If you’re a lawyer, you probably grew up in socio-economically advantaged circumstances. I submit this to you not as a value judgment or accusation, but as a pretty well-established fact.

In 2011, UCLA Law School Professor Richard Sander published a paper titled “Class in American Legal Education,” which included the finding that “the vast majority of American law students come from relatively elite backgrounds; this is especially true at the most prestigious law schools, where only five percent of all students come from families whose SES is in the bottom half of the national distribution.” The New York . . . [more]

Economists have found that many elite US universities – including Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, Princeton, and Yale – take more students from the top 1% of the income distribution than from the bottom 60%. … “American meritocracy,” the Yale law professor Daniel Markovits argues, has “become precisely what it was invented to combat: a mechanism for the dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations.” (“The Myth of Meritocracy“, by Kwame Anthony Appiah)

Even more troubling is that once students graduate from school, the set of advantages or disadvantages from growing up wealthy or from a working class background . . . [more]

We consider the rule of law a fundamental value in our Canadian legal and constitutional systems; indeed, as the Supreme Court of Canada declared in the Secession Reference the rule of law is “a principle of profound constitutional and political significance” (para. 71) and “[t]he principles of constitutionalism and the rule of law lie at the root of our system of government.” (para. 70) The rule of law has significant impacts on our political, economic and social regimes. It’s true that we don’t always meet its highest standards, but we also don’t often decide to ignore it or deliberately avoid . . . [more]

This is the second half of our discussion and scorecard on the CUSMA/USMCA poison pills. For detailed discussion on dairy and dispute resolution, see our last column.

Autos: A Canadian Solution, a Qualified Win for both Canada and the U.S.

The opening U.S position on autos was that all NAFTA-qualifying vehicles must have at least 50% U.S. content, and 85% overall North American content. Both Canada and Mexico rejected this position. It was some lateral thinking by Canadian negotiators during the January 2018 round that led to a new approach. The Canadian concept entailed the use of a formula . . . [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.

Technology

Outlook Mail – What Happens When I Click on the Question Mark?
Lesha Van Der Bij

You may or may not have noticed that there is a question mark on the top right-hand corner of your Outlook mail application. If you have noticed, chances are you have never clicked on it, assuming that it would bring up a list of unhelpful FAQs or, even worse, the old “Clippy” . . . [more]

Demeanour evidence holds a controversial role in evidence law. Centuries of common law have allowed trial judges to assess the behaviour, conduct, and mannerisms to make findings of credibility. Often these findings can be useful to judges, especially when the only evidence available on crucial determinations of fact is viva voce testimony from each side.

In “Relying on Demeanour Evidence to Assess Credibility during Trial – A Critical Examination,” Amna Qureshi provides some background on the use of demeanour evidence,

The fact that trial judges can and do assess credibility based on demeanour during trial has also been

One Sunday each month OnPoint Legal Research provides Slaw with an extended summary of, and counsel’s commentary on, an important case from the British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario court of appeal.

Envirocon Environmental Services, ULC v. Suen, 2019 BCCA 46

AREAS OF LAW: Human rights law; Adverse effect discrimination; Judicial review; Standard of review

~It is not adverse effect discrimination for an employer to require an employee to be away from his family for work, where the employee has not shown that being away would interfere with a substantial parental or other family duty or obligation.~

BACKGROUND . . . [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.

TRAVAIL : Le salarié ne peut poursuivre son syndicat en dommages-intérêts pour manquement au devoir de représentation devant le tribunal de droit commun; rien ne permet de s’écarter du principe selon lequel le Tribunal administratif du travail a compétence exclusive en cette matière.

Intitulé : Syndicat des professionnelles et professionnels . . . [more]

In this submission we will again demonstrate that the PRISM Report’s prediction of too many practising lawyers in Ontario badly missed the mark in the first few years that it studied and that it can be expected that it will continue to do so going forward. Indeed, new years of data confirm our view that not only was the PRISM Report incorrect, but it now appears more likely that the number of new practising positions will at least match the number of new lawyers than it is that there will be a surplus of lawyers during the forecasted period of . . . [more]

On March 19, 2019, the federal government tabled its election budget, the 2019-20 budget. The budget expects a deficit of $14.9 billion for fiscal 2018-2019 and forecasts deficits of $19.8 billion for 2019-2020 and $19.7 billion for fiscal 2020-2021. The budget does not include any personal or corporate tax rate changes; however, the budget does include measures of interest to employers and payroll (some paraphrase included): . . . [more]