On Friday CanLII announced a new search results sorting option:

December 7, 2007
News Release No 2007-06Dear users,

I am happy to announce a set of new features that CanLII is now offering to you in order to help you deal even more efficiently with search results.

In your search results, you are now able to sort cases based on the number of times a case has been cited. You can do so by clicking on the “The most cited” link in the “Sort” menu of your search results page. By choosing “Sort by The most cited” the search

I’m fortunate enough in my firm to practice with several other lawyers in the same research practice group. We’ve learned over the years the value of collaboration, which usually takes the form of either “open door” discussions or our monthly meetings where we share news, frustrations, current work and workload issues. In hopes these discussions may be of interest to other researchers who often practice in isolation, I’m summarizing some of the issues dealt with recently (below) and welcome anyone to contact me directly if you wish to follow up in more detail:

1. Commercial Databases – tips and gripes
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In ebook form, with wonderful public domain illustrations, the full text of Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark”, here. Carroll’s is far more entertaining, far better than mine. More educational, too.

Anyway, this place supposedly being about things related to law, here’s an excerpt from “Fit the Sixth – The Barrister’s Dream”. The full text of “Fit the Sixth” follows after the break, together with the illustration that accompanies it.

He dreamed that he stood in a shadowy Court,
Where the Snark, with a glass in its eye,
Dressed in gown, bands, and wig, was defending a pig
On

It was always my understanding that QuickLaw’s Canadian case law coverage was equal, if not superior, to LexisNexis’. If you too were operating under that assumption, then the following may surprise you… 

I had found a reference to a case using the Nadin-Davis Sentencing Digest. Unfortunately, no citation was provided; it did, however, list the name of the case, the date (1986), the judge and the level of court. The digest entry also mentioned that the case had been appealed. So I set about to search for the case. 

I turned first to QuickLaw. I searched by case name and . . . [more]

Oyez, oyez! and listen up! because you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.

What with radio and iPods and elevators our ears are almost always full of music (and then there’s that stuff that gets played at supermarkets). And the music is typically mainstream. But there’s a lot of nifty different sound out there and I’ve got a source today for some sounds that are anything but programmed.

framework is a site streaming out of the Netherlands that plays long stretches of recordings made in ordinary public places and mixed into interesting soundscapes — “field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity” as . . . [more]

I received a message from a library discussion list this morning informing readers of an open house and call-in event at Minister Prentice’s constituency office tomorrow, Saturday December 8. The message notes that rumours are that the forthcoming copyright bill will resemble the US DMCA in some controversial respects. More information about the open house and call-in is available here. . . . [more]

Steve Matthews, the brain behind Stem Legal and LegalPubs.ca, has revivified his original list of Canadian blawgs by giving it a home of its own as the Canadian Law Blogs List. This is brilliant.

The only thing that’s needed now, Steve, is the RSS links for each, and the ability to mix a feed of our choosing right there on the site, and….

When you have time, that is. . . . [more]

Wouldn’t it be cool to have Facebook as your Intranet? One company thinks so. Andrew McAfee from Harvard Business School and Bill Ives are both blogging about how Serena Software has made the leap to adopting Facebook as its Intranet. . . . [more]

Today is the 90th Anniversary of the Halifax Explosion, as it has become commonly known, although in looking for material for this post, I discovered that it was referred to as the Halifax Disaster at the time. The largest man made explosion in history, prior to Hiroshima. As with most things some legal material sprung up around the explosion. The most interesting case being, R. v. Mackey (1918), 52 N.S.R. 165 (S.C.) On March 15 it was determined that the caption (nee captain) of the Mont Blanc was to be released on bail, opposed by the crown, while awaiting . . . [more]

A post in Law Librarian Blog this morning, Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in Prison, led me to the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, the group that wrote the report on children in U.S. prisons [PDF]. From their “About” page:

The Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama is a private, nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system.

We litigate on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or charged with violent crimes, poor people denied effective representation,

There’s now an industrial design database on the Canadian Intellectual Property Office website. The database goes back to 1861, seemingly, and contains all the designs registered, and so protected, under the Industrial Design Act. Industrial design protection is something like a copyright, but flowing out of the shape of an object rather than, say, a writing or a work of art; the definition section says it better:

“design” or “industrial design” means features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament and any combination of those features that, in a finished article, appeal to and are judged solely by the eye;

The end of the year is fast approaching and many offices will be throwing holiday parties, either in-house or in restaurants, clubs or bars.

It is also the season of many questions about drunkenness, sexual harassment, liability and many other touchy topics.

A few texts with useful reminders:

• Serving Smart at Holiday Parties (Ogilvy Renault): ” ‘The liability risks of holding staff parties are a big concern for employers this time of year. They need to be responsible, inclusive and aware,’ says David Bannon, a partner in Ogilvy Renault’s Employment and Labour Law practice. ‘Companies can be liable if an