From the people who brought you Hovercards before Twitter — indeed, before they even had a name — now comes “Save as PDF.” We’ve added a small link below each post in the “Share:” section that invites you to download that post as a PDF file. Now you can collect all of your favourites in a format that lets you file them, search them, make them larger or smaller, and generally enjoy the heck out of them offline. And notice, we placed it before the “Print” button — because we like saving trees.

Hovercards? Well, in case you hadn’t noticed: . . . [more]

If we’re at all edgy here at Slaw, it’s likely to be at the lip of the technology cliff that we’re writing. But a small piece in today’s Globe and Mail sent me hareing off to the edge of the known world of rights. The article referred to the fact that Switzerland had recently changed its constitution to protect the dignity of plant life, which, if true, would take the already difficult business of rights one step beyond Lemmings’ Leap.

What’s put the Swiss Republic into the news this time is an upcoming popular referendum (March 7) on whether domesticated . . . [more]

The Tucson Citizen has published what they call a ‘wordless editorial’, which I’ll presume to be commentary on the US Supreme Court’s recent decision on corporate political spending.

The single image offered is replicated below:

. . . [more]

There is an excellent article over at the Stream comparing the electronic sources of the English Reports. Just like Drew Jackson, I love it when someone asks me for a case I know is one of the weird citations that are incorporated into the E.R.’s. I always feel like a superstar, which helps balance the “I have no idea what I’m doing” moments.

We have talked about the HeinOnline and CommonLII sources of this data on Slaw.

The usefulness of these, and other digitized collections of aging print, hit home for me this week. I was looking for some old . . . [more]

As everyone will doubtless know, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against permitting the District Court for the Northern District of California to broadcast on YouTube the challenge to California’s Proposition 8, as had been originally planned. That doesn’t mean that the screen’s gone blank, though. Cunningly, MarriageTrial.com is filming a re-enactment using transcripts from the actual trial (transcripts you can download so you can sing along!).

The MarriageTrial.com site currently offers you Episode 1 in 3 Chapters, essentially giving the opening statements of the various parties. As well there are a couple of summaries to bring . . . [more]

For the record, I don’t intend to buy one. At least, not for a few more years and not until the inevitable upgrades, improvements, fixes, and content distribution changes have run their course. But well before the iPad 3.o arrives, the original version will have had a serious impact on the computer industry, on the production and distribution of content, and yes, on the legal profession.

I won’t recap everything that’s been said about the iPad in the mainstream and legal communities — Reid Trautz and The Wired GC have two solid takes — but it’s worth noting that the . . . [more]

Legal publishers pairing themselves with applications that embed their subscription-based resources isn’t new. West KM does it, as does LN’s Quickfind. Now out of LTNY we hear about the latest tool addition, Lexis for Microsoft.

Do these tools add valuable functionality for firms? Even if we hesitate on a few of them, the overall answer is probably ‘yes’. But an issue that seems rarely talked about is that of usage rates – the measure by which most flat fee pricing for online database services is based. The end effect of many of these tools is that they drive . . . [more]

I just read Ted Tjaden’s post about Ontario courts assuming jurisdiction over out-of-province defendants.

Professor Janet Walker, of Osgoode Hall Law School, is preparing a report on this issue. She undertook the project as the inaugural OHLS LCO Scholar in Residence at the Law Commission of Ontario. This is not officially an LCO project (it was not approved as a project and its recommendations will not be subject to approval by the LCO’s Board of Governors), rather the LCO has supported the project by posting on our website, facilitating consultation, translation into French and will issue the final report. . . . [more]

Last year a California class action suit resulted in a settlement where each class member received a $10 gift card from the defendant store. The settlement called for the plaintiff’s lawyer to get $175,000 125,000 (sorry -typo)

The judge who approved the settlement didn’t like it, and ordered the lawyer to also take payment in $10 gift cards from the store.

Boing Boing refers to a post on the Lowering the Bar blog that says that judge has been disciplined for that by the state Commission on Judicial Performance.

No word on the fate of the lawyer’s gift cards. . . . [more]

We’re all working so hard on legal work right now in mid-winter cold and darkness that I thought it’d be fun to write something subversive. Maybe you’re at your breaking point and need a little musical inspiration to convince you to permanently log off of Quicklaw, hand in your security pass and make a break for truth and enlightenment? Here is a list of songs about getting back to the roots or “going country.”

Think nice thoughts for the rest of us eh!

Honk, High in the Middle

This song is from the soundtrack to the 1972 surf movie “Five . . . [more]

♫ I am lonely but you can free me
All in the way that you smile
Tell me why, tell me why..♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Neil Young.

This is a post of a different colour (or color). It is really a series of questions wrapped up in a post with the hope and expectation that it can generate a bit of discussion. Call it an experiment of sorts in social blogging, community and dialogue in using a specific example to explore the topic of the adoption of technology by lawyers.

This blog post originated with a long discussion . . . [more]

I would like to know why (some) Nova Scotia reasons for judgment reported on CanLII are “centre justified”. Do they come this way from the courts? They are much harder to read than fully justified paragraphs or ones left with a “ragged right”. . . . [more]