Increasingly, professional services are available through global online platforms. It’s a popular concept and Upwork is a leading example.

Upwork is a global freelancing platform with twelve million registered independents (sellers) and five million registered clients (buyers). The result of a merger between two mega-sites (eLance and oDesk), Upwork is probably the world’s largest such platform.

Through Upwork, businesses find and work remotely with independent professionals all over the world. Hirers can find freelancers in the areas of app and software design, engineering and data science, business and administrative services, creative services such as writing and graphic design and even . . . [more]

Unlocking Intellectual Property

Last May, Vancouver Foundation, Canada’s largest community foundation, announced it would develop and adopt an open licensing policy. This is a big deal for an organization that spends over $50 million yearly on its grantees and programs. The right policy could amplify the impact of the Foundation’s spending, and create knock-on benefits shared by other groups working for good causes. On the flip side, a flawed one could dilute the incentives (real or perceived) for grantees expected to share success, credit and perhaps even intellectual property with unknown others.

Meanwhile, Clicklaw Wikibooks, a project I . . . [more]

The CRTC recently issued a media advisory entitled Enforcement Advisory – Notice for businesses and individuals on how to keep records of consent. It doesn’t add anything new – but reinforces what the CRTC is looking for. This is important because CASL requires a business to prove that they have consent to send a CEM (Commercial Electronic Message). CASL has a complex regime of express and implied consent possibilities.

The advisory states: “Commission staff has observed that some businesses and individuals are unable to prove they have obtained consent before sending CEMs. The purpose of this Enforcement Advisory is . . . [more]

Close your eyes. Imagine living in a small apartment, with your partner and your two children. You bought it because four years ago a salesman told you it was cheaper to buy than to rent. You feel cheated because there’s so much to the deal that you feel he did not tell you. But you signed so you’re stuck, the bank says. You have a job as a foreman in construction – a flex-contract on which you’ve worked for more than five years. It asks long hours, regular work in the weekend, and provides limited long-term security. You think that’s . . . [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. Teva Canada Limited v. Bank of Montreal, 2016 ONCA 94

[51] I accept that the made-up entity Pharma Team System has a name sufficiently similar to the name of Teva’s real customer Pharma Systems that one might plausibly confuse the two. The same might be said of PCE Pharmacare and PCE Management Inc., though less obviously so. Indeed, the motion judge . . . [more]

… Pulat Yunusov. This is my first blog post here. You may have read my columns on Slaw (A Proposal for Automated Online Dispute Resolution, Part 1; and What Is Blockchain and Why It’s Important for Law Practice) and a piece on the recent CBA startup competition.

Expect more of the same! I am interested in two things: how law practice is changing and how technology is affecting that change.

I spend most of my public-facing time in my litigation practice. When I founded it in 2011, I wanted to do a few things from scratch . . . [more]

Congratulations to Canada for its online Small Claims Court that will become mandatory next year. The Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) in British Columbia is slated to hear small claims cases online next spring. The jurisdictional threshold for “small claims” has yet to be established; however, the mandate is that it will eventually rise to approximately $20K USD. CRT adjudications will have the same effect as court orders and will provide the population inexpensive, fast, and easy access to justice for a range of civil disputes.

It is expected that CRT will divert 15,000 small claims cases from the courts each . . . [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

Lawyerly Compounds
Neil Guthrie

By this, I don’t mean where partners spend their week-ends. Instead, I have horrors like these in mind: herein, therein, wherein, hereinafter, thereinafter, heretofore, herewith, therewith, aforementioned [or (shudder) its bastard progeny, ‘above-referenced’], thereof, thereto, whereas …

Practice

Oscar or Felix? What Does Your Desk Say About You?
David Bilinsky

Look at your desk and office. Whose office does yours resemble? . . . [more]

The Federal Court recently issued a temporary injunction on the sale of pre-loaded TV set-top boxes (known more popularly as KODI boxes) that allegedly encourage or enable copyright infringement. The relatively simple issue of whether an injunction should be granted (currently under appeal) masks the complexity of the underlying facts and legal issues at play. In what follows I discuss these complexities in connection with the two main bases of potential liability: (1) authorizing infringement and (2) enabling infringement.

KODI boxes are a multidimensional technology

The first complexity is the technology itself. These pre-loaded boxes are multidimensional both in . . . [more]

The real estate lawyer’s job is more than just conveying title, and not every matter will be straightforward. Communication errors and inadequate investigation are the biggest causes of real estate claims at LAWPRO, respectively 41 per cent and 26 per cent of claims reported in the past 10 years. Busy, high-volume practices often lead to situations where the lawyer is not taking the time to communicate with the clients properly.

Lawyers need to take the time to speak to clients to ensure they’ve gathered all the relevant information.

Here are five questions lawyers should be asking their clients or themselves . . . [more]

While not unexpected, the announcement by Eric Appleby that Maritime Law Book will be closing its doors in November 2016, is still a bit of a shock. No one has done more than Eric and his indomitable team at Maritime Law Book to transform the nature of the case law reporting in this country. Unfortunately, access to free case law online and cost cutting by customers have combined to undermine the business model for Maritime Law Book, making its demise an inevitability.

When simple access was the issue

Few will remember a time when access to case law was extremely . . . [more]