Internet Law News this morning reports that Australia will propose national legislation to criminalize identity theft.

I am not sure I understand the story. Presumably Australia has laws against fraud. The story mentions using another person’s credit card and stealing personal information to open bank accounts and take out loans in the name of the victim. Would not such actions already be illegal? They certainly would be here.

It is arguable that it should be illegal simply to acquire the personal information, without actually using it – but then would protective or limiting measures be needed to prevent abuse, or . . . [more]

There have been a couple great BigLaw blog lists that have come out over the past week, and both are well worth noting here on Slaw.

First up, 3 Geeks and a Law Blog have published a list of officially sanctioned BigLaw law blogs, with the term sanctioned being defined as a link from the firm’s main website. A good metric, IMO. This list now totals 141 blogs from 56 law firms, and is based on looking at the NLJ 250 firms.

The second list comes from the crew over at Law Blog Builders Lexblog, and is an . . . [more]

If you follow us by RSS or email and don’t visit the website, you’ll likely be missing a couple of interesting conversations in the comments to recent posts. (You can, of course, subscribe to the comments either by email or RSS, though many readers haven’t yet done that.)

Alex Manevich’s post on arbitral awards and limitations periods has generated an interesting series of exchanges between him and John Gregory. Well worth taking a look.

And Dave Bilinsky’s post, Shouldn’t It Just Work?, sparked a bunch of comments on tablet PC’s.

So drop by the website for a good read. . . . [more]

A recent WSL Blog posting on legal outsourcing to India (a topic covered quite extensively on SLAW), reminded me I was going to mention the panel that spoke on this topic a few weeks back at the Canadian Law and Technology Forum in Toronto. One speaker discussed offshore outsourcing and the other speaker discussed outsourcing domestically to Canadian lawyers.

The offshore outsourcing speaker was lawyer Gavin Birer of Legalwise Outsourcing Inc. (who wrote a good introductory article on the topic here on SLAW earlier this summer). Given good high-speed Internet, secure communications and a body of qualified lawyers in India, . . . [more]

For all the great info including speakers, location and plenty of details, visit:
http://podcamphalifax.ca . . . [more]

Announcement today from the Library of Congress: here is the Press Release

The Global Legal Information Network Offers New Features . . . [more]

This from our Slaw friend Jim Milles… It seems that a new study from comScore is showing Canada as the number one nation in the world in Social Networking adoption.

Here’s a screen capture of the chart:

. . . [more]

Librarians often debate the prices of law books, wondering why pricing soars beyond normal trade publishing prices. The suspicion is that editorial and marketing costs are not higher than trade costs. Of course one factor is the small size of print runs. Canadian publishers faced with demand for an out of print book (like Bill Estey’s Legal Opinions in Commercial Transactions) will often print just a couple of hundred copies.

Now we’ve actual evidence of a major legal publisher going for print on demand. The costs are, of course, high in relation to page count.

OUP have recently re-issued, . . . [more]

Some background on the current fun and games / constitutional crisis / surrealist psychodrama on Parliament Hill:

• A Q&A on coalition governments (Toronto Star)
• Going where no Governor-General has gone before – In an unprecedented use of her reserve power, Michaëlle Jean could leave the Tory government with its hands tied behind its back (Globe and Mail)
• The Governor-General’s options (Globe and Mail)
• Manoeuvring puts GG in ‘untenable’ position: Expert (Ottawa Citizen)
• The delicate role of the Governor General (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
• Ce que peut faire Michaëlle Jean (La Presse)

And then my head exploded… . . . [more]

RIA Novosti sets up agency providing legal information. Here is the Press Release

MOSCOW, December 3 – The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti has established a law agency to cover new developments taking place in Russia’s legal system, a RIA Novosti deputy editor-in-chief said on Wednesday.

The Agency for Legal and Judicial Information (APSI), set up jointly with Russia’s Supreme Court, Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of Arbitration, is due to begin its work in the near future, Maxim Filimonov said.

The new agency aims to provide objective information on the activity of the courts in an effort to . . . [more]

Two of my favourite blogs, The Court and Michel-Adrien Sheppard (aka Library Boy) come together in this post, which went up today. Michel-Adrien is certainly no stranger to SLAWyers, as he is a frequent contributor to the discussions here. Thanks to Michel-Adrien and the intereviewer for this insight.

I’m sure I’m not alone in my fascination with career path stories – learning how someone else came to be where they are now. The steelworker who is now a systems architect, the former prison guard who is now a lawyer – these stories show just how powerful serendipity can . . . [more]

Speaking of “Shouldn’t it just work“, I have been thinking that a sole practitioner or small firm actually is now at an advantage over larger firms regarding technology.

Software required to run law firms – such as accounting and document management – has typically been created specifically for law firms. That means it is not cheap, and is rarely cutting edge.

But tools are now available that give essentially the same functionality (or at least the 80% that one actually needs) that are low cost and easy to use. Online accounting services for example, or OneNote and search . . . [more]