Melville’s Moby Dick, which fell flat out of the presses and was out of print in 1891 when he died, was thankfully revived 70 years later in the 1920s for it gave us access to not only one of the best books ever written, but a legal theory that will stand the test of time, that is, that possession is the whole of the law. How can this be so? By virtue of two simple principles:

I. A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it.

II. A Loose-Fish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it. . . . [more]

Two recent events in my professional life have me thinking (and worrying as is my nature) about the push and pull we lawyers experience when communicating with clients. In an increasingly connected world, how do we balance our obligation to respond in a reasonable timeframe with the client’s expectation to receive frequent and immediate responses via text or instant messaging?

The first event is the launch of the Public Concerns Pathway (PCP) from the Law Society of Saskatchewan. I was the Knowledge Engineer on this project that provides the public with clear information about common concerns with legal professionals and . . . [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 (DROIT) : La Cour ordonne la tenue d’un nouveau procès dans une affaire de meurtre; l’exposé final de l’avocat de la poursuite était ponctué de remarques inappropriées ne respectant pas les critères de neutralité et d’objectivité auxquels on s’attend d’un exposé final au jury.

Intitulé : Gordon Gray c. . . . [more]

There is no “one” solution to the delays in administrative justice in Canada. When a problem is caused by multiple reasons, it often takes multiple approaches to resolving it. The volume of disputes has grown over the last decade and the reasons for this are complex. Society is becoming more litigious, which could be due to an increased awareness of legal rights and also a reduced willingness to compromise. The volume of complaints or applications to tribunals is also partly due to the rise of self-represented parties, who may not have a full understanding of the law. One of the . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Addressing the Jury: Achieving Fair Verdicts in Personal Injury Cases. By Roger Oatley & Troy Lehman. 3rd ed. Toronto: LexisNexis, 2025. xix, 438 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 9780433531654 (softcover) $145.00.

Reviewed by Lorissa Kinna
Reference Librarian
Great Library, Law Society of Ontario

The third iteration of Addressing . . . [more]

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

For this past month, the three most-consulted English-language decisions were:

1. Parker v. King, 2025 ONSC 6813

[1] On August 18th, 2025 the Respondent appeared at a case conference with an albino ball python named “Rico” and insisted that the snake was a service animal. At the time he presented documentation stating that he required the service animal for his mental well being . . . [more]

Cases keep cropping up where counsel has used AI to create a court submission containing made-up cases. The common response on the part of courts and the profession has been: ‘prompt, but verify.’ It’s okay to use AI, just make sure it’s accurate.

I think this response misses the mark. But consider first how fixated we’ve become over the issue of verification — implying that this is all we need to be concerned about in deciding whether counsel should be using AI to write court submissions.

As Judge Moore in a Federal Court case wrote earlier this year:

The use

I don’t have to ask if you’ve ever encountered a bully at work. I know you have. We all have.

There’s one flavour of workplace bully that is particularly challenging to deal with: the narcissist. I’m using the term colloquially here­ — they aren’t waving around a clinical diagnosis to show off their bona fides — but you know the signs.

They gossip and stir conflict. Undermine others. Seek attention. Create constant drama. And they are masters of manipulation, turning others against you. Sometimes, the constant gaslighting and blame-shifting is enough to turn you against yourself

I’m exhausted just writing . . . [more]

AI has evolved rapidly from conceptual promise to practical workplace reality, dramatically reshaping governance and organizational policy. At the 2025 GPC annual corporate governance conference session in Montreal, many AI themes came up throughout the sessions and addressed some of its impacts including how boards need to approach AI adoption balancing the charm of innovation with the necessary guardrails of governance.

The discussions held included an a real-time poll showed more than 90% of attendees already used at least one AI tool. Application of AI was particularly notable, divided evenly between professional use (46 respondents) and non-professional use (46 respondents), . . . [more]

I am writing this on December 15^th. You may not read this until after Christmas but I hope it will still be timely!

If you have had enough Hallmark movies, or podcasts highlighting the latest twists in US politics, I have a suggestion for you. Tune in to the CBC’s See you in Court podcast. It tells the stories behind legal cases that changed Canada. Host Falen Johnson teams up with a journalist to dig into a case that challenged the status quo and reshaped the law.

The series begins with the story of Henry Morgantaler, and continues . . . [more]