Reflecting on 2016, in many ways a turbulent and distressing year, I was reminded of the centenaries that it marked. Notable ones for me were the momentous Easter Rising in Ireland, the wasteful Battle of the Somme, the birth of my late father and the establishment of Tolley Publishing.

Its parent, Lexis Nexis UK has posted on Tolley’s web site a “100 Years of Tolley Infographic” and has published a book to celebrate its centenary, entitled, thanks to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, “Plucking the Goose”. The title, apparently not some kind of smutty euphemism or double entendre, serves to . . . [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 research, writing, and practice.

Research & Writing

4 Questions to Ask About Any Database (Part 1)
Ken Fox – Law Society of Saskatchewan Library

Whenever you set out to use any electronic research source, be it a public web search or a specialized database, there are a few questions you should always ask – four to be exact. You may say there are really five or six important questions, or maybe you think there . . . [more]

The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) has issued its “Statement on Government Provision of Public Legal Information in the Digital Age.” This Statement was prepared by members of the IFLA Law Libraries Section and endorsed by the IFLA Governing Board on December 13, 2016.

In the Statement IFLA note’s that the role of providing access to “authentic and official versions of legal materials” and ensuring that these materials are preserved in the future has changed. When dealing with print formats libraries acted as repositories and keepers of this information. In the “digital age” providing and maintaining access . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award­-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from seventy recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. StartupSource  2. BC Injury Law & ICBC Claims Blog 3. Susan on the Soapbox  4. First Reference Talks  5. National Self-Represented Litigants Project Blog

StartupSource
Top 10 Intellectual Property Mistakes – January 26, 2017

Join our panel of experts as we examine the top ten most common intellectual property . . . [more]

Defamation is an injury of sorts. Granted, it’s not a bodily harm exactly of the type we see in motor vehicle collisions, or the other types of intangible harms we see in non-pecuniary damages. Instead, defamation deals with a harm to a reputation.

The issue has come to a head in Ontario, with one of the most prominent players in the personal injury industry claiming foul against the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA) over a CPD they conducted on marketing and the Rules of Professional Conduct,

Personal injury law firm Diamond & Diamond has lashed out at organizers of

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 dispositions de l’article 737 C.Cr. relativement à la suramende compensatoire, prévoyant une contribution obligatoire affectée à l’aide aux victimes d’actes criminels d’une somme de 30 % de l’amende infligée pour une infraction ou, si aucune amende n’est infligée, de 100 $ pour une infraction punissable sur . . . [more]

On one Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all appeals and leaves to appeal granted, so you know what the S.C.C. will soon be dealing with (November 12 — December 21, 2016 inclusive).

Oral Judgment

Labour Law: Collective Bargaining
British Columbia Teachers’ Federation v. British Columbia, 2016 SCC 49 (36500)

The Chief Justice: “The majority of the Court would allow the appeal, substantially for . . . [more]

So by now the parties are in full swing, the eggnog is flowing, and most of your law firm partners have already taken off for the holidays, while insisting that associates and staff work until the last minute before the statutory closing.

One thing that may NOT yet have ground to a halt, though, is the Dreaded Holiday Card process.

Have you ever wondered how law firm holiday cards get to be so generic? Or how many emails the Marketing Department gets begging for a more creative card this year? Or how many versions they go through, losing creativity at . . . [more]

Written by Cristina Lavecchia, Editor, First Reference

The Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) recently dismissed an application where an employee claimed that her employer threatened her with discipline for exercising her right to refuse unsafe work. Why? The employee did not have the right to delay the employer’s investigation of her work refusal, to wait until her preferred union representative completed a personal matter and attended at the workplace. . . . [more]

In any given year a significant number of new laws come into force in British Columbia. The announcement of most laws are confined to back pages of the British Columbia Gazette, while a select few warrant engaging headlines in newspapers and make the rounds on social media. For example this year the Motor Dealer Amendment Act and the Profits of Criminal Notoriety Act both came into force. While those are undoubtedly very important pieces of legislation for some segments of the population (like motor car dealers and notorious criminals) I expect that few British Columbians were aware that those Acts . . . [more]

Freakonomics, is one of my favourite series of books, blogs and audio podcasts. As the authors proclaim, they look at “the hidden side of everything.”

So imagine my delight when I found a recent podcast that examined how decisions by adjudicators (baseball umpires, judges and bank loan officers) can be affected by totally random factors such as the the order in which they are made and time of day.

The problem is, people don’t really understand randomness. They understand that, if you flip a coin, the odds of landing heads or tails are 50/50. This means that, out of . . . [more]

On June 30, 2016, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and the Minister of Health announced the creation of a nine-member Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation (the “Task Force”).

The mandate of the Task Force was to consult and provide advice on the design of a new legislative and regulatory framework for legal access to cannabis, consistent with the Government’s commitment to “legalize, regulate, and restrict access.”

Over five months, the Task Force consulted with a wide variety of groups and individuals before finally releasing its report . . . [more]