Nada Khirdaji has an interesting piece on her transition from legal research skills in law school to research skills in practice in CCH’s law student monthly,

Law school helped me to think like a lawyer, but it was only in practice that I began to appreciate the essential role of legal research. In fact, much to my chagrin, I remember derisively dismissing an optional course in advanced legal research on the assumption that it would be of little use to me.

I am now a research lawyer. Everything that I know about legal research I learned in practice. I

I don’t think we’ve yet pointed you on Slaw to the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School. Among its various functions is the provision of legal resources “such as international laws, domestic laws, articles and reports on gender-based violence.

You’ll find the relevant documents from the United Nations, as well as those from the various and lesser-known (here) regional organizations, such as the Economic Community of West African States and the South Asian Association for Regional Co-Operation.

The Center also offers student research assistance to judges confronting issues of gender-based violence, though whether the . . . [more]

If one has a weak password for one’s web-based personal information, is it reasonable to conclude that one has a reduced expectation of privacy with respect to that information?

(Here’s an English list (from 2006) of the 10 most common password and a list of the 500 worst ones, from the point of view of security.)

If someone uses “password” as his or her password, should he or she really be able to claim some privacy interest in the information behind it?

What about file sharing? If one has files or folders or most of one’s computer accessible to . . . [more]

In a February 4, 2010, article in the Toronto Globe and Mail about what is going to be a “high-profile” trial for murder, under the headline

 A shocking school slaying rendered sterile in court

Christie Blatchford, who should know better, complained that the Crown’s opening statement “managed to render murder dull.” She wrote:

This is modern Canadian justice, where even such a shocking killing is rendered sterile, the poor victim barely given a nod, all in the name, presumably, of a prosecution so measured that no one will ever again be wrongfully convicted – or at least not because a

Jurriaan de Reu recently mentioned the implications of Google Social Search for SEO. The new Google feature will provide higher results based on the reviews and commentary of your friends on various social media platforms.

Essentially this is the same concept as the traditional word-of-mouth marketing, but conducted online instead. When someone mentions their experience with a specific product, brand or service (including lawyers) on a social media platform, their contacts will get those informal reviews at the top of their searches when looking for similar topics.

A video of how it works can be found here.

The feature . . . [more]

Two weeks ago, while watching the NFL playoffs, I upgraded the OS on my home laptop (a Lenovo T60p) to Windows 7 Professional from Vista Business. 

The upgrade went quickly, smoothly, and without a hitch. I haven’t had a problem since. The screen image from the instructional video – which I have yet to need – was captured with the Windows 7 native screen capture tool, called the “Snipping Tool”. It’s very easy to use.

When will I recommend that move at the office, where all of our machines run on Windows XP? Where the common core of all of . . . [more]

Those who aren’t Apple iPad “icolytes” will enjoy this YouTube video and probably agree with this article. Those who are the former should, too, even if they don’t agree.

Ahem, Steve: the idea is to go smaller, not bigger. You can call me when you develop a folding iPad, like this or better, like this.

My view, for now? The iPad is too big to play “closies” with, even if I could find another adult who remembers how to play the game. And a paper matches book is a cheaper and better . . . [more]

♫ Everytime I turn around
Something don’t feel right
Just might be paranoid..♫

Lyrics and music by: Nicholas Jerry Jonas, Joseph Adam Jonas, Paul Kevin Jonas II, Cathy Dennis, John Fields, recorded by The Jonas Brothers.

I guess it was just a matter of time. IT World posted an article today by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (sjvn@vna1.com) entitled: “Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?”

While this may seem like the musings of a hyper-active Homeland Security Department, it is based on MI5’s report in The Times Online “China bugs and burgles Britain” . . . [more]

The first Friday of February is a tradition at Dalhousie University which I’ve mentioned previously here at Slaw. The first Friday in February is Munro Day, a Dalhousie holiday in honour of the benefactor who rescued the university from a precarious financial position in 1879. This time there is a short video to go along with the Munro Day link celebrating Dalhousie’s rich history. In the spirit of George Munro, last fall Seymour Schulich made a transformative donation to the Law School at Dalhousie University which has since been renamed the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. . . . [more]

One of the great funny men of all time, in my opinion, was George Carlin — he’s famous for his Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television, the “hippie-dippie weatherman,” and many trenchant routines satirizing the powers that be.

Towards the end of his life he had a routine about being “a modern man, a man for the millennium.” It consisted of a lengthy string of clichés delivered at a machine-gun pace from memory without a slip, a true tour de force.

Here’s the video, followed by a transcript so that you, too, can practice telling the world who/what/how . . . [more]

An English court has refused an injunction against the publication of the story of an alleged affair between a well-known football player and a teammate’s girlfriend: Terry v. Persons Unknown [2010] EWHC 119 (QB).

English law has recently given a good deal of protection to the privacy of celebrities, so some people have wondered if that protection is being reduced by this decision. Out-law.com says No.

One of the reasons (among several) for refusing the injunction in this case was that the application appeared to aim at protecting the player’s commercial sponsorships, rather than in protecting his feelings . . . [more]

A Times-Colonist report reveals the outdated, inconsistently applied, and sometimes mis-applied access to court records policy in a number of BC courts. It seems BC is way behind the curve on this, as compared to the rest of Canada. Today’s article is only the first of a four-part series. The article includes a link to an interactive Googlemap.

Reaction has been swift:

Associate Chief Judge of the BC Provincial Court

BC Judges

And here is a Google News search that should follow the issue. . . . [more]