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

Stay on Top of Changes to Specific Webpages With ChangeDetection.com
Bronwyn Guiton

ChangeDetection.com is a tool I recommend to help you monitor webpages and be notified automatically if they’ve been updated. No one wants to be sitting around refreshing a web page until that important agreement gets uploaded and goes public. This tool will watch the page for you and email you when it’s updated. . . . [more]

Phantom clients, those who believe they are represented by you, though the individual has not formally hired or retained you, can lead to a potential claim down the road. If you decline an engagement for legal services or the client chooses not to retain you, the non-engagement should immediately be confirmed in writing by way of a non-engagment letter. Here are three resources to help you draft one: . . . [more]

In an article in the National Post last week, Justice Belobaba is described as having ‘scorched’ Merchant Law Group for its “profoundly unacceptable fee agreement” with its client, the class representative in McCallum-Boxe v. Sony. While there are many unsavoury and arguably unethical practices for which Merchant may be justly criticized, this fee arrangement does not merit the same level of excoriation.

The case involved a very small settlement in a class action against Sony. The judge approved the $8000 payment to the class, but was shocked to discover that class counsel had not required the class representatives to . . . [more]

Last month I heard an excerpt from the Slate podcast Culture Gabfest presented as part of CBC’s Podcast Playlist. The excerpt was from the Culture Gabfest March podcast and the “gabbers,” along with “pop-chart columnist” Chris Molanphy, were discussing the “Blurred Lines” court case. It was something Molanphy said during the conversation that has been nagging at me ever since:

“… if something recaptures the atmosphere, or the vibe, or the feel of a record without actually duplicating its melody, its tempo, its syncopation, certainly its lyrics … that is now litigable, that’s kind of unprecedented.”

Indeed.

You . . . [more]

Our friend and colleague Bob Ambrogi thinks LinkedIn is losing its luster – and we agree. He wrote a blog post recently on this subject. So we tip our hat to Bob before we begin.

Author Simek isn’t active on any social media other than LinkedIn, largely because he is a professional testifying expert on IT and digital forensics topics – and he didn’t want to risk being hung by his own petard because of something he had posted on other kinds of social media. But LinkedIn, in its original incarnation in 2002, was pretty much a resume site and . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award­-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from sixty 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. Environmental Law & Litigation 2. First Reference Talks 3. The Stream 4. DroitDu.net 5. Blogue du CRL

Environmental Law & Litigation
Why buy contaminated site, then sue?

I continue to be amazed by the number of people who knowingly (or carelessly) buy a contaminated site, wrongly assuming that they . . . [more]

The true test of a society is how we treat the most vulnerable, despicable, and heinous members of our society. The ability of the legal system to temper passions, quell inflammatory biases, and dispense justice to all individuals is the reason why the justice system is valued and respected by society at large.

R. v. Williamson, an interesting case awaiting a hearing before the Supreme Court, helps illustrate these tensions. The case was debated this year at the 2015 Paralegal Cup.

Kenneth Williamson was accused of multiple charges of sexual assault of a minor between 1979-1980. These allegations . . . [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.

COMPAGNIES: Le respect par Air Canada des dispositions que la Loi sur la participation publique au capital d’Air Canada lui impose d’intégrer à ses statuts n’a pas à être déterminé en fonction des normes reconnues sous le régime de la Loi canadienne sur les sociétés par actions, dont la . . . [more]

Summaries of selected recent cases are provided each week to Slaw by Maritime Law Book. Every Sunday we present a precis of the latest summaries, a fuller version of which can be found on MLB-Slaw Selected Case Summaries at cases.slaw.ca.

This week’s summaries concern: Administrative Law – Labour Law – Unemployment Insurance

Winnipeg Airports Authority Inc. v. Public Service Alliance of Canada et al. 2015 MBCA 94
Administrative Law – Labour Law
Summary: An arbitrator was appointed to determine 65 grievances. At issue was whether employees could receive two premiums for the same hours worked: the shift premium, . . . [more]

I once threw a book across the room in annoyance and disgust. I might have done it more often, I suppose, were it not for my dubious but stubborn position that meaning can be had from almost all prose. But at that moment Derrida defeated me, I recall. It’s no secret, and presumably no shame, that I prefer the analytical school to the post structuralists, when it comes to philosophers. Clear writing seems … better writing.

(I pass over the argument that it’s hard — perhaps impossible — to tell us something new in “clear writing.” That “clarity” is bred . . . [more]

The issue of lawyer independence has been a hot topic over the last year. It’s been frequently mentioned in the debate about whether to introduce alternative business structures in Ontario. Additionally, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to find that the independence of the bar, broadly defined, was a principle of fundamental justice in a decision earlier this year. These two high profile examples reflect the clear continuing relevance of lawyer independence when new regulatory reforms are proposed or instituted.

What are not always so apparent, however, are challenges to lawyer independence that emerge in the absence of any regulatory . . . [more]

You may have noticed that there have been a few new faces (well, names, really) over on our companion site, Slaw Tips. For the unfamiliar, Slaw Tips is where a few select members of our contributor team share short and to-the-point weekly tips directed toward practicing lawyers and those working within the legal field.

We’ve been very lucky, by the way, that our three founding Editors — Dave Bilinsky, Dan Pinnington and Shaunna Mireau, are all still contributing to the site. Not to mention Dave B.’s partner in law practice musings, Garry Wise.

It was actually Dave and Garry’s . . . [more]