As a person who articled and practiced with a provincial government, and now teaches at a law school that defines itself in part by “the Weldon tradition of unselfish public service”, I encourage my students to consider a career of legal practice in the public service – but to do so with their eyes open. While I have written elsewhere about how government practice is different than other legal practice,[1] here I want to discuss the important but sometimes overlooked difference between the concepts of “social justice” and “public service”.

There is plenty right, and nothing wrong, with the . . . [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) : Les conclusions du juge de première instance concernant la violation des articles 9, 11 a), 11 c) et 11 d) de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés, en lien avec l’exécution d’un mandat d’arrestation visé, ne sont pas fondées, et il y a lieu d’annuler . . . [more]

People-centered approaches have quickly become the norm in access to justice. By the term norm I mean essentially the same thing as the use of the term in sociology, a widely accepted expectation or rule of behaviour – a way of doing things. People-centricity has escaped the fate of becoming either a mot du jour or a term widely accepted but deemed nothing new, greeted with the assertion; We have always done that. We just didn’t have a name for it. This escape from the ordinary lies in its roots in the legal needs literature and in a fortuitous turn . . . [more]

Each month, we tell you which three English-language cases and French-language cases have been the most viewed* on CanLII in the previous month and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this past month, the three most-consulted English-language decisions were:

1. Professional Institute of the Public Service v Treasury Board, 2024 CanLII 106287 (CA LA)

[1] The Professional Institute of the Public Service (Institute) is the bargaining agent for the Commerce and Purchasing (CP) Group. Treasury Board is the employer for the Core Public Administration (CPA), which includes the CP Group and its . . . [more]

In 2022, Justice Mandhane introduced the tort of family violence to address the injuries committed during the course of a marriage. A year later, in 2023, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned this new tort in the decision Ahluwalia v Ahluwalia, 2023 ONCA 476. This matter is now being appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In the article “’Weaponizing’ The Tort of Family Violence? Myths, Stereotypes, Lawyers’ Ethics and Access to Justice”, Deanne Sowter and Jennifer Koshan, argue that recognizing the tort of family violence is an important step towards compensating the harms of intimate partner . . . [more]

In law firms, lawyers are everything. They do everything: They are the owners of the firm, and they’re also its officers and directors, but they’re also its managers and supervisors, and wait, they’re its workers too, and they set all the rules and make the policies and create the culture.

The only thing lawyers don’t do in law firms is the stuff they consider beneath them, the clerical and support work. I’ve said before that these entities should really be called “lawyer firms,” because that’s what they consist of and what they’re organized around. The molecular building block of a . . . [more]

Canadian courts are concerned about AI. They are concerned that litigants may misuse AI and attempt to introduce fake cases or deepfake evidence into court proceedings. They are also concerned about AI potentially usurping judges’ decision-making role and thereby undermining the proper administration of justice.

These concerns don’t merely exist in the ether – they have become embedded in roughly a dozen AI practice directions or notices from individual Canadian courts addressing the use of AI by litigants (see, e.g. here and here), as well as in recent AI guidance from the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) and the Action . . . [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) : L’accusé, qui a été impliqué dans un accident et a omis de fournir les renseignements prévus à l’article 170 du Code de la sécurité routière, a commis l’infraction prévue à cette disposition; le fait qu’il ait quitté les lieux de l’accident n’y change rien.

Intitulé :  . . . [more]

In the super-competitive professional services landscape, the ability to deliver an exceptional client experience continues to be a critical differentiator. While firms have traditionally focused on technical expertise and functional capabilities, clients now demand a more holistic, client-centric approach. Clients are hiring you for your legal knowledge and experience, but they also want to know, “What’s in it for me?”

For professionals, the priority should be a deep understanding of the client’s business, challenges, and objectives. The goal is to deliver tailored solutions that meet the client’s needs.

Client Interviews

Conducting client interviews allows firms to leverage client insights effectively. . . . [more]

In January 2022, headlines across Canadian media ignited a controversy involving Kaycee Madu, Canada’s first Black provincial justice minister. The reports centered on Madu receiving a traffic ticket from a police officer after a traffic stop and subsequently calling the police chief to discuss his concerns over the traffic stop. Almost immediately, a media narrative emerged suggesting that Madu had attempted to use his political influence to avoid the ticket – a narrative that spread quickly, despite the police chief’s clear statement that no such request had been made.

Minister Madu explained that his call was not an attempt to . . . [more]