McCarthy was asked to comment on the five years that have elapsed since the Ontario Court of Appeal’s Halpern decision.

Philip Slayton talks about how little we actually know about the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada. He observed from a conversation in a Yaletown bar that it was easier for two Canadian lawyers to list members of the U.S. Supreme Court . . . [more]

Forms of practice are changing — in the U.K. certainly. MyLawyer is, or plans to be, a front end for participating law firms who want a way of delivering legal services over the web. In the language of the website:

Epoq Group (www.epoq.co.uk) with its 10 years’ experience in developing legal services for customers of financial institutions, is now working in conjunction with a limited group of leading UK law firms, to develop a symbiotic partnership network (the MyLawyer network)…

And aimed at the potential client:

We will enable you to provide instructions to your lawyer over the Web instantly

The BBC is reporting that late Thursday night a convoy of lawyers left the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore to converge on the capital Islamabad to demand the reinstatement of judges who were removed last November. The government is undecided as to how to reinstate the judges, or even if they should. The lawyers are planning a peaceful sit-in after their 270 km motorized trip through various towns along the way to Islamabad.

According to the BBC report:

Organisers said the struggle of the lawyers had now reached a “decisive phase”. The lawyers have been joined by some civil

The Globe and Mail features an article in yesterday’s paper about the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute, an organization that puts together mock sessions to help lawyers who are about to appear in front of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Institute organized mock court hearings for 20 percent of all the cases heard last year by Canada’s highest court, according to the newspaper. Some of Canada’s top litigators volunteer their time to act as judges:

“Like musicologists discussing a classical composition, the ‘judges’ then take apart a lawyer’s arguments and suggest where they may fall flat, distract the judges