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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

If you're in the dark, go turn on a light. At least you will see the monsters you have to slay.

In light of Quebec’s unique legal environment in North America (i.e. Quebec is a civil law jurisdiction with French as its official language), I thought I would use my first three contributions to Slaw to address certain issues peculiar to Quebec in relation to sophisticated IT contracts such as systems integration and outsourcing agreements. I have chosen not to discuss language related issues at any length for, except in Government related procurement scenarios, the contracting and negotiation process can be conducted in English in Quebec based on forms of agreements consistent with industry standards. I will rather focus on a . . . [more]

The new year comes early in Canadian legal publishing circles – as early as July in fact. Even now, legal publishers are preparing to roll out new editions of their popular annotated statutes and consolidations of statutes with the year 2011 in their titles.

How did this come to be? And just what is the point of it all? It is the summer of 2010! In the eyes of a lay person, it looks as if the legal publisher has made a mistake. Not so.

The advent of annuals

Not all that long ago, with a few exceptions, annotated and . . . [more]

Rona Ambrose, Minister for Status of Women, held a press conference today at the Punjabi Community Health Service Centre in Mississsauga, Ontario, during which she addressed so-called honour killings. The speculation — see the National Post story, for example — is that her publicity exercise was in reaction to the release last week of a report by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy entitled Culturally-Driven Violence Against Women. An executive summary is available here; and the whole 21-page report is available in PDF.

During the press conference, Minister Ambrose said that the government is considering . . . [more]

In a prosecution that has garnered steadily growing criticism since it’s inception in 2008, two Russian art exhibit organizers were convicted today under the Russian Criminal Code section that sanctions “incitement of national, racial, or religious enmity.” See the Associated Press story. A 2008 post on GiF.ru – Art of Russia sets out a careful translation into English of the (long) Russian indictment. The text of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation reads as follows in English:

Article 282. Incitement of National, Racial, or Religious Enmity

1. Actions aimed at the incitement of national, racial,

. . . [more]

This is an internal Heenan Blaikie piece which my colleagues Michel Gamache and Chantal Belanger (Technicienne en documentation) wrote to help those of us who have problems finding Québec official proclamations and the like. I think the tips are well worth noting for all Canadian legal researchers.

Some history

The Gazette officielle du Québec is the means by which the Quebec Government makes its decisions official. Published continuously since 1869, it makes public, on a weekly basis, all texts whose publication is required: statutes, regulations and other statutory instruments. . . . [more]