Canada’s online legal magazine.

CRTC Advisory on CASL Consent Record Keeping

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]

Posted in: Substantive Law, Technology

Scarcity and Justice

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]

Posted in: Practice of Law

Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII

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]

Posted in: Wednesday: What's Hot on CanLII

Show Me the Pleading: Show Me the Evidence 

 

Currently finding pleadings, motion records, or factums filed with the courts online is nearly impossible. It is not only an issue of access to justice, it is an issue of accuracy.
Reading decisions without the filed materials is like being a detective with only half of a magnifying glass. You have the ultimate decision, but you don’t have the underlying pleading, motion record, or argument that the decision is based on. This is problematic. Judges and lawyers need to have access to the material filed to truly appreciate the case law before them. Most decisions turn on the facts,
. . . [more]
Posted in: Case Comment, Justice Issues, Technology

Hello, My Name Is…

… 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]

Posted in: Announcements, Practice of Law, Practice of Law: Future of Practice, Technology

Online Courts: Using Technology to Promote Access to Justice

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]

Posted in: Justice Issues, Technology, Technology: Internet

Tips Tuesday

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]

Posted in: Tips Tuesday

Do KODI Boxes Infringe Copyright?

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]

Posted in: Intellectual Property

Steer Clear of Real Estate Claims by Asking These Five Questions on Every Deal

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]

Posted in: Practice of Law

The Passing of Maritime Law Book – the End of an Era.

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]

Posted in: Legal Publishing

The Enbridge Decision and Beyond: Issues to Watch Following Gitxaala Nation v Canada

The length of time that Enbridge Northern Gateway’s oil tankers and pipelines proposal has managed to stay afloat –despite widespread opposition and the lack of any firm commercial contracts for use of its pipelines –once prompted my colleagues here at West Coast Environmental Law to ask, as John Cleese does in the famous Monty Python sketch, whether the Enbridge project was dead or merely resting.

In this vein, the recent Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) decision in Gitxaala Nation v Canada was heralded as a major legal victory for Indigenous peoples opposing the opposing the Enbridge pipelines and tankers . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues

Monday’s Mix

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. Droitdu.net  2. Clicklaw Blog 3. IPilogue  4. Susan on the Soapbox  5. BC Injury Law and ICBC Claims Blog

Droitdu.net
Bitcoin, Chaine de blocs et contrats intelligents

Il a toujours été communément admis que le monde changeait. Toutefois, ces changements arrivent plus ou moins vite, avec un impact plus . . . [more]

Posted in: Monday’s Mix

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This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada | Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada