Family Dispute Resolution: Process and Practice, just published by Oxford University Press, is THE book that family dispute resolution (FDR) practitioners and educators have been waiting for.

Edited by Peter Salem and Kelly Browe Olson, this book delivers the goods like no other— all 600+ pages of it.[1] It is an essential guide for experienced practitioners in particular—lawyers or mental health professionals with dispute resolution training or experience. The book will remind them why they were drawn to this work in the first place and rejuvenate their practices in unexpected ways.

Though heavily US-focused, there are three strong . . . [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 juge de première instance n’a pas erré en condamnant l’accusée, une fraudeuse qui avait usurpé l’identité d’une autre personne, à une peine de 18 mois d’emprisonnement; l’accusée ne convainc pas la Cour que les accrocs procéduraux liés aux déclarations des victimes lui ont causé un préjudice . . . [more]

Legal service is a business. Run it that way.

Many law firms are successful by accident.

Anyone who knows anything about traditional law firm structures knows they are perilously fragile. It doesn’t take much to bring them down.

Up until this latest debacle—the 2024 collapse of Minden Gross—Canada’s highest-profile law firm failures were Heenan Blaikie in 2014, Goodman and Carr in 2007, and Holden Day Wilson in 1996.

Canadian law firms are not alone in this plight. For example—and this is only a small sampling—lawyer exits and merger failure brought down U.S.-based Stroock & Stroock & Lavan at the end . . . [more]

Everyone is the poet of their memories. … But like the best poems, they’re also never really finished because they gain new meaning as time reveals them in different lights.

Richard Hell

The resolution of disputes does not always depend on the memories of parties or witnesses, but when credibility is at issue the memories of actions can be a critical part of resolving disputes. The more we learn about how memories are formed, and more importantly, how they are retained, the more we should have real concerns about the ability of decision-makers to assess credibility of testimony of events . . . [more]

I recently read about an interesting concept about reframing one’s point of view.

It stated that if you wake up with the sun, you are still asleep. However if you awaken the sun, then you are truly awake.

I had to read it a few times to actually understand it’s meaning, but then I realized that what this means, is that the way our day develops is completely up to us.

If we set an intention for the day to unfold in a calm and peaceful manner, knowing that we are fully capable of dealing with whatever challenges may arise, . . . [more]

You may have noticed that Google has changed its search results so that they now include words related to those in your search string. While this can be helpful, sometimes it means that the search results are not what you really wanted. 

One way of forcing Google to return only the words you are searching for is to put quotation marks around the words or phrases you want. Another way is to use Google’s verbatim option.

To use the verbatim option, go to the Tools option on the Google search page. Click on All Results and then select Verbatim. . . . [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’appel de la déclaration de délinquant dangereux prononcée à l’endroit de l’accusé est rejeté, et ce, bien que le juge de première instance ait mal énoncé l’état du droit et que la structure du jugement de détermination de la peine soit critiquable; la Cour n’y voit aucune . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Big Data. Edited by Benoit Leclerc & Jesse Cale. Abingdon: Routledge, 2020. 148 p. Includes illustrations, bibliographic references, and index. Criminology at the Edge series. ISBN 9781138492783 (hardcover) $136.00; ISBN 9781032336992 (softcover) $42.36; ISBN 9781351029704 (eBook) $42.36.

Reviewed by Matthew Renaud
Law Librarian,
E.K. Williams Law Library, University of Manitoba . . . [more]

Earlier this month, the government of British Columbia introduced Bill 21, the Legal Professions Act. This bill amalgamates the Law Society of British Columbia and the Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia into a new corporation, Legal Professions British Columbia (LPBC), while also creating a licensing and regulation structure for paralegals. It could be the most consequential development in Canadian legal regulation in more than 100 years.

The British Columbia legal profession’s leading organizations (the Law Society, the Canadian Bar Association’s BC branch, and the Trial Lawyers’ Association of BC) strongly oppose Bill 21, with the . . . [more]