The prospect of Tesco or the Co-op owning a law firm or offering legal services had leader writers in the English legal press in a tizzy, but the Legal Services Board today produced a complex consultation document on Alternative Business Structures which sets out eligibility tests for significant equity investments in firms providing legal services. . . . [more]

Doubtless there have been other stories like this, but multiple headlines on the same day start me wondering whether after the North American economic earthquake settles, we won’t have very different local and community outreach for legal services and legal information: . . . [more]

It’s a law student’s dream – or maybe a nightmare. Law firm recruiters scouring social media networks to find an appropriate candidate for their firm.

The current recruitment process does little to reveal the personality, collegiality, drive and habits of applicants. It does nothing to demonstrate their business connections, an important quality for “finders,” or political involvement, for firms that engage in lobbying and government relations.

The majority of law students do spend hours on social media platforms, usually behind walled gardens that they think are impermeable, so why wouldn’t law firms go where they are? We’ve already . . . [more]

Last week Leslie Ellen Harris correctly pointed out in her Slaw post Using Flickr Photos that we should not assume content available on the web is freely available without copyright. She gave photos on Flickr as the example.

One thing I love about Flickr, however, is that it allows those of us who upload photos to designate Creative Commons licensing as an alternative. When I am looking for images for blog posts or presentations, I will often use the advanced search on Flickr to look for images available under Creative Commons (especially for commercial use)–scroll down on the advanced search . . . [more]

On the 22nd of October 2002 the evidentiary phase of GasTOPS v. MxI commenced in a regular courtroom in Ottawa Ontario. On March 23, 2006 after approximately 300 days of hearing and after approximately 2800 exhibits (70,000 pages) were entered into the record I reserved my decision. Over the next 20 months counsel submitted their written submissions (3500 pages). On September 25, 2009 I released my Reasons for judgment wherein I granted the plaintiff judgment against the defendants in the amount of approximately $11.1 million dollars.

The trial was conducted in a paperless environment and the trial record consists of . . . [more]

Nathalie Blanchard of Bromont, Quebec, has been on sick leave for a year and a half for long-term chronic depression.

The 29-year-old woman had her benefits cut by IBM after she posted pictures on Facebook at a male stripper show, her own birthday party and on holidays. Her Manulife representative told her that,

I’m available to work, because of Facebook.

Ironically, most of these events were recommended by her physician as part of her treatment.

Depression is not like other disabilities where Facebook has been used to demonstrate lack of impairment. The complex parameters of a psychosocial condition like depression . . . [more]

Notwithstanding the fine weather that many parts of the country are experiencing as November moves towards December, late November in Canada is usually a dark time for those of us with the golf bug. Into that dark, a little bit of legal light shines with the knowledge that a Happy Gilmore shot has been judicially defined.

In 2008 NSSC 280 para. 7, the Happy Gilmore shot has been defined as, “…running from five to ten feet behind the ball and hitting it on the run.” In finding that the Happy Gilmore shot breached the standard of care owed to other . . . [more]

As good as November has been to us here in Toronto, things will inevitably take a turn for the worse (I don’t ski), usually in the forms of snow and ice. And that, in turn, has us soon thinking of another aspect of Winter Law: the matter of slippery stuff on the sidewalk and the potential it creates for slips and falls.

In Toronto, if you occupy a house, you’re required under a by-law [PDF] to clear the snow and ice from the sidewalks beside the house “within 12 hours after any fall of snow, rain or hail has . . . [more]

Ian Blue, a partner at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, has issued a challenge to the constitutionality of legislation that forbids importation of liquor into a province unless it is sold to the local liquor board or commission. The legislation is, curiously, federal, as we noted in a post last September.

Section 3(1) of the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act (IILA), passed in 1928, forbids the interprovincial movement of alcohol (and, presumably, other “intoxicating liquors”) except as part of a transaction involving a provincial agency. Yet, Blue argues, this provision is at odds with s.121 of the Constitution Act, . . . [more]

An announcement early today from Google Distinguished Engineer Anurag Acharya that Google Scholar now features major cases, as well as an ability to search in legal periodicals for case citations.

I thought initially it was just American, but searching on the following names brought interesting results:

Donoghue v. Stevenson 2380 hits
R. Drybones 849 hits
Delgamuukw 956 hits
Mabo v. Queensland 2770 hits

Google hat-tips “several pioneers, who have worked on making it possible for an average citizen to educate herself about the laws of the land: Tom Bruce (Cornell LII), Jerry Dupont (LLMC), Graham Greenleaf and Andrew Mowbray (AustLII), . . . [more]

While I bounced back and forth between Toronto and New York this week, a lot of other things were bouncing around in the world of biotech:

The U.S. stimulus funding to promote adoption of electronic medical records bounced across the border to Ontario, where a new program was implemented through the Ontario Medical Association. The Ontario program provides an amount of cash per physician comparable to the U.S. funding, plus it offers consulting help and provides funding for upgrades.

Novartis bounced $1 billion of its R&D efforts to China, and in the same breath called India’s upcoming decision on a . . . [more]

One common misunderstanding about copyright is that online content is not protected by copyright. Not true! Even if the content is posted without a copyright notice or other copyright information, that content should be presumed to be protected by copyright.

The same copyright principles apply to photographs posted on Flickr. In a recent situation, Toyota U.S.A. posted some photos on one of its Web sites — photos it obtained from the photography site, Flickr — without permission of the photographers. Toyota has now made a public apology and has removed the photographs. Lesson for all: get permission when using content . . . [more]