LawWithoutWalls (LWOW) is a collaboratory investigating the “intersection of law, business, technology, and innovation.” Launched in 2011 by Michele DeStefano, associate professor at the University of Miami School of Law, LWOW aims to “pull down barriers between business and law.”

In many ways, LWOW has been a response to comments that DeStefano and her colleagues have been hearing about legal education and the business and practice of law:

“‘When are legal educators going to start training our law school students to be the 21st century lawyers of tomorrow?,’ and then at the

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I wrote this post in the middle of January. Some unlucky mishandling resulted in it being published just now. Part of my blog was trying to make good fun of colleagues in the industry who were getting close to releasing a product announced as imminent over a year ago. But their product was finally rolled out… before my post. I will have to remember this the next time I think about mocking colleagues.

What remains true is the cold over Montreal. At least that part of my post remains accurate. The picture attached shows how lucky we are in Quebec. . . . [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. Law & Style 2. Blogue du CRL 3. À bon droit 4. David Whelan 5. FamilyLLB

Law & Style
Why Joe Groia is running for bencher

Joe Groia scuttles into the boardroom of his Bay Street law office in a hurry. He’s fifteen minutes late for our 9 a.m. . . . [more]

Human rights violations are always most likely to occur when no one is watching over the police, soldiers and guards who have the power and potential to commit abuses. That is certainly even more the case when secrecy is prevalent; which obviously describes the world of national security investigations and operations. That is why human rights organizations, experts and bodies – national and international – have long stressed that effective review and oversight must be central to the imperative of ensuring that human rights protection is not sacrificed in any country’s rush to uphold national security.

We have had ample, . . . [more]

Film nerds can get all their Oscar-related facts from a series of databases supplied by the Margaret Herrick Library, the research library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Among the library’s many goodies are:

• the Academy Awards Database which contains the record of past Academy Award winners and nominees
• the Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database with more than 1,400 transcripts of onstage acceptance speeches
• the Digital Collections with more than 5000 items, including correspondence, photographs, early release fliers, full issues of rare periodicals, sheet music, lobby cards and movie star ephemera

Enjoy tonight’s Awards show. Go . . . [more]

In the threshold motion in Maxwell v. Luck, previously discussed here, Justice Howell pushed back against what is increasingly becoming a routine attempt by insurers to dismiss chronic pain on the basis of the lack of objective symptoms in personal injury claims.

The cost award, released shortly thereafter, may have significant effects on how insurers in Ontario approach threshold motions in the future.

Justice Howden awarded fixed costs of $150,400, and disbursements of $ 56,332, taking into account that the plaintiff was under a statutory obligation to pursue accident benefits as well. This approach was upheld in Moodie . . . [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.

PÉNAL (DROIT): La preuve obtenue à la suite de la détention arbitraire de l’accusé doit être exclue; en outre, l’intervention policière n’était basée sur aucun motif valable et l’on ne peut prétendre que les policiers ont agi de bonne foi.

Intitulé : R. c. Fortin, 2014 QCCQ 13381
Juridiction : . . . [more]

This note follows up on my previous post, Family Justice 3.0, in which I proposed a partially computerized, settlement-oriented, lawyer-facilitated approach to the resolution of family law disputes. In this note, I will propose two hearing processes aimed at improving efficiencies of time and cost, and increasing access to justice, in cases where: one or both parties are without counsel; and, all parties are represented. This proposal is based on the assumption that the parties are already engaged in court proceedings and that diversionary measures have been exhausted.

Both processes are adaptations of present systems, pruned and reimagined to . . . [more]

It’s just shy of two months since Christmas, and half a dozen gift books, real books, are staring me in the face. Unread. Unopened. Lodged, in fact, atop a pile of other neglected and unread books on the table — a towering stack of reproach.

That’s the thing with unread books. They haunt you until you open them. They glare, stiff-spined. They upset coffee cups and martini glasses. They fall with bangs off bedside tables in the night. And the muttering, snuffling, wolf whistling, whining, and all round hailing from the bolder, more importunate tomes can get . . . [more]

“Lawyers must keep their clients’ confidences and act with commitment to serving and protecting their clients’ legitimate interests. Both of these duties are essential to the due administration of justice.”

Canada (Attorney General) v. Federation of Law Societies of Canada, 2015 SCC 7 at para. 1

This recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada resolves nearly fifteen years of litigation regarding the lawyer’s role in protecting against anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing. This decision is significant to those interested in legal ethics on several points.

Solicitor-client privilege

The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (the . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada in Crookes v Newton held that the mere linking to a web site that contained defamatory material did not make the linker liable for defamation. Adding content to the link might change that result.

The Supreme Court of British Columbia has recently held, however, that offering a link to an email program (e.g. ‘mailto:’) on a web page that contains defamatory material constitutes republication of that material, apparently whether or not anyone used it.

Weaver v Corcoran 2015 BCSC 165 (CanLII)

Here is the main passage on that point:

[261] The invitation to email the

. . . [more]

Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure released the 79-page report on the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act review to the public on February 13, 2015. Overall, the report indicates that although the government and public and private sectors have shown strong support and commitment to accessibility, the slow implementation of the AODA has resulted in rather modest improvements for persons with disabilities in the areas of jobs and access to goods or services.