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 as well as leaves to appeal granted so you will know what the SCC will soon be dealing with (April 16 – May 15, 2020 inclusive).

Appeals

Bankruptcy and Insolvency: Discretionary Authority of Supervising Judge; Litigation Funding
9354-9186 Québec inc. v. Callidus Capital Corp., 2020 SCC 10 (38594)

The supervising judge here was appropriately . . . [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 Ju stice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

RESPONSABILITÉ : Les défendeurs ont exploité et maltraité une femme de 89 ans, laquelle a notamment dû, en raison de leurs comportements fautifs, s’enfuir en plein d’hiver d’une résidence pour personne âgée où elle était gardée contre son gré et entreprendre un recours afin de faire déclarer nul un . . . [more]

The global scale of the current pandemic has led to what feels like a remarkably unprecedented level of solidarity in a world pulling together (while standing apart) amid this common cause of fighting the spread of Covid-19. In the area in which I work (from home) of scholarly communication, publishers have been not only creating public access to Covid-19 collections of research and professional resources, from Elsevier’s COVID-19 Clinical Toolkit to Wiley’s Coronavirus Resources & News. Wellcome Trust has reaffirmed its 2016 “Statement on Data Sharing in Public Health Emergencies,” which has been signed by every major biomedical publisher . . . [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 (newest first):

• Managing Director (Full-time) | Toronto, ON
  (Legal Information and Resource Network (LIRN)

Written by Lewis Waring, Paralegal, Student-at-law, Editor, First Reference Inc.

Effects of unionization on the employment relationship

Unions have a variety of significant effects on the employment relationship and greatly affect the rights and obligations of employers and employees. The repercussions of unionization are so significant that the law surrounding unionized workplaces is considered to be an entirely distinct area of law from law surrounding non-unionized workplaces.

One such difference related to unionization is the legal path workers are allowed to take when confronted with a human rights issue in the workplace. In such a case, a non-unionized worker could . . . [more]

Knowledge management (KM) professionals know that there are several elements that will make or break the success of a KM initiative. One such element is mostly humans: Will the lawyers in your organization actually adopt the industry leading enterprise search system that you are spending big bucks on?

At the same time, anyone who has a close or remote encounter with the law in Canada has CanLII.org open on one or several devices. The site, heavily used by Canadian lawyers, is a good example of a widespread adoption of technology by the legal profession and the judiciary. Also, if you . . . [more]

Over the past several weeks, there has been a flurry of new ideas for revamping our legal system. But whose ideas should we seek out?

We should seek out ideas from people that are experienced users of the legal system but also from people who are new to the legal system. The experienced users have an accumulated stock of knowledge to learn from. While novice users have an easier time questioning assumptions and seeing the absurdity in antiquated processes.

In the Podcast WorkLife With Adam Grant, “Career Decline Isn’t Inevitable”, Adam Grant points out that cognitive entrenchment increases . . . [more]

It looks like we will be in isolation for a while. Let’s make the best use of this time. And here are five things to take to heart.

1. I hope you like this photo I took from my friends balcony that overlooks the lake in Boca Raton. Maya Angelou’s words couldn’t be more perfect for these times, don’t you agree?

2. Governor Cuomo reminded us to “Find ways to make a little joy.” So, I had a Zoom Cocktail Party. It was BYOB and dogs were welcomed! My friends we amazed that seeing one another made such a difference. I even

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. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65

[1] This appeal and its companion cases (see Bell Canada v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 SCC 66 (CanLII)), provide this Court with an opportunity to re-examine its approach to judicial review of administrative decisions.

[2] In these reasons, we will address two key aspects of the current administrative law . . . [more]

Addicted as I am to tv dramas (and sometimes comedies) about the law, I’ve been watching All Rise. Located in Los Angeles, it follows the professional lives of various characters involved in the criminal court there (and as a “popular” show, it also follows their personal lives). Sometimes it raises some important legal issues, but its finale was its best performance: it did a fine job of responding to the coronavirus crisis by being filmed on Cisco Webex, with all the actors working from their own homes. Apart from the kind of personal issues many people are facing in our . . . [more]

After a long wait, a couple of cases have used summary determination to decide issues of claim construction in patent infringement proceedings. In both cases, the claim construction resolution was determinative of non-infringement and the plaintiff’s case was dismissed. The decisions are subject to appeal.

In patent cases, determining the meaning of the words used in the claims of the patent is a key prerequisite for determining patent validity and infringement. Typically, expert evidence is introduced on the qualities of the skilled person appropriate for the patent at issue, the common general knowledge of this skilled person, and how the . . . [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

Another Nail in the Coffin of Two Spaces After a Period
Neil Guthrie

Microsoft has decided that it will officially join the ranks of those who consider it an error to put a double space after the end of a sentence. (Although when I recently typed a sample paragraph in Word with the offending two spaces, no red squiggly line appeared; maybe the change has yet . . . [more]