I periodically get asked what courses are available for getting up to speed on how to conduct legal research. Clare Mauro has been the instructor for the Legal Research on the Web course at the Professional Learning Centre, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, for a number of years now. The next sign up for this popular course (with description) is as follows:

Legal Research on the Web
Mon. 1 Mar 2010 – Sat. 17 Apr 2010
7 weeks
Instructor: Clare Mauro
Fee: $435.00 Cdn
Location: online
Cert: optional
Status: open

This is an in-depth instructor-led web course focusing on

[A post for Ontario lawyers]

As of January 1, 2010, big changes to three parts of Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure came into effect. These changes are intended to streamline the litigation process and increase access to justice. Many of the changes to the rules are a result of the Civil Rules Committees (CRC) consideration of the Osborne report. These are the most extensive amendments to the Rules of Civil Procedure since they were first adopted in 1985. There are no general transitional provisions and in most cases these amendments apply to existing proceedings.

Taran Virtual Associates has created . . . [more]

Mike Kujawski recently posted an item to the Public Sector Marketing 2.0 LinkedIn Group about an online database containing links to the social media policies of dozens of organizations around the world.

If your library, law firm, agency or organization is thinking of creating policies and guidelines for the use of blogs, wikis, or social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook, this is a good place to look for guidance and examples.

Kujawski publishes the Public Sector Marketing 2.0 blog. . . . [more]

Ask anyone. It’s all about value these days. We have entered an era where costs no longer determine the price of legal services. Value determines the price. The drive to achieve value is challenging the status quo in the legal services industry. Historically, lawyers have set the price for their legal services by determining their costs; and then adding their profit margin in order to arrive at the final price for their services. Isn’t this the antithesis of the way in which most other industries determine the price for their goods and services?

For most other industries, the price for . . . [more]

Ley.mx is a Justia site that provides free online access to federal and state legislation for the third amigo in the NAFTA trio. The Federal constitution, codes, regulations and other statutory instruments are available in both HTML and PDF formats. The same documents for the 31 states seem to be available only in PDF; though you’ve got the choice to download them or view them online within an embedded Google viewer. As well, there are links to the appropriate government sites, law schools, and a number of law firms.

The simple and attractive site is in Spanish, as are all . . . [more]

Microsoft unveiled its much anticipated Windows Phone 7 operating system this week at the Mobile World congress in Barcelona. It is not based on the existing 6.X OS – but is entirely new – based on the Zune.

The reaction by the tech press has been very positive. For example, Gizmodo says that “Microsoft has out-appled Apple” , and “I’m sorry, Cupertino, but Microsoft has nailed it. Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future. The UI has the simplicity and elegance of Apple’s industrial design, while the iPhone’s UI still feels like a colorized Palm Pilot.”

For . . . [more]

It has been a little over a month since the changes to the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure have brought in “proportionality” as a governing principle and brought in specific directions regarding proportionality in the discovery process. This is a summary of a quick case law review I conducted for recent Ontario civil procedure decisions citing the proportionality concept.

By numbers alone, it appears Ontario courts are citing the principle slightly more. I counted 15 civil procedure cases reported on Quicklaw that mentioned proportionality from January 1 to February 14. For the same period last year the number was eight. . . . [more]

Last summer I spoke to Simon Fodden to see what he thought about my doing a blog on the Law Commission of Ontario website (oh, how so obvious the answer must have seemed!). He encouraged me to do it and offered me a chance to practice by posting on Slaw (“try it out, no obligation”). Of course, it wasn’t long before I received automatic emails telling me it was my day to post. I’ve enjoyed posting to Slaw, but now it’s time to fly out of the nest and post directly to the new LCO website. Thank you, Simon, for . . . [more]

The two things everyone using computers is supposed to do are: back up regularly and create difficult, changing passwords. The two things that nearly everyone using computers fails to do are: back up regularly and create difficult, changing passwords. Now, the business about backing up wouldn’t apply to computers used in law offices (would it?). But it’s not so clear that all firms and lawyers in those firms have got a good password policy in place.

We’ve talked about this on Slaw a couple of times recently. John Gregory asked whether a failure to set proper — i.e. complex — . . . [more]

Simon Fodden first spoke about the new Google Buzz here on Slaw last week. He didn’t have access yet at the time (do you now, Simon?).

First impressions

I was surprised to see it appear unannounced in my Gmail box a few days ago as an option on the left side of my mailbox. When I clicked on it, I was even more surprised to see I had followers and people I followed already set up (those people I was connected with who also have Gmail accounts). I was already privy to a number of conversations in progress. My . . . [more]

Citius, Altius, Fortius. Let me join the (undoubtedly numerous) others appropriating olympic symbolism this week. In this case, the olympic motto (Swifter, Higher, Stronger) happens to be a timely way to summarize this week’s biotech news.

Citius:Matthew Herper at Forbes called for faster communication to investors when companies deviate from their agreed clinical trial plan with the FDA. Herper suggested that the FDA should disclose the actual agreements with the companies; but I argued that as with any other material information, it is the company’s job to communicate with its investors.

Altius: This week certainly saw higher . . . [more]

I’ve covered the Apology Act on Slaw before, and Dan Pinnington has touched on the implication for insurers.

One of my professors at UWO, Dr. Craig Brown, has taken it a step further, and suggests it may even assist insurers. Dr. Brown is the author of Insurance Law in Canada, probably the foremost work in this area.

In a recent article in The Lawyers Weekly he states,

…apologies will likely benefit defendants and their insurers by reducing both the damages payable and the costs of reaching a settlement.

The legislation encourages interaction between the parties to a