and by Elon J. Griffith

David Mamet’s new play on Broadway is set in a law firm founded by two male lawyers, one white and one black, who are asked to represent a wealthy and famous white male accused of a raping an African American woman. However, the decision to do so is taken out of their hands by a series of unexpected events.

The play is a mystery, intended to both entertain and challenge the audience. At the same time, the play is also a conversation on the matter of race in America in the post Obama era. The . . . [more]

From the Toronto Star report

A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld a US$290-million judgement against Microsoft Corp. in a patent case launched by Toronto-based i4i Inc.

The ruling also includes an injunction, set to go into effect Jan. 11, that would prevent the sale of at least some versions of Microsoft’s popular Word word processing software.

What does this mean to the Word/Office portion of the Gatesian Empire? I mean, apart from the judgment amount and whatever it’ll notionally cost it to recall Word & Office 2007 copies which can’t be sold if the injunction remains in place?

A . . . [more]

Louise Hamel, manager of the Judges’ Library for Ontario Courts, just announced to Canadian legal publishers that beginning January 2, 2010, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice will assign a neutral citation to their decisions, except for the Small Claims Court.

The Neutral Citation Standard for Case Law was developed in 1998 by the Canadian Citation Committee, an informal group that brought together various specialists in legal information from the judiciary, academia and the publishing industry, including slawers Martin Felsky and Daniel Poulin. The standard was approved in 1999 by the Canadian Judicial Council and has since then been . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada released its reasons in Quan v. Cusson and Grant v. Torstar Corp today. These are key decisions in the area of defamation and libel, and a major victory for the media. The court recognized the new defence, of responsible communication on matters of public importance. A quote from the reasons delivered by Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin in Cusson: “The judge decides whether the publication was on a matter of public interest. If so, the jury then decides whether the standard of responsibility has been met.” Read the court’s reasons here. The Globe and . . . [more]

I’m more than proud to be able to say that Dennis Kennedy, that powerhouse of American law blogging, has awarded the 2009 Blawggie for Best Overall Law-Related Blog to Slaw. This is the second year in a row we’ve been favoured with the award — and we’re chuffed, to say the least.

Kennedy sets out the criteria by which he measures the blawgs he reads on a regular basis: They should offer “(1) consistently useful content, (2) a generous and helpful approach, and (3) a combination of commitment and talent, with an emphasis on good writing.”

Of Slaw, he says: . . . [more]

Let me open by wishing everyone the best of the season!

We at the Law Commission of Ontario were delighted this week to hear the Attorney General announce the government’s plan to reform the family law system. The plan is to use the concept of “four pillars” to establish the fundamental changes that will allow the evolution of the system as time goes on. These are necessary reforms: increased information, greater access to legal services, more use in appropriate cases of different forms of dispute resolution and triage (ensuring that families are sent in the right direction in the system). . . . [more]

Family law matters seem to be the new flavour of the month when it comes to bad-cheque scams. In the past few weeks Ontario lawyers have sent me almost 20 different emails from fraudsters seeking help on matters involving the collection spousal and/or child support.

One message in particular is making the rounds as I have had at least a dozen lawyers send me a copy of it in the last week alone. A copy of that message follows: . . . [more]

This week in biotech was all about action at a distance. Not the quantum entanglement kind, just the plain old mucking with things indirectly kind.

In a post on recent developments in electronic medical records, two items highlighted a role for remote access: a pilot program by the American Telemedicine Association that is using phone, email and videoconferencing to resolve over 55% of issues without an office visit; and a new pacemaker that transmits data to the doctor and the patient to allow proactive monitoring and planning.

Another phenomenon one step removed — BioMS, having had to abandon . . . [more]

The December issue of the CBA’s National magazine has been released, and includes the article “Canada’s best law firm websites” [pdf] by Luigi Benetton. Nine “legal technology professionals” were asked to rank and comment on law firm websites in a number of categories (including yours truly).

I encourage you to read the full article for the analysis, discussion and quotes, but here is the run-down of winners and honourable mentions with links in the various categories:

Big Firm (multi-jurisdictional)

Winner: Ogilvy Renault LLP
Honourable mentions: Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP

Small Firm/Solo

Co-winners: . . . [more]

The shortest day of the year is perhaps a fitting day to remind you that we’re going to be taking it a bit easier at Slaw for the next couple of weeks. Posting will likely be less frequent, and probably nil on some days. The holidays also mean that there won’t be a guest firm blogger this month — we couldn’t get Claus and Co. to agree — and everyone else seems to have plans to be off enjoying themselves.

When we come back in the new year, we’ll be starting on an extended process of improving Slaw in a . . . [more]

…with all due apologies to Van Halen. What would a Winter Olympics in Canada be without ski jumping controversy? In Calgary in 1988 the world watched as Eddie Edwards flew like an eagle. In response to that the IOC instituted minimum requirements for competitors to take part in Olympics and placed more severe restrictions on competitors qualifying for Olympic competition. In 2010, the ski jumping controversy for Vancouver is the IOC’s refusal to allow women’s ski jumping as an event in the Olympics. In a sense the restrictions that came out of the Calgary Olympiad of 1988 indirectly led . . . [more]

Readers of Slaw may have come across the small volumes that have been published annually for over sixty years – the Hamlyn Lectures. They resulted from an application for directions before Mr. Justice Wynn-Parry of a Trust resulting from the Last Will and Testament of Miss Emma Hamlyn. They’re delightfully accessible general talks on various aspects of English and comparative law.

And the older volumes of the series are now available from the University of Exeter Law School website. CUP is publishing the current volumes.

Miss Hamlyn bequeathed the residue of her estate to her executors as . . . [more]