The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) released last month a report out of the Oversight and Review Division, Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The mandate of the OIG is to conduct independent investigations and special reviews of DOJ personnel and programs. The purpose of this 200-page redacted report, A Review of the FBI’s Investigations of Certain Domestic Advocacy Groups, was to respond to media reports and Congressional inquiries alleging that the FBI had improperly targeted domestic advocacy groups between 2001-2006bsolely based on their peaceful exercise of their First Amendment Rights.

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren’s letter to the . . . [more]

Today’s Dispatches on CBC Radio includes a four-minute report by Carol Rosenberg on the way in which reporters are treated at “Camp Justice” Guantánamo. Rosenberg is a reporter for the Miami Herald and has more experience covering trials there than anyone.

Now that the trial of Omar Khadr is back in the news — and lest you harbour any illusions that what is going on bears even a scant resemblance to justice — you might like to listen to the portion of the program featuring her. (The full broadcast of Dispatches is available here.)

You might . . . [more]

When it comes to word processors lawyers will almost universally use either MS Word or WordPerfect. These giant applications contain hundreds of features that are capable of meeting just about any imaginable need when it comes to document creation (except proper typesetting). And, in the case of Word, it integrates more or less smoothly with the rest of the Office suite of applications. Powerful stuff.

This muscularity comes with a price, though. There’s the literal price, of course. Then there’s the need to have a decent-sized pack animal around to port the app along with you on your travels. As . . . [more]

With a hat-tip to my young colleague, Michael Ladanyi:

While the decision is not yet posted online, according to the Federal Court website, Amazon.com’s appeal of the Commissioner’s Decision denying Amazon.com a patent for its 1-click purchasing was granted today. The status update giving notice that the appeal was granted can be seen here. The application describes purchasing items over the Internet using a single-action by transmitting a client identifier associated with information about a buyer.

Here is the full text of the status update posted online today:

Reasons for Judgment and Judgment dated 14-OCT-2010 rendered by The

. . . [more]

Following the landmark ruling on September 28, 2010, by Ontario’s Superior Court Justice Susan Himel, which struck down various sections of the Criminal Code of Canada dealing with prostitution because of safety and security concerns to sex trade workers, and effectively decriminalized prostitution in Ontario, another case in British Columbia would like to follow suit.

It remains a continuing problem as to how to destroy digital data. In some instances one may have to destroy the storage medium itself.

Lately the Florida State Bar published a proposed advisory ethics opinion to the effect that lawyers have an obligation to ensure that confidential data — personal information but also client data generally — must be effectively erased from any storage medium before that medium is disposed of. This extends beyond computer drives to cell phones, digital fax machines and copiers (which have memories that keep the data), and even to third-party service providers’ equipment. The opinion . . . [more]

Does your firm have a marketing plan? When was the last time it was reviewed? How well do you follow your marketing plan? You’re not alone if your marketing plan is collecting dust in a drawer, hidden somewhere on your firm’s server, or simply hasn’t been implemented effectively. But why do these plans fail so often?

Marketing is generally outward-focused, concentrating on your clients, their wants and needs and the services you provide to help them reach their goals. But in order to be truly successful when it comes to actual implementation of the marketing plan, you must look inward . . . [more]

I’ve been waiting for someone to point out how badly we Canadians are preserving our digital heritage. The Toronto Star finally got there this week, with the article, Canada’s bleeding digital heritage.

The article is right on the money – not only is the Library and Archives Canada not showing leadership on the government presence in social media, they can’t even assure us that they are maintaining a suitable archive of federal government websites.

The last time LAC harvested government web content was in 2008, and I recently learned they don’t plan to do it again any time soon. . . . [more]

In the previous post, I looked at a Gartner Group survey, which found that one of the biggest issues resulting in contracts being prematurely renegotiated was that they lacked the flexibility to handle unforeseen changes. This is the second in a series of posts examining some of the ways in which outsourcing agreements can be structured to accommodate change over the life of the contract. In my last article, I looked at contractual mechanisms designed to accommodate unanticipated M&A activity. In this article, I look at mechanisms designed to address the financial responsibility for future changes. 

(i) Allocating Financial Responsibility . . . [more]

In her annual report to Parliament on the Privacy Act last week, the federal Privacy Commissioner expressed concerns about several issues. The Privacy Act deals with privacy issues for the Federal government.

Issues included the way surplus equipment and paper is disposed, and improper and unauthorized access to documents. Highlights from the press release include:

• Wireless audit: Of five federal entities examined, none had fully assessed the threats and risks inherent in wireless communications. Gaps in policies and/or practices resulted in weak password protection for smart phones and inadequate encryption for Wi-Fi networks and data stored on mobile devices. Shortcomings

. . . [more]

While you were signing the paperwork for your mortgage, did a bank employee ask you to consider purchasing mortgage insurance protection? You were probably told “…it will pay your mortgage if you die…just a few medical questions… it’s inexpensive…”. While that person may have had the best of intentions, he or she probably lacked the training needed to make you aware of important contractual details and how these compare with other insurance protection options. 

Here are 3 important things you should know about most mortgage insurance policies: 

1. You do not control the benefit

In the event of your . . . [more]

This is a post that invites discussion about a position paper published by the Ontario Medical Association that is of relevance to employers, disability insurers and employer and employee advisors.

The OMA is the doctors’ association in Ontario, and health policy is part of its mandate. In March 2009, the OMA published a revised version of its longstanding policy paper on return to work issues. “The Role of the Primary Care Physician in Timely Return to Work” has been published for over a year and a half, but it seems not to have received much attention in the . . . [more]