You can expect to hear, “A trial is not a tea party,” from a lawyer on the other side, sometime in the near future.

That lawyer will likely be acting in an obstinate, demeaning, impolite, or even aggressive manner, and this quip will come quickly in defence of their conduct.

The reason I can predict this with absolute certainty is the recent  Supreme Court’s decision in Groia v. Law Society of Upper Canada, released this week, which evaluated the law society’s discipline hearing decision in 2013. The discipline involved Groia’s defence in R. v. Felderhof, of a mining . . . [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.

COMMUNICATIONS : L’article publié par les intimés ne contenait aucune accusation d’infraction criminelle contre l’appelante, ni directe ni indirecte, de sorte que l’action en diffamation présentée par cette dernière était assujettie au délai de prescription de 3 mois de l’article 2 de la Loi sur la presse.

Intitulé :  . . . [more]

What makes a great law firm? How can one quantify just how great a firm is, and compare it to its competitors? Last time in this space I suggested that legal service value has four elements (full paper here):

• To the extent that a firm gets good legal results for its clients, it has effectiveness value.
• To the extent that the firm’s fees are low and easy to pay, it has affordability value.
• The more the firm’s practices minimize clients’ time and stress costs, the more client experience value it has.
• Finally, if the firm’s work

There are a lot of lawyers. No really, there are a lot of lawyers. What is it that makes you unique, stand out or differentiate from the rest? That is what your clients want to know and how new clients learn about you.

Personal branding is one of the most important parts of building your professional persona. We are all distinct in our own ways. Finding out what makes you unique and having an ability to forge your own path will ensure that you are not just another lawyer.

Personal branding can be about the way you dress, your approach, . . . [more]

Some states in the US, notably now including North Carolina and Florida, require that part of one’s mandatory continuing legal education include education on techology. Florida’s rule requires three hours over three years – so an hour a year, but if one took a three-hour course (which might be a more useful format than three one-hour sessions), one could fulfill the duty. At least in NC, their annual requirement is 12 hours, same as in Ontario.

This is all in the context of the ABA’s Professional Conduct rules – adopted in many states – that expressly requires competence in matters . . . [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. Talos v. Grand Erie District School Board, 2018 HRTO 680

[16] It is evident that employees who work after age 65 provide the same labour as they did when they were 64 years of age and would normally be guaranteed equal compensation, including access to benefits. Absent the impugned provision, a benefit differential that is only explained by the age of . . . [more]

I was asked recently to speak (via webinar) to a group of lawyers in Christchurch, New Zealand, as part of the New Zealand Law Society’s “Stepping Up” course. This program, which other legal regulators should emulate, requires any lawyer wishing to practise law as the equity owner of a law practice to learn about business fundamentals, client care, trust accounting, and so forth.

On this particular occasion, the theme of the Stepping Up course was “leadership,” and so I prepared some remarks on that topic. But one thing I was especially asked to think about was how “leadership” . . . [more]

The Criminal Law Series from Emond Publishing has won the 2018 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing. The series is a collection of practical, accessible and affordable handbooks to assist criminal practitioners, judges and students.

The winner was announced yesterday at a reception held at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) being held in Halifax. The Award is handed out annually by CALL.

It is meant to honour publishers who have produced excellent products and to encourage excellence in new publishing endeavours.

Other nominees for this year’s Award were:

• Alberta Law Review

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 research, writing, and practice.

Research & Writing

Confusing Pairs, Part 5
Neil Guthrie

More in this series. Dependant, dependent. The first is a noun, most commonly used to mean ‘a person who depends on another for support or position’ (He is a single man with no dependants). Dependent is the adjectival form of the noun (Each dependent child will receive …

Technology

Use Canva for Easy, Eye-Catching (And Free) Infographics
Emma Durand-Wood

You stare . . . [more]

Bitcoins are digital currency – and yes, lawyers are beginning to accept them from clients. They are also known as virtual currency or cryptocurrency since cryptography is used to control the creation and transfer of bitcoins. They use peer-to-peer technology with no central authority or banks. The issuance of bitcoins and the managing of transactions are carried out collectively by the network

Cryptocurrencies are created by a process called mining – by becoming a miner of cryptocurrencies, you make money (not much unless you are a major league miner). We won’t go into all of the technology that is used . . . [more]

On May 24, 2018, the Law Society of Ontario released a consultation paper to launch the second phase of its comprehensive analysis of the lawyer licensing process. Developed by the Professional Development and Competence Committee, the document outlines possible options for a long-term appropriate and sustainable licensing system for lawyer licensing candidates in Ontario.

The consultation paper follows last year’s Dialogue on Licensing, which looked at the realities, challenges and opportunities of lawyer licensing in the province. Throughout the Dialogue, the Law Society heard a wide range of views from lawyers, licensing candidates, law students, academics and legal organizations, highlighting . . . [more]