In Ontario, Small Claims Court’s monetary jurisdiction increased from $25,000 to $35,000 on Jan. 1, 2020. This has allows far more claims to be heard in this venue, with its streamlined processes and less procedural delays. Even prior to the pandemic, the Small Claims Court handled more than half of all of Ontario’s civil disputes.

Wrongful dismissal claims in particular have been effectively advanced in this venue, especially during the pandemic, and for those looking to avoid the cost consequences of improperly advancing a claim in Superior Court. However, in order for these proceedings to be heard effectively, the courts . . . [more]

One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from May 27 – June 17, 2021 inclusive.

Appeals

Civil Procedure: Court Record Access
MediaQMI inc. v. Kamel, 2019 QCCA 814; 2021 SCC 23 (38755)

In Québec, the Code of Civil Procedure gives members of the public the right to have access to court records: art. . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL : La requérante a démontré que la juge autorisatrice avait été induite en erreur et que, si l’enquêteuse dénonciatrice lui avait fait un portrait complet de la situation, elle n’aurait pas lancé un mandat de perquisition visant son téléphone cellulaire.

Intitulé : R. c. Plamondon, 2021 QCCQ 4192
Juridiction . . . [more]

A couple of years ago, in the Before Times, I chaired a panel discussion on the arbitration of family law disputes at a wonderful program hosted by the Legal Education Society of Alberta in Lake Louise. The purposes of the panel were, firstly, to encourage a critical and creative approach to the design of arbitration processes and, secondly, to promote the arbitration of family law disputes in those parts of the province where it has yet to achieve the profile it rightly enjoys in Calgary.

The panel was a success – and with experienced arbitrators including Justice Sherry Kachur, Doug . . . [more]

Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw Jobs to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.

Current postings on Slaw Jobs:

• Law Librarian (Full-time) | Calgary, AB
  (Bennett Jones)
• Director of Market Policy and Industry Relations (8+ Years) (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Powerex)
• Associate, Corporate (Full-time) | Calgary, AB
  (Bennett Jones)
• Knowledge Management Lawyer–Corporate/Commercial (Full-time) | Calgary, AB
  (Bennett Jones)
• Policy

Languishing.

Thanks to Adam Grant’s May 2020 article in the New York Times, we now have a word to describe this malaise many of us are experiencing:

“Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.”

The opposite of languishing is flourishing.

Martin Seligman, a founding father of the School of Positive Psychology, writes in his book Flourishing that five factors together contribute to flourishing.

• Positive emotions
• Engagement
• Relationships
• Meaning
• Accomplishments

There is also a . . . [more]

Over the past year, have you noticed your ability to chit chat has changed? Those conversations you have with someone in a store, with a server at a restaurant, or at a dinner party have all but gone away. Small talk is an important workplace skill that has many benefits. Yes, we are connecting with people virtually, but those conversations are different than when we are in person.

There have been many studies on the effects that the pandemic has had on people’s social skills. From a business development perspective, our ability to connect with clients and prospects is a . . . [more]

Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and which French-language case have been the most viewed* on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week:

1. Working Families Ontario v. Ontario, 2021 ONSC 4076 (CanLII)

[63] It is with the minimal impairment portion of the Oakes test that the rubber of Bill 254 hits the slippery road of justification, causing the EFA vehicle to skid off course.

[64] The government’s own evidence demonstrates that less impairing measures were available to it than those contained in the Impugned Sections. . . . [more]

Canada has a long history of (mostly) productive tension between the profession and law schools about the preferred content and mode of legal education, but occasionally, this productive tension deteriorates into stereotyping. In those low moments, the practicing bar is accused of narrow-mindedly favouring black-letter law and practical skills training, while the legal academy is off on some buzzword-heavy frolic of its own. In this parallel and distinctly two-dimensional universe, lawyers in the process of hiring articling students or associates are readily able to spot problems with legal education from student transcripts without any detour through actual law classes or . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

Keep Track of Your Browsing History With Lexbox
Alex Tsang

Lexbox is a supplementary tool on CanLII that can help you keep track of your legal research online by allowing you to view your browsing history, save cases, create and organize folders, and set up alerts. … . . . [more]

This submission comes from WeirFoulds LLP Law Library Manager Nairne Holtz, who is a member of the firm’s EDI (equality, diversity, inclusion) committee. When Nairne was asked to write a piece in support of legal history and Pride month in Ontario, the end product turned out to be more of a personal account. In the spirit of Canadian legal storytelling, and in support of Pride, Slaw is happy to be able to share Nairne’s story.

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I met my wife at work, a Bay Street law firm, in 1996. You could say we met cute. I was working in the . . . [more]