What distinguishes a licensed, practising lawyer from another unlicensed legal professional?

Many will say that the answer is trust. The lawyer has duties and obligations to their client pursuant to a professional code of ethics and the profession’s regulatory scheme. A regulated lawyer has professional liability insurance coverage (mandatory in Canada) and is also “covered” for theft by their local compensation fund.

Clients can rely on those structures to protect them from lawyer’s mistakes, misdeeds and misappropriations. They can place their trust in their lawyer, and failing that, the lawyer’s regulator, liability insurer and compensation fund.

I was reminded of . . . [more]

Thanks to the work of Corporate Records & Archives and the Great Library, the Law Society of Upper Canada has made the minutes and transcripts of Convocation available online as a searchable and browsable database. According to LSUC Archivist Paul Leatherdale, “The site contains the public versions of the Minutes of Convocation from April 1988 to the present, and the public Transcripts of Convocation from September 1991 to the present.” . . . [more]

The Professional Regulation Committee, in the form of the Alternative Business Structures Working Group, of the Law Society of Upper Canada has just submitted a Report to Convocation on the subject of alternative business structures. In all, though I’ve not had time to fully review the report, it’s quite positive about new business structures and recommends that Convocation explore various models and the rules necessary to implement and control them. This from the executive summary:

Conclusion and Recommendation: The Working Group concluded that there are negative consequences inherent in current regulatory limitations on the delivery of legal services in

A few months ago I questioned whether there was any worth in a lawyer paying for an enhanced profile on legal lists.

I got a call recently that topped that concept.

The call was from a publisher in England. They started off by talking about their publication read by thousands of CEOs around the world. And an upcoming edition that was going to feature a global CEO survey on social media risk from a major accounting firm. They did their best to promote this as a high profile publication.

Then they said they wanted to do a companion article to . . . [more]

To a hammer, everything is a nail

There is an old aphorism that “To a hammer, everything is a nail”. The aphorism reflects the centrality of perspective. Where you stand very much affects what you can (or want to) see.

I think that Professor Julie Macfarlane makes this point in the context of discussions about access to justice. Professor Macfarlane has carefully researched and thoughtfully written about the reality that most family law litigants don’t use lawyers. She speaks about this issue with lawyers yet, as she seems to say, the discussions with lawyers about this topic are, at best, . . . [more]

Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and which French-language case have been the most viewed* on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week:

1. Wallman v. John Doe 2014 BCSC 79
   

   [1] Occasionally a seemingly innocuous event can have tragic consequences.

   [2] On the morning of December 4, 2006, the plaintiff, an emergency room physician, was driving his Honda Accord (“Honda”) eastbound on Lorimer Road from his home in Whistler, British Columbia to the Whistler Health Care Centre (“WHCC”). It was cold and snowing. The roads were

My team has nearly finished with our project rolling out the new WestlawNext Canada platform. So far the response to the new site is positive. WestlawNext Canada has a lovely new feature along side the new all-in-one search box that will be interesting to Slawyers.

Folders

Within WestlawNext Canada a user can create folders to store information like full documents or snips from a WNC content (cases, legislation, texts and annotations as well as journal articles). Sharing a folder with colleagues within the firm is also available.

While I like the concept of sharing folders full of research bits with . . . [more]

Most of you will have heard of the controversial figure skating win of Russian teenager Adelina Sotnikova who won the Olympic gold medal last week beating out Yuna Kim of South Korea, despite many stylistic errors and fumbles. Many media outlets and fans were surprised to say the least at what appeared to be clear favoritism on the part of the Russian judge. The South Korean Olympic Committee has already sent a protest letter to the International Skating Union, and a petition is posted on Change.org calling for more accountability in sports judging.

But what legal recourses do athletes have . . . [more]

Too often, litigation disputes are like two ships passing in the night. The first salvo describes in great detail the relevant facts and applicable law. The opponent’s response then covers the very same ground, emphasizing the facts and law that are favourable to it – often with very little to no references to the opponent’s points of view.

Our goal as advocates is to advance our client’s case as effectively as possible. Unlike advocates, though, a judge’s job is to balance the different points of view to reach the best result. The judge needs help to decide who is right . . . [more]

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 technology, research and practice.

Technology

Back Up Your Cloud: How to Download All Your Data
Dan Pinnington

On at least a few previous occasions (here and here), I have written about the necessity of backing up your personal data, pictures and contacts, regardless of where they . . .

Research

Regulations
Shaunna Mireau

One of the things we don’t talk about much on the legal research side of things here at Slaw Tips are . . . [more]

[Vocabulary Watch] ‘Brainspray’ – Electrical and other signals given off by the brain that are detectable – and increasingly usable – for various purposes.* 

Science, medicine and commerce

It is widely known that much of the functioning of our brain is done by electrical impulses, or at least that its functioning creates electrical impulses. Since the invention of the electroencephalograph (EEG) many decades ago, these impulses have been measurable. In recent years, they have become subject to increasingly subtle interpretation as well. Science is beginning to know what the measured impulses mean and to be able to use . . . [more]

Injunctions are a powerful remedy that are sought and granted in a wide range of disputes.

An employer might seek an injunction to stop a former employee from soliciting the employer’s clients. A business may seek an injunction to stop a competitor from unfairly using a registered trademark. Your neighbour may seek an injunction to stop you from cutting down that hideous tree in your back yard that provides oh-so-much shade and privacy for your neighbour, or perhaps they may seek a mandatory order requiring you to cut down that same hideous tree that they view as an eye-sore.

A . . . [more]