While the adversarial system has its strengths, few would argue that its impact is particularly positive in the lives of children after separation.

When I practiced a mix of civil and family litigation, a mentor of mine often said that “law is a substitute for warfare.” Bellicose terms like “A Litigators Arsenal” abound in the world of litigation, and comparison between legal and martial strategy and theory can get pretty deep (e.g. think Antonin Pribetic and his paper on strategic functionalism and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, which preceded his award-winning blog, Trial Warrior). But . . . [more]

I was just reminding myself of this project and thought others might be interested. Digging into Linked Parliamentary Data was one of fourteen projects funded by the 2013 Digging into Data Challenge. This is a collaborative project including the University of Amsterdam, the History of Parliament Trust, the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, King’s College London, and the University of Toronto. . . . [more]

Justice David Brown delivered a paper on 21 November 2014 at the Carleton County Law Association Annual Meeting in which he sets out a 5 point action plan for moving the judicial system towards achieving its fundamental goal – the fair, timely and cost effective determination of civil cases on their merits.

You can read it here: 2014.Carleton.Cty.LA.final.Mt.Tremblant.nov

This is “Part 2” to the paper Justice Brown presented last June at the OBA end of term dinner on creating a sustainable civil justice system. (My post on it is here.)

It offers some concrete solutions to some of the . . . [more]

The holiday season is here, and that means most of us will be doing a lot of networking, whether formally or informally, at office holiday parties, bar association events, family functions and get-togethers with friends, neighbors and colleagues.

While attending these festivities, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the spirit of the holidays is really all about giving to others and being thankful for our blessings. Keeping these seasonal sentiments in mind can improve your networking.

Be a giver: Focus on others and how you can help them

Successful networkers know that the basis of solid relationship building . . . [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. Canadian Appeals Monitor 2. BC Injury Law And ICBC Claims Blog 3. FamilyLLB 4. DroitDu.net 5. Clio Blog

Canadian Appeals Monitor
What tangled webs we weave: The BCCA provides guidance on the tort of deceit and exclusion of liability clauses

The British Columbia Court of Appeal’s decision in Roy . . . [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:
Evidence – Practice – Actions – Contracts – Courts – Criminal Law

Tuck v. Supreme Holdings Ltd. et al. 2014 NLTD(G) 131
Evidence – Limitation of Actions – Practice
Summary: The plaintiff commenced an action against the defendants on February 28, 2012, to recover damages allegedly sustained in a motor vehicle collision that occurred . . . [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) : L’accusé échoue à démontrer que la peine minimale de quatre ans prévue au Code criminel pour l’infraction de vol qualifié avec utilisation d’une arme à feu est cruelle et inusitée au sens de l’article 12 de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés.

Intitulé : Caron . . . [more]

We may not all like Ezra Levant, but we do have a lot to thank him for. As a defendant, I cannot think of a single individual who has developed the jurisprudence of online defamation more than him.

The judgement against him in Vigna v. Levant, and the related costs decision, has for several years now been the best authority on which blog content may be defamatory, and what may not be. However, the modest damages award in this case, and others, have still made online defamation a challenging area for plaintiffs.

Not one to disappoint, Levant was . . . [more]

ABA Journal is holding its 8th annual Blawg 100 competition that allows readers to vote on the best legal blogs in 13 categories. Readers can register for free to be able to vote:

We [ABA Journal staff] remember the blogs that have tipped us off to breaking news and the bloggers who have compelled us to write about their innovative ideas.

And over the summer, we cue readers—and other bloggers—to write in and let us know about their favorites: When we can see their love for a blog is real and not a marketing hustle, it catches our attention.

Now,

Here, north of the equator, November is the Thursday of months. (Just as Thursday is the November of days.)

It stands between you and a big holiday stretch, with nothing to offer but accumulating weariness and the irritating jingling telltales of better times to come — but not yet.

Worse, November is dark, and when it’s not dark it’s grey. In fact, thanks to the increasingly contemned daylight saving time, November hosts the darkest morning of the year, a treasure that you might think would belong to the winter solstice. However, just before DST ends, which happened this year on . . . [more]

In my previous post, I identified a number of themes that weaved their way through the sessions I attended at the annual conference of the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) in August. I did note, however, that one session, entitled Do Robot Lawyers Dream of Billable Seconds?, was particularly provocative. I therefore opted to devote a full post, namely this one, to that one session.

The panelists were (in alphabetical order) Stuart Barr of High Q, Joshua Lenon of Clio, Michael Mills of Neota Logic, and Noah Waisberg of Diligence Engine. The panel was . . . [more]

On the eve of Justice Louis LeBel‘s retirement, the PMO has announced his replacement. A Gaspésienne. A woman. A litigator in private practice at Osler’s Montréal office. Suzanne Côté. In every way a safe appointment, which has already been warmly received, and which raises none of the delicate difficulties of the previous announcement concerning Justice Marc Nadon. The timing is interesting on a day when all eyes are on Pierre Karl Peladeau announcing that he’ll run – and Doug Ford saying he won’t. This story may get lost.

The announcement stated:

« Je suis ravi d’annoncer la nomination