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.

ENVIRONNEMENT : Oléoduc Énergie Est ltée et TransCanada Pipelines ltée devront suspendre les travaux géotechniques préliminaires nécessaires à la construction d’un terminal maritime et d’un parc de réservoirs de stockage jusqu’au 15 octobre 2014.

Intitulé : Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement c. Oléoduc Énergie Est ltée, 2014 QCCS 4398 . . . [more]

On one Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, SupremeAdvocacyLett@r, to which you may subscribe.

Summary of all appeals and leaves to appeal granted (so you know what the S.C.C. will soon be dealing with)(Sept. 12 – Oct. 8, 2014 inclusive).

Appeals

Class Actions in Québec: Credit Card Conversion Charges
Bank of Montreal v. Marcotte, 2014 SCC 55 (35009)
Québec’s Consumer Protection Act applies to credit card issuers re conversion charges on purchases made in foreign . . . [more]

Today, justice was denied to Zahra Kazemi and her family. After an eight year struggle, the Supreme Court of Canada released the decision many of us feared: Iran and its functionaries are immune from the civil jurisdiction of the Canadian courts for having arrested, tortured and murdered Ms. Kazemi, a Canadian journalist.

There will be time to pick apart the decision over the coming months, and years. Right now, though, I can’t do much more than shake with frustration and grief. In my 2009 comment on this case, when it was still pending before the Quebec Superior Court, I . . . [more]

Are you ready to bring change to the legal profession? LAWPRO (the Ontario malpractice insurer) is looking for a lawyer who is passionate about helping Ontario lawyers and paralegals avoid malpractice claims and succeed in the practice of law. This is a high profile opportunity for a dynamic individual who will become the public face and engine behind the practicePRO program, our internationally recognized risk management and claims prevention initiative. See a more detailed list of responsibilities and requirements here. . . . [more]

Remember school physics and the whole business of learning the difference between mass and weight? Weight is what you gain as you get older and what the Beatles were singing about; mass is, well, a much heavier concept by far, given that it remains constant no matter where you are — here, on the moon, or in deep space.

And constancy is the thing. At least it is if you’re to swap measurements with others or carry measurements over time. Think only of the Chancellor’s foot, as John Selden did four hundred years ago:

. . . what

. . . [more]

This July, the Centre d’accès à l’information juridique (CAIJ), funded the addition of 546 Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decisions to CanLII’s databases. With this addition every SCC decisions originating from Quebec are now available on CanLII (CAIJ’s press release). This effort constitutes one more step in assembling a collection of SCC decisions freely accessible to the public. These decisions are accessible through CanLII, but also through the Judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada website published by Lexum.

The long story of assembling the public collection of SCC decisions

Even though not yet finished, the project to build . . . [more]

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries‘ Webinar Committee has announced a substantive law webinar series created and presented by former Slaw contributor Ted Tjaden. This follows from a successful Civil Procedure 101 webinar they presented earlier this year. These sessions are aimed at information professionals and others in the legal industry who would like to expand their understanding of the law. All are welcome.

See the details below. Click through the individual topics for more information and to register. Note the mention at the bottom–you can also register for all 5 webinars at a 20% discount (essentially getting . . . [more]

Obligated organization in Ontario need to be aware of their ever-evolving obligations under the AODA, and should be developing a strategy to ensure compliance now and in the future. Are you up to date with your compliance under the AODA?

The fact that legal advice services cannot be automated is of critical importance in determining whether the legal profession should accept proposals for “alternative business structures” (ABS’s). They are being promoted by a Committee of the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) as a means of lowering the cost of legal services.[i] The “unaffordable legal services problem” afflicts both kinds of legal services: (1) legal advice services; and, (2) routine legal services that don’t require legal advice. ABS proposals have three parts: (1) law firms can be invested in (owned—up to 49% or 100%) by non-lawyer people and entities; . . . [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.

SUCCEEDING AS OUTSIDE COUNSEL: A LAWYER’S GUIDE TO PROVIDING FIRST CLASS LEGAL SERVICES FROM THE CLIENT’S PERSPECTIVE

by Rod Boddie © 2014 American Bar Association. Reprinted with permission of the American Bar Association. All rights reserved. (ABA LPD 2014)

Excerpt: Chapter 1: Legal Services

To begin the discussion about the provision of legal . . . [more]

I was recently asked to give a presentation on marketing and communications for a national firm. The target audience has various levels of knowledge and experience within the organization. The presentation needed to have a practical component ensuring everyone would have a something to take away. To add a bit more complication, the group did not share a practice or to a large extent a client base.

No problems right? Many of us have been given similar assignments and have been able to come up with topics that we think would appeal to the audience.

I put together what I . . . [more]

We see a noteworthy update this week in the back-and-forth between public domain advocate Carl Malamud and representatives of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation®.

As I understand it and as you might know, Mr Malamud has been working for some time to challenge both the appropriateness and the legality of the copyright protection claimed in The Bluebook. This week, on behalf of Mr Malamud and his foundation, Public.Resource.Org, Professor Christopher Sprigman of the Engelberg Center on Innovation and Policy wrote to counsel for the Harvard Law Review Association to outline its current position.

The letter is fascinating. . . . [more]