Canada’s online legal magazine.

EPIC Files Suit Against the Deployment of Full Body Scanners in US Airports

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in the United States filed a petition against the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in federal court for an independent review of the airport body scanner program, and a motion for an emergency stay of said program.
Posted in: Substantive Law, Substantive Law: Foreign Law

The Sun Rose in the West, Again

“[5] I have reviewed the time spent which is 15.9 hours and frankly, I am surprised that so few hours are being claimed …. ” (2010 ONSC 3935).

A round of applause for the successful party’s lawyer, please.

In somewhat the same vein, put up a hand if you’re in favour of a new rule of lawyer’s professional conduct which states that lawyers acting for the winning side in a law suit are allowed to comment on the merits of the result for the media – print, electronic, and otherwise – only if the lawyers concede, on the record, that . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Practice of Law, Practice of Law: Marketing

The Future of Loose-Leafs?

A January article in Boing Boing talked about loose-leaf publications, marveling about their existence in the same way that the average marine biologist once marveled about the continuing existence of the coelacanth. I’m so used to having loose-leafs in a law firm library that I hadn’t considered that they might be considered a novelty elsewhere, but it started me wondering: are loose-leafs going to become the legal library equivalent of the coelacanth? Legal loose-leaf publishing has been around at least since 1915. These early loose-leaf services allowed legal publishers to produce up-to-date consolidations of legislation without having to reprint . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information

RIP Windows 2000…

♫ For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls…♫

Lyrics and Music by: Clifford Lee Burton; James Alan Hetfield; Lars Ulrich, recorded by: Metallica.

Microsoft has officially cut the life support on a number of products this week. Prominent among these products are:

  • Windows 2000/Windows ME (official date of death: July 13, 2010)
  • Windows XP SP2 (official date of death: also July 13, 2010)
  • Now to be fair, these products won’t stop working, however, Microsoft has stopped issuing any further support or patches or security upgrades.

    Microsoft has stated:

    Unsupported products

    . . . [more]
    Posted in: Technology: Office Technology

    iTape for iPhone

    Whether you are an Apple fan or not, the apparent flaw with the iPhone 4 external antenna gets interesting on many levels – including the tech itself, why it wasn’t found during pre-launch testing, Apple’s reaction, customer relations, and testing by various entities. 

    It seems that if you hold the iPhone in a way that your hand touches a certain spot on the antenna that are on the edge of the phone, it causes signal loss, and degrades reception. Apple started out suggesting it was a software issue – but has since said that the fix is to hold the . . . [more]

    Posted in: Technology

    Law-Related Movies

    On my new legal research and writing website, I decided to include an updated version of information I had on law-related movies from an old law school course page for international law students and legal research that I had developed a number of years ago.

    The new pages are at:

    Law-Related Movies
    http://www.legalresearchandwriting.ca/movies/movies.htm

    There are 90 law-related movies listed, along with short reviews by me and a link to an external movie review (usually Roger Ebert or the New York Times).

    Topics covered include:

    “A to Z” List of Law-Related Movies
    Movies Organized by Substantive Law Subject
    Comedies . . . [more]

    Posted in: Legal Information

    Announcing My New Legal Research and Writing Website

    In conjunction with the launch last week by Irwin Law of the new, third edition of my book with them called Legal Research and Writing, I am pleased to announce the launch of a companion website called:

    http://www.legalresearchandwriting.ca

    The site contains links to all of the major URLs listed in the book (and more) as well as providing basic information about legal research and writing.

    I hope to continue to develop the site over time and to possibly include an “updates” section on the site containing any major updates on new cases or other information contained in the book. . . . [more]

    Posted in: Legal Information: Libraries & Research, Legal Information: Publishing

    Law Practice Magazine: Recognizing Risks and Avoiding Malpractice Claims

    Do you know where the greatest risks of a malpractice claim come from? More importantly—did you know there are simple steps you can take to reduce the risk of a claim being made against you?

    The July/August issue of Law Practice Magazine is devoted to helping you avoid the dreaded allegation of legal malpractice, as well as other dangers to your law practice.

    LAWPRO’s claims statistics indicate that four out of five lawyers will face at least one claim during the course of their careers. So the odds are you have already experienced a claim or two—and if not, you . . . [more]

    Posted in: Practice of Law, Practice of Law: Practice Management, Technology: Internet

    Be  More Productive With Enhanced Windows Experience

    I enjoy the regular updates on interesting work environments posted by LifeHacker.com, where you can see all manner of screen and desk layouts, often with multiple monitors (even 6!) for enhanced productivity. We are not all going to have multiple monitors, and perhaps shouldn’t even if we can in light of concerns about multi-tasking and how terrible we really are at it. We may not even be able to choose an alternative to the dominant law office operating system, Microsoft Windows. But whether you have more than one monitor or not, here are a couple . . . [more]

    Posted in: Legal Technology

    Defence of Third-Party Injury Claims Are Outside Federal Privacy Law

    Since the advent of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, there has been uncertainty among lawyers, private investigators and insurers about what impact this law has on the litigation of private tort claims. There has been some guidance from the Ontario courts in the Ferenczy decision, but the law was still unsettled. The only case to address this, Ferenczy v MCI Medical Clinics, was all about whether information collected (allegedly) in violation of PIPEDA would nevertheless be admissible. The court concluded that PIPEDA does not apply to the collection of surveillance information by a PI to . . . [more]

    Posted in: Miscellaneous, Substantive Law

    Coach John Wooden, Project Manager

    I was talking with a friend recently about legendary basketball coach John Wooden, who passed away at the age of 99 this month. My friend worked in close proximity to Wooden in the early 70s, when UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) was unquestionably the best college basketball team in the world, completing an unprecedented and unequaled streak of seven consecutive (US) national championships.

    He told me a couple of stories that bear on project management.

    Building From the Ground Up, Starting With the Socks

    He said Coach Wooden spent the first five minutes of the first practice each year . . . [more]

    Posted in: Practice of Law

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    This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada | Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada