Canada’s online legal magazine.

Spring Overload?

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been noticing a trend. Is this the busiest time of year? or is it just me?

First off, I’ve got a firm wide portal project set to roll out over the next few weeks (again, maybe just me, but it seems like there’s always a major spring project).

Add in the fact that it’s planning and budget time, that I’m prepping a presentation for the BCLA conference next friday, and the CALL Conference is coming quickly there after — and then, woh-and-behold — I should come back just in time to welcome . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Microsoft’s Academic Search

Get ready for Microsoft’s competitor to Google Scholar, Windows Live Academic Search, which may be announced either tomorrow or Wednesday, according to Charles Bailey Jr.’s Digital Koan. A note in PCWorld says:

Academic Search, aimed at Google Scholar, will allow users to search articles in academic journals or find out if books or articles are available in a library located near the user, according to another LiveSide posting.

According to LiveSide, Academic Search will allow users to do the following:

  • View an abstract for an academic article in a search preview pane;
  • View the complete article, as
. . . [more]
Posted in: Miscellaneous

Hello, Hello, Hello

BlackBerrys are helping police officers in West Yorkshire to deal with suspects who try to bluff their way out of being arrested when stopped on the streets.

When officers stop someone they suspect is wanted for an offence, they need to confirm that person’s identity.

Not surprisingly, many of those who are wanted will try to trick their way out of being arrested by providing false details – often those of someone they know, who is not currently wanted by the police.

But now officers issued with BlackBerryThe best BlackBerry joke I’ve heard in a while is:
say
. . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

East of Eagan

Wires just announced the development of Westlaw-Japan. Our friends at Eagan, MN have teamed up with Shin Nippon Hoki Shuppan K.K to create Westlaw Japan K.K., a business that will develop a new, state-of-the-art online service created expressly for the world’s second-largest legal information marketplace.

Since West now derives 68% of its legal and regulatory revenue from online, it made sense to focus on the largest undeveloped marketNote that non-North American sales make up only 15% of the West Thomson legal and regulatory market.

A few comments from the launch:

President Shozo Hattori – “We believe significant future

. . . [more]
Posted in: Miscellaneous

SSRN

In doing the prior post I thought that there may be some Slawyers who don’t know about the Social Science Research Network’s e-Library. A joint project of Stanford Law School and the European Corporate Governance Institute, SSRN is a repository for abstracts of academic papers (current count: 114,700) and full-text versions of academic papers (current count: 86,500). The data is categorized into 10 areas, or “networks”: accounting research, economics research, entrepreneurship research & policy, financial economics, information systems, legal scholarship, management research, marketing research, negotiations research, social insurance research.

Within each network, papers are organized into topical “journals” . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Canadian Corporate Law Treatise

Bruce Welling always wrote the most stimulating heresies in Canadian Corporate LawAs well as having the funniest index references footnotes in Canadian legal writing:
the constitutional significance of drunks
The Exploding Mountbattens
.

Since Bruce’s writings are replete with references to his surf buddies, and he can be found at dawn in the lineup at the Alley, off Currumbin Point, it’s not surprising that he has taken himself off to legal publishers in more surf-friendly climes.

His new edition of Corporate Law in Canada (3rd edition) is published by Scribblers Publishing Queensland Australia.

Copies of Corporate Law in Canada (3rd . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Legal Information and Open Access

This paper begins by considering the important role information plays in the law. It then notes the increasing industry concentration that has occurred over the last 10-15 years among legal and other publishers. This industry concentration is believed to have contributed to significant price increases for scholarly journals generally. This industry concentration has potentially significant implications for questions of access, particularly in the current environment of increasing electronic dissemination of legal information. In addition to examining characteristics of the legal information industry, this paper also looks at the role of dominant players such as Lexis and Westlaw and the ways

. . . [more]
Posted in: Miscellaneous

Computers Have All the Answers

Thanks to John Swan , for a lead to a mindboggling comment made by Grant Campbell J. (London, Family Court) regarding the proper way (from a costs perspective) of doing legal research. In Biggin v. Maloney For parallel cites.

In reviewing a bill for legal services submitted in respect of an order for costs in Biggin v. Maloney, Grant Campbell J. of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice observed:

“Although some case-law research was necessary, and although Mr.Hopkins did indeed produce several relevant and persuasive cases… I cannot understand how Mr.Hopkins could invest 10 1⁄2 hours obtaining and reading

. . . [more]
Posted in: Miscellaneous

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This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada | Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada