As we all know, administrative law nerds (their own expression) received a nice Holiday present on December 19 when the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Vavilov. This important event in Canadian law isn’t just fun for the admin law crowd, it’s also an occasion for us, legal information geeks, to live in real time another game of “precedential game of thrones.”

I’ve been interested for a long time in finding signals that could indicate that a case is no longer good law (or at least no longer to be cited without caution). There are ways to spot . . . [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. Theralase Technologies Inc. v. Lanter, 2020 ONSC 205 (CanLII)

[2] This motion raises the issue of whether the court has jurisdiction to grant judgment against unidentified defendants for defamatory statements published on the internet. For the reasons that follow, I find that where a form of service can reasonably be expected to bring court proceedings to the attention of an unidentified . . . [more]

Content continues to be king for professionals trying to build their profile. However, not all content is insightful and understanding what your audience wants is the key to developing content that adds value.

I regularly listen to a very well-produced podcast that comes out weekly. I like what the personalities have to say and although I don’t always listen to the entire podcast I do listen to each new episode. During a recent episode, the conversation turned to the quality of reporting done as part of the podcast.

One of the presenters said that the podcast is really only good . . . [more]

“Ask the question.” That was a phrase often heard at morning leadership meetings (AKA coffee with my admin colleagues) at my former law firm. Asking the question was intended to mean that we shouldn’t assume that others in the firm noticed the same problems that we did. It is a call to collaborate, ideate, and create solutions as a team. On February 19 at 1 PM EST the @CALLACBD Executive Board will be asking the question, quite a few questions actually, using a Twitter Chat with the hashtag #CALLACBDCHAT.

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries is using a Twitter . . . [more]

On December 9, 2019, Ontario’s Smarter and Stronger Justice Act, 2019 (Bill 161) received first reading. Bill 161 includes many housekeeping and substantive amendments that will bring welcome changes to the law. But to what extent will it improve access to justice? . . . [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.

Practice

A Step a Day to Leverage LinkedIn
Sandra Bekhor

How long have you been on LinkedIn? A few years? More? Have you added or changed anything since that time? Your headshot? Your profile? The type of content you post? …

Research & Writing

Some Additional Apostrophe Catastrophes
Neil Guthrie

This was the headline of a recent LinkedIn post: Cryptocurrency do’s, don’ts and dangers. Think before you use the . . . [more]

In order to create pathways to justice it is often necessary to discover and follow the paths along which people already walk. This is what the WellCoMs Mobile Legal Services Van has done with great success in rural Wellington County by connecting with the normal patterns of communication and with the other ways people obtain help with everyday problems. This pilot project, which operated between May and October 2019, was developed by the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County and funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario. Wellington County covers an area of 2,657 square kilometers mostly north . . . [more]

Energy projects in Canada are of enormous public interest, with significant economic, social, and environmental affects. The National Energy Board Act allowed for the National Energy Board to provide a report for the certification of a pipeline, with recommendations to the Governor in Council, while considering the following relevant factors:

• (a) the availability of oil, gas or any other commodity to the pipeline;

• (b) the existence of markets, actual or potential;

• (c) the economic feasibility of the pipeline;

• (d) the financial responsibility and financial structure of the applicant, the methods of financing the pipeline and the extent to which Canadians

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.

AGRICULTURE : Les demanderesses ont aménagé des «BlockchainDomes» sur un emplacement en zone agricole sans l’autorisation de la CPTAQ et prétendent qu’elles exercent un usage agricole puisqu’un de leurs dômes est raccordé à une serre où, grâce à une partie de la chaleur dégagée par l’équipement informatique, elles cultivent des . . . [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):

• • Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor (International Economic Law ) (Full-time) | Ottawa, ON
    (University of Ottawa)
  • Assistant Professor or Associate Professor (Business, Tax Law) (Full-time) | Ottawa, ON
    (University of Ottawa)

The Atrium debacle has now moved out of the legal innovation news cycle having been mostly savaged (and rightly so) for its lack of understanding of the market it purported to serve, its inability to learn from the past, and a seemingly waste of investor money. It remains a sad example of how an entity built solely around hype is able to gain huge profile and raise massive amounts of money with no reasonable ROI, while entities doing really good work impacting far more people (on a shoestring!) are largely ignored.

One of the claims made on Twitter during the . . . [more]