It’s pretty much impossible to get away from a discussion of how AI is going to affect legal practice these days. From AI tools that allow users to summarize documents to tools that create new precedents to tools that carry out legal research, it feels like there’s an AI tool for every part of the legal process. 

We’ve also seen the stories about legal research using AI gone bad: for example, this Federal Court case or this Ontario case. (There’s even a database of legal decisions involving AI hallucinations.) The problem in these situations is not that the lawyer . . . [more]

Perhaps, you say, it is akin to the hockey player, who skates with the puck again and again into the offensive zone, only to be met with a stick here, a shoulder there, caroming into the boards or sliding splayed out into the ice, but upon another foray sneaks one way around a stick while pushing the puck the other, then erupting forth past a shoulder, gathering the puck and looking up to find only a wide-eyed squid between heaven and hell. A sudden rise in heat, pressure transforming into euphoria, but not quite yet, the sensation of success 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) : On ne peut conclure à l’inapplicabilité de l’article 162.1 (2) a) C.Cr. à l’égoportrait de la victime au seul motif que l’on n’y voit pas son corps entièrement dénudé; la question est de savoir si la victime est suffisamment dévêtue pour pouvoir la considérer comme «nue» au . . . [more]

A considerable amount of Canadian legal scholarship exists within the boundaries of either civil or criminal law. Each camp generally invites separate consideration of gaps, standards, trends, shifts, and other issues. Rarely do these two domains of scholarship meet. A similar divide is apparent in legal practice, with the civil and criminal legal systems commonly viewed as separate arms within our broader legal machinery. There are certainly valid reasons for the siloing of these bodies of law. For those trained in law, the divide between civil and criminal law and the reasons for it will be clear, logical, and in . . . [more]

Can the Alberta Privacy and Information Commissioner limit a foreign corporation from collecting images of Albertans for use in facial recognition software? That was the issue that came to the Court of Kings Bench of Alberta on the application by Clearview AI Inc. (“Clearview”) for judicial review of the decision of the Alberta Privacy and Information Commissioner.

Clearview obtains images of Albertans and Canadians by scraping publicly available data from web pages and social media sites on the internet. The privacy commissions of Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, and Canada investigated Clearview’s practice of scraping images from the internet. A joint . . . [more]

This submission is part of a column swap with the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) bimonthly member magazine, AALL Spectrum. Published six times a year, AALL Spectrum is designed to further professional development and education within the legal information industry. Slaw and the AALL Spectrum board have agreed to hand-select several columns each year as part of this exchange. 

Practical applications of generative AI in legal research.

“How do you use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for legal research?” The question usually surfaces in the context of continuing legal education presentations. The answer for most law librarians is, “I . . . [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 : Une conductrice ayant heurté 3 piétons en descendant une rue à reculons et à contresens est déclarée coupable sous 3 chefs d’accusation de négligence criminelle causant des lésions corporelles; l’analyse de l’ensemble de la preuve permet d’inférer que l’incident découle d’un geste intentionnel, et non d’une prétendue défaillance . . . [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.

Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to Safeguard Justice. By Kent Roach. Toronto: Simon & Schuster, 2023. xxxvii, 359 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 9781668023662 (hardcover) $34.99; ISBN 9781668023679 (softcover) $24.99; ISBN 9781668023686 (eBook) $24.99.

Reviewed by Leslie Taylor
Research and Instruction Librarian . . . [more]

This month’s column is aimed at Gen-Xers like me and the Boomers who preceded us in the legal profession. Readers in your 20s, 30s, and 40s – I’ll catch you next time out.

Preparing a talk the other day, I realized with a mild shock that last month, I celebrated the 30th anniversary of my call to the bar. Although maybe “celebrated” isn’t quite the right word – “commemorated”? “Glossed over with mild discomfort?” “How the hell did that happen?” 1995 was also the last year in which I engaged in anything like the practice of law, so I suppose . . . [more]

Mediation has become a cornerstone of Canada’s civil justice system. Whether driven by mandatory programs or chosen voluntarily, it offers parties an efficient, relationship-focused path to resolution. And with the Ontario Civil Rules Review poised to expand its role, mediation’s prominence is only set to grow.

I am still surprised when I am retained as a mediator by counsel who I have never worked with in the past nor even spoken to. While I am happy to have the opportunity, it concerns me and raises a crucial question: how are mediators being selected? Are lawyers choosing mediators based on their . . . [more]