In responding to a query the other day on recommending resources for someone researching guarantees, I immediately thought of Kevin McGuinness’s The Law of Guarantee, 2d ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 1996) but had to stop and think if there were any more recent treatises. Although there are a number of more recent banking law treatises, I could not think of anything more recent specific to the Canadian law of guarantees that would have helped on the particulars of the question being researched (the British Sweet & Maxwell title from 2007 may of course be relevant). And although one might argue . . . [more]

We have seen much pressure over the years for governments to enact tougher laws for piracy and counterfeiting – often based on statistics that lead to conclusions that billions of dollars are being lost because of it.

It leads to questionable things like three strikes laws, the Digital Economy Bill, and the ACTA treaty discussions. Many people have questioned the statistics, and the conclusions based on them.

The US government accountability office (GAO) just released a report that concludes that while the problems are real, “Three widely cited U.S. government estimates of economic losses resulting from counterfeiting cannot . . . [more]

Yes, it is that time of year in Canada. On or before April 30, 2010, to be specific, for most people.

As a known procrastinator, I vow to file on time this year.

I find the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) website surprisingly helpful on the special deductions this year for the home renovation tax credit and also in answering questions on RRSPs (although the CRA is an easy target for criticism, their website is one of the better websites having an effective online A to Z index).

And with the advent of online tax preparation software, the . . . [more]

There’s been a good deal of hoopla about project management and the legal profession lately. I banged the drum last November and we’ve had a Slaw book review about project management by Andrew Terrett and another on work procedures by John Gilles. Canadian Lawyer Magazine recently validated our Slawyerly interest in the way we work by deeming project management a “buzz” for 2010. In contrast to my market-related argument from last November, I write this post to make the simple point that the discovery-related amendments to the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure are a practice-related reason to engage in . . . [more]

The Ontario Divisional Court is going to hear an appeal of the Warman v Wilkins-Fournier case, in which the issue is whether an internet intermediary (here a blog site) must disclose the names of people alleged to have defamed someone.

The Ottawa Citizen has the story.

The trial decision requiring disclosure is at 2009 CanLII 14054 (ON S.C.)

Both sides are suitably apocalyptic in their predictions of disaster if they lose. (Canadian Civil Liberties Association and CIPPIC intervened against disclosure.)

Those opposing disclosure (on court order) say that whistleblowing and populist activism will be chilled or will dry up if . . . [more]

♫ I’m scared to touch
Too tense to be undone
I walk the streets
Not expecting morning sun
Against the voice of doom
Failures fall all over town

I guess I should
I feel I should
Get real Get real…♫

Lyrics and Music by David Bowie and Brian Eno.

Irene Plagianos, for The American Lawyer and posted on Law.com today, wrote an article entitled: The Future of Legal Education: Get Real.

She reported on how Dean Richard Matasar of the New York Law School (partnered with Harvard Law School) introduced a different discussion topic to a crowded classroom . . . [more]

http://debatewise.org

“Debatewise was created for people who like making informed decisions. If this is you, you probably wont trust one source of information and will try to get a rounded view – which these days often means going to forums and blogs. The problem is, making sense of different opinions is time-consuming and imprecise.

What’s needed is a place where the best possible arguments for one side are listed next to the best possible arguments against. These arguments aren’t created by one person, but by like-minded individuals collaborating to form the strongest case. This allows people both to easily compare . . . [more]

The US Impact Public Library Study is a research project examining the impact of free access to computers and the Internet in public libraries. “Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access at US Libraries” is the first research report of the project. It discusses the characteristics of the people who use computers and the Internet in libraries, the types of use they engage in, and the impact that their use has on their own lives, that of their families and friends, and their communities. The key findings of this first report include:

• Internet access is now

A new site launched quietly a couple of days ago: Openparliament.ca is a great place to find out what’s going on in that house of mirrors on the hill. A voluntary effort by Michael Mulley, it offers you:

• Hansard, but formatted (finally!) in a way that is sensible, daily topic by daily topic, or, of course, by date
• a place to use your postal code to discover what your MP has been up to, including any Twitter posts, mentions in the press, and speeches in the House
• a list of all MPs, linked to their recent speeches in

Marilyn Johnson is a fan of libraries. And librarians. She came to this appreciation while researching The Dead Beat (a book about obituary writers). To her, it seemed that librarians had the most interesting obituaries! So when the time came for a second book, librarians seemed a natural focus. The result is This Book is Overdue : How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us.

“I wrote the book originally to teach myself how to get more technologically savvy, and I wrote it for my parents, who I know felt like the computer age had zoomed of and left them in . . . [more]

It’s easy to forget that the first and often the last interaction most of us have each day with our legal technology involves logging into – or out of – our trusty desktop machine. And that makes a lot of sense, because it’s typically the nexus of practically all that we do each day, from e-mail to web research to practice management and beyond. And yet the legal technology press is abuzz about how to ‘get into the cloud’ or ‘the perils of entering the cloud’ or the latest SaaS application that enables practice management for the price of a . . . [more]

Victory is in the air this week in biotech. Not all news was good — early stage venture capital and U.S. biotech company Tengion have had better weeks — but mostly… victory.

The Gairdner Awards announced its 51st set of winners, highlighting the usual range of amazing advances in molecular biology and honouring local biotech maven Dr. Cal Stiller for “outstanding leadership in medicine and medical science.”

BIOTECanada also announced awards. for companies went to OncoGenex , iCo Therapeutics and CO2 Solution. The presentation will be at the BIO conference in May.

Many companies were victorious in the marketplace . . . [more]