It may be 2016 but lawyers still fax like its 1989. This is pathetic, and it’s time that we embrace technological change. Every other industry has moved on, and so should we.

In Ontario, the Ministry of the Attorney General is trying to implement change. On their website, they state that:

[W]e are implementing a comprehensive strategy to build Better Justice Together by:

• making sure court processes are faster and the justice system is easier to navigate

• building an integrated system that allows justice partners and participants to better share and access the information they need…

While we wait for . . . [more]

“You have a tendency to step on people’s toes when you’re leading a team. Instead of engaging them, you run them over in your effort to get the job done.” Delivered from a manager at my first job as a lifeguard, the feedback disconfirmed every perception I had of my fledgling leadership skills.

It stung. But my supervisor was right, and she was right to tell me. She pointed out how people reacted to my behaviour and how it affected my performance. I needed the job, which meant I couldn’t avoid my manager. So I adapted.

A recent post on . . . [more]

In many previous Slaw posts I have mentioned my keen interest in justice reform – particularly for families. With a small group of like-minded folks in BC, I have been lucky enough to be involved in forming and nurturing the BC Family Justice Innovation Lab. Today, we are excited to formally launch the Lab’s new website and blog at www.bcfamilyinnovationlab.ca.

The Lab is a unique innovation platform for nurturing initiatives designed to improve resilience and well-being of families and their children who are experiencing transition, including separation and divorce. It uses a systemic human-centred design approach putting . . . [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 and writing, practice, and technology.

Research & Writing

The Importance of Editing and Proof-Reading
Neil Guthrie

You’ve drafted a client piece – now what? Heed the words of Samuel Johnson: ‘What is written without effort is generally read without pleasure.’ In other words, go back and edit; your text could always use some polishing. …

Practice

Build the Team!
Sandra Bekhor

There’s a lot of teamwork that goes on in a law office. . . . [more]

I love to race sailboats.

(To an outsider, a sailboat race usually falls somewhere between incomprehensible and watching-paint-dry boring. Trust me – it’s very, very different when you’re on the boat!)

I’ve raced everything from one-person dinghies to a 45-footer (14 meters) we owned until my wife noted she preferred adventures that didn’t involve frigid Pacific Northwest water. Currently, three buddies and I share a couple of Etchells-class boats – fast, fun, cheap, and easily sailed with two to four people per boat. We race them Thursday nights against other Etchells’ and similarly sized boats.

An Etchells – not ours . . . [more]

A panel of 3 Divisional Court Judges has dismissed the appeal of a tenant who owed over $50,000 in rent and who was nearly 3 years in default on her rent payments.

After her initial default the tenant entered into a mediated agreement under which she had to make certain payments, failing which her tenancy would terminate. Not surprisingly, the tenant defaulted on the mediated agreement and failed to make any payments at all over the following 20 months.

The tenant appealed the eviction order and successfully had her own appeal adjourned one time. She tried to have the hearing . . . [more]

This article is by Ian Hu, claims prevention & practicePRO counsel at LAWPRO.

In recent years more focus has turned to alternative fee arrangements as a way to offer clients more predictable costs and affordable legal services. Hughes Amys LLP, based out of Hamilton and Toronto, offers alternative fee arrangements which have proven successful for them. Here is a look at how they’ve done it.

“We’ve been doing alternative fee arrangements for over 20 years,” says managing partner William (Bill) S. Chalmers. “In the early days it was a blended rate, where the client would pay one hourly rate regardless . . . [more]

People have long used technology to help them make and carry out their contracts. Even an old-fashioned vending machine offers goods to the public, understands an order for particular goods, recognizes execution by the buyer through the deposit of the appropriate payment, and delivers the goods.

However, we do not usually think of the vending machine as smart or its implied contract of sale to be a smart contract. Apparently we need to see a computer to attach that label. A smart contract these days is generally considered a contract the performance of whose terms is judged by technological means, . . . [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. University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog  2. Global Workplace Insider 3. Combat Sports Law Blog  4. Clio Blog  5. Canadian Immigration Law Blog

University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog
What is Section 91?

Dear Sir or Madam: Today we write to you regarding the emergence of section . . . [more]

A university student walks on to campus, wearing a hat that appears to support Donald Trump. Controversy ensues. Oh yeah, the campus was in Canada.

The video of the incident attracted far broader attention, including renewed discussions of the role of “safe spaces” on campus. The debate in Canada followed right after a similar discussion at the University of Chicago, where the Dean of Students told the incoming class of 2020,

We do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual

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) : La Cour rend jugement dans le dossier type concernant la divulgation de la preuve en matière d’alcootest à la suite de l’arrêt de la Cour suprême R. c. St-Onge Lamoureux (C.S. Can., 2012-11-02), 2012 CSC 57, SOQUIJ AZ-50908040, 2012EXP-3884, J.E. 2012-2079, [2012] 3 R.C.S. 187.

Intitulé :  . . . [more]

The use of patent prosecution history is a standard part of analysing patents in the United States but the courts in Canada have resisted using the prosecution history for parsing the words of patent claims. A recent decision highlights a situation where the use of the patent prosecution history would have resulted in a different analysis in Canada and the trial judge asks whether it is time to consider the prosecution history and imposing consequences on parties that argue differently at court than before the patent office.

During the patent filing process, the applicant, through their patent agent, often makes . . . [more]