For nearly 20 years, organizations that outsourced part of their functions to service providers have relied on SAS 70 reports to gain assurance that proper controls relevant to user entities internal control over financial reporting are in place at service organizations. With the globalization of outsourcing services and changes in regulatory landscape, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Auditing Standards Board issued Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 16 in January 2010. SSAE No. 16 is effective for reporting periods ending on or after June 15, 2011 which means that the new standards could affect organizations as . . . [more]

We human beings like to pride ourselves on being, uniquely, the reasoning animal. Yet we are actually poor at reasoning in a lot of contexts, if the aim is to produce good outcomes. We do badly at judging risks, for instance , as when we shun cucumbers because of an e-coli outbreak on the other side of the Atlantic yet yak on the phone about it while driving. So psychologists have started asking themselves with increasing frequency why, if reasoning developed to help us, does it lead us to screw up so often. Now a group of researchers has proposed . . . [more]

Most online defamation actions I encounter primarily seek one form of relief – the removal of the offending material from the Internet. Damages and costs are often a secondary concern to clients, albeit important ones, especially in offsetting the impact on the individual’s reputation and the inconvenience of litigation.

A Malaysian case this week highlights another creative remedy that might be of interest to litigants structuring an out-of-court settlement. The Daily Mail describes the case,

Fahmi Fadzil, an opposition politician’s aide and respected commentator, claimed on the social networking site [Twitter] that his pregnant friend had been

. . . [more]

Here’s a report alleging that Telus drove a BC woman out of business by maniplulating regulators and courts with false information.

via BoingBoing

Her story seems legit. If so, it’s a real failure on the part of our justice system. . . . [more]

Sandra works three times as long as she needs to on her files, checking and re-checking and going through countless drafts. She is driven by her fear of making an error. Sandra works long hours in the office but rarely meets her billable target because she consistently edits down her time.

Mary is unhappy. While she enjoys commercial litigation files she is stressed all the time. The partners provide her with positive feedback as do her clients but every time she makes any kind of error she takes it as a sign of failure.

Do any of these scenarios sound . . . [more]

F-i-l-e.

Those four letters cover a surprising lot of ground. Even so, when you look in the OED at the base, or original, meanings of the nouns spelled that way , it’s not entirely easy to see which root sense evolved into the word that gets used a million times a day in law work. (No, you lay readers of Slaw. It’s not the “pick-pocket” meaning. Lawyer jokes file me the wrong way and are only told by files…) It’s the “thread” sense, of course: things you want to keep and order are strung along a thread — a file. . . . [more]

Public works often impose heavy losses on those in private property nearby. Under what circumstances should they be compensated? That should have been the question in Heyes v. Vancouver, now Susan Heyes Inc. (Hazel & Co.) v. South Coast B.C. Transportation Authority 2011 BCCA 77. Alas, it was not – Heyes was decided on whether the transit builders had been at fault.

Ms. Heyes’s company designed, made and sold maternity clothing in Cambie Village, Vancouver. Her business was severely disrupted during construction of the Canada Line, a regional transportation system connecting downtown Vancouver, the City of Richmond and . . . [more]

Watchers of the Ontario Legislature will already be aware that the House proroged last night, ending the 2nd session of the 39th Legislature. With an election scheduled for October 6, this effectively ends the Parliament.

As I did with the federal Parliament, I’ve compiled a list of “orphaned” legislation, and its status at prorogation. Please note that this list includes only the Public Bills, including Private Members’ Public Bills. Additional information on the bills which were defeated or which passed and received Royal Assent is available on the Ontario Legislative Assembly’s website. . . . [more]

Nominations are open until June 20, 2011 for the 12th Annual Justicia Awards that reward “outstanding broadcast and print or Web journalism that fosters public awareness and understanding of the Canadian justice system”.

The Awards are given each year by the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) and the Department of Justice Canada for French or English stories in two categories: print and broadcast media. The 2011 Awards will be presented at the CBA’s Canadian Legal Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia in August.

Last year, a team from the Victoria Times Colonist was the winner in the print category for a series . . . [more]

In April 2010, Terry Childs, a former IT employee with the City of San Francisco was sentenced to four years in prison for blocking access to the city’s network (which he designed) and refusing to turn over the passwords. It took Childs...

Linkedin is the most common starting point for most lawyers when it comes to social media. In recognition of that, I want to showcase a few features of Linkedin that you may not currently be using. 

Status Updates

The status update box has been around for some time now but it is relatively underutilized in the legal community. You can find the status update box either beside or directly underneath your photo on your linkedin home page or your “edit my profile” page. It is a simple white text box that you can update as frequently as desired with a . . . [more]

Today Librarian of Congress James H. Billington appointed Maria Pallante as the 12th Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office. Billington noted the role of copyright and “the particular challenges of protecting authors’ intellectual property interests in the online environment and achieving meaningful exceptions and limitations that serve the public interest in the 21st century.” Pallante’s position includes managing a workforce of 500 people, and handling a series of extraordinary challenges regarding technology, staffing and budgets. See press release. . . . [more]