Incremental change, disruption, new approaches, … we’ve talked about these issues for a long time. A long time! I plunged into the legal KM “pool” at the turn of the century, and it seems that, 16 years on, we’re still talking about many of the same issues. Granted, there are differences now, one of the most notable being that there were no legal-specific search engines available at the time. But although such search engines are available, their high all-in cost is such that, even now, only the larger firms and in-house departments have them available.

Recently, I attended a meeting . . . [more]

When the Supreme Court of Canada describes in R v. Jordan our justice system as “a culture of delay and complacency,” you know you have a problem.

Institutional delays in our courts have been a top priority now for some time, and are intricately connected to our constitutional rights.

The Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs began a study into the issue in February 2016. This weekend they announced their interim report at the CBA legal conference in Ottawa.

The report notes that the effect of these serious delays have resulted in the stay of serious criminal charges and . . . [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.

FAMILLE : Plusieurs clauses d’un contrat de gestation pour autrui conclu en Inde sont susceptibles d’être déclarées nulles et non exécutoires parce qu’elles sont contraires à l’ordre public ou abusives; toutefois, cette situation ne devrait pas faire obstacle au processus d’adoption enclenché par le conjoint de fait du père biologique . . . [more]

Earlier this year, I wrote a column expressing concerns about a proposed Ontario Securities Commission (“OSC”) policy designed to encourage certain individuals, including in-house lawyers, to report serious securities or derivatives-related misconduct to the OSC in exchange for financial rewards of up to $5 million. Similar concerns were relayed directly to the OSC in January 2016 in a letter I co-signed with other legal ethics scholars and practitioners and in a letter from Janet Minor, the then-Treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada (“LSUC”).

One major concern raised was that the proposed policy would allow, and indeed, encourage in-house . . . [more]

Each Thursday we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form.

The Canadian Defamation Action: An Empirical Study

Hilary Young, Associate Professor, UNB Fredericton Faculty of Law

Excerpt: Introduction, Results: Damages, and Conclusion
[Footnotes omitted. They can be found in the SSRN version via the link above]

Introduction

This article presents the results of the first quantitative study of Canadian defamation actions. It . . . [more]

Given that copyright arises automatically upon the creation of an original work fixed in a tangible form issues can arise when a first work is used and subsequent works are made after earlier designs. The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia considered these issues in MacNutt v. Acadia University, 2016 NSSC 160 in a case that illuminates some of the issues and the roles of designers and architects.

Acadia University was planning a possible expansion to its Alumni Hall. The existing hall is a modified Georgian style and the applicable architectural guidelines dictated a Georgian style for the addition.

Acadia . . . [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. Peters v Peel District School Board, 2016 ONSC 4788

[44] I find that Ms. Peters had experience in doing the long jump and would understand the difference between a run-through, a pop up, and a regular jump. It is clear from her testimony and it is clear from the Agreed Statement of Facts. In Windsor in Grade 10 she participated on . . . [more]

Slaw readers are invited to participate in a research study conducted by Professor Jacob Shelley, and law students, Gabriella Levkov and Michelle Noonan at the Faculty of Law, Western University.

Briefly, the study involves a short multiple choice online survey regarding scientific evidence in the legal profession. Participation in the survey is completely voluntary, confidential, and independent of your professional responsibilities, and identifiable information will not be collected. Your participation should only take 10-15 minutes.

To participate in this study please click on the link below to access the letter of information and survey link.

https://uwo.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_7V5C5eGahJ3LaRv . . . [more]

I was recently lucky to attend the Law Courts Center‘s Truth and Reconciliation Dialogues – “A View from the Bench” with Judge Marion Buller. Judge Buller talked about having a crisis of conscience in adjudicating cases with Aboriginal defendants and approaching the Chief Justice with the idea of a First Nations court, which was founded almost ten years ago.

The court is run out of the courthouse in New Westminster, British Columbia, with duty counsel and elders who get honoraria, but it has been unfunded until recently. It is a sentencing court that is open to people who self . . . [more]

In a recent case, the plaintiff sued the defendant agent and her brokerage for negligent misrepresentation in connection with the plaintiff’s purchase of a vacant three plus acre parcel of land that the plaintiff acquired with the intention of building a house on the property.

The agent initially acted for the vendors and prepared an MLS listing based on information from the vendors. The listing indicated that the property was “suitable for building your dream home” and was zoned as “residential.”

The listing agreement ultimately expired and the vendor decided to re-list the property with another broker. The second . . . [more]

I’ve posted this article on the SSRN: “Access to Justice—Unaffordable Legal Services’ Concepts and Solutions,” for download (pdf). It provides a solution to the unaffordable legal services problem in Canada (“the problem”), so as to: (1) maintain law society management structures as they are; (2) fulfilling their duties in law to make legal services adequately available; and thus, (3) law societies can avoid being abolished. What is needed is to convert the way the work is done to provide legal services from a handcraftman’s method to a support services method. There are parts of the work done . . . [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

So What Should I Write About?
Neil Guthrie

The law, for starters – but there is a bit more to it than that. Here are some suggestions, adapted from the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Guide to Business Development for Women Lawyers (January 2013). They are equally applicable to men. …

Practice

Know Nothing, Network Well
Ian Hu

When you go to a conference and . . . [more]