My mother used to say something to the effect that “gentlefolk do not read each others’ mail.” Of course, she didn’t reckon with spies or spouses in distress. It comes as no surprise to me, a one-time family law prof, that, as the Huffington Post reported yesterday, a Michigan man at odds with his wife got hold of her password and read her emails in order to confirm her affair. Very much a “dog bites man” story, you’d think.

Not so, apparently — thanks to prosecutor Jessica Cooper, who has charged the husband with “felony computer misuse,” which has a . . . [more]

This is the third and final contribution focusing on some differences between North American common law regimes and Quebec’s civil law system in the area of IT contracting. The first two contributions dealing with the same subject-matter can be found at: Seller Liability for Software Integrators? and Use Best Efforts Not To Rely On “Best Efforts”.

I thought I would use my last contribution on the specificities of Quebec’s legal regime to provide a quick snapshot of selected key issues which IT practitioners should be aware of when negotiating a contract governed by the laws of the Province of . . . [more]

How precise are the following statements?

1. The Canadian public debt as of 15 December 2010 was $275,872,478,414.44 CDN.
2. Canadian hourly-billing lawyers worked an average of 2043.96 hours last year.
3. Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista hit .26 in 2010.

One answer: They are each precise to two decimal places.

Another answer: They are precise to 14 figures, six figures, and two figures, respectively.

I hereby state that I looked up answers to all three items before writing this column. So which of them do you believe? 

Chances are, based on precision alone, you believe one of them. No one knows . . . [more]

You may have seen the recent Wall Street Journal article on the privacy implications of certain iPhone, iPod Touch and Android apps that disclose information to advertising networks without the explicit knowledge of the user. It didn’t take long, but now a class action lawsuit filed in California against Apple for allowing this to happen. See: Apple sued over privacy in iPhone, iPad apps | Apple – CNET News.

I think that this lawsuit is directed at the wrong party (Apple Computer Inc.) and, if it is at all successful, will be harmful to the internet.

This is similar . . . [more]

2011. Time may be a philosphical construct, but it sure did seem to move quickly in 2010. As the new year approaches, many people make resolutions, including me. I am resolving to learn three new things in 2011.

1. How to schedule time effectively for reviewing social media sources
2. How to have a conversation in French
3. How to renovate a document management interface so that it makes sense to both browsers and searchers

These are the extra things that I resolve to learn in 2011. As a law firm librarian, I am happy to report that I learn some new . . . [more]

Another story of students’ use of cellphones to cheat has hit the news. The authorities in this case, the state of Mississippi, turned to technology for a solution, but not in the way you might think. They engaged a company that analyzes test results to find commonalities in mistakes that, according to the inventor, mark the students as cheaters. Apparently, cheating has declined considerably since the introduction of this tech-check (though how the state could know that through independent methods is unclear).

The old academic in me loathes cheating, so I would, at first blush, simply jam all cell . . . [more]

In India, a woman may marry a goat. In Canada, it’s illegal to board a plane while it’s in flight. In Sweden, it’s illegal to buy sex, but okay to sell it. In France, it’s illegal to name a pig Napoleon. Dueling is legal in Uruguay – provided both parties are registered blood donors. Pillows are considered “passive” weapons under German law. Several countries have laws against kissing in public. Some laws make you laugh out loud, some make you shake your head in wonder, and some are just puzzlers. Could something have been lost in translation? Were these really . . . [more]

Okay a seasonal quiz question – in which work of art do a law library and a complex question of estate litigation feature prominently?

Okay – a big hint. It’s opera. . . . [more]

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently considering the next generation of legal publication. Louis Mirando’s excellent column about the future of print reporters identified the future storage and delivery of primary law; in a nutshell, bound volumes of the law reports are soon to be just a memory. 

One comment in Mirando’s column that particularly caught my attention concerned the importance of headnotes and report collections generally. What this says to me is that even though there may be comprehensive databases of case law available to us, there is still value in providing summaries of lengthy decisions and . . . [more]

Came across this article and thought SLAW readers might find it useful. It was originally published in the December 2010 issue of Deadbeat, the Ontario Bar Association’s Trusts & Estates Section newsletter.

Spelling and Grammar Query
Susan J. Stamm*

Lawyers love long and complex sentences. Lawyers love lists. Lawyers love semicolons and colons. If we are to maintain our love of semicolons, we must use them properly.
Typical usage of semicolons by lawyers is in long complex sentences, or in lists. However, either way, two primary rules must be followed:

1. You can use the semicolon to connect two independent

Over the past few months I have had the privilege to be involved in an important project in British Columbia known as the Public Commission on Legal Aid (“Public Commission”).

Although the scope of the Public Commission is province wide and therefore includes cities and communities of all sizes, I have been personally interested to hear the unique challenges faced by those in rural communities in regards to legal aid. Commissioner Leonard Doust, Q.C. will be releasing an official report of his findings sometime in 2011; however, I wanted to take the opportunity now to share some background on the . . . [more]

Most people are too busy shopping during the holidays to be worried about filing suits. Unless, maybe, you’re a celebrity.

Stephen Baldwin filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Kevin Costner, not for any work they had done together in the entertainment industry, but for Baldwin’s investments in Costner’s company, Costner in Nevada Corporation (CNIC).

Baldwin claims he met Costner in April and decided to become a 10% partner in an invention backed by CNIC which could separate oil from water. With the backdrop of the April 20, 2010 BP oil spill, it seemed like a good venture. Interestingly . . . [more]