Pénal : Il n'y a pas eu atteinte à la vie privée dans le cas du défendeur, arrêté pour possession de drogue en vue d'en faire le trafic, sur la foi de messages texte découverts dans le téléphone cellulaire d'un tiers; le défendeur ne pouvait non plus soutenir avoir une expectative de vie privée particulière quant aux messages qu'il avait envoyés, et ce, sans égard à la propriété du téléphone lui-même.

Cybercrime dangers are many, complex and ever-changing. Hardly a day goes by without another news report of a data breach or other cyber-related scam or theft. Cyber criminals have considerable resources and expertise, and can cause significant damage to their targets. Cyber criminals specifically target law firms as law firms regularly have funds in their trust accounts and client data that is often very valuable. This article, from the December 2013 issue of LAWPRO Magazine, reviews the specific cybercrime dangers law firms need to be concerned about, and how they can mitigate their risks.

Almost everyone has data in . . . [more]

On December 6, 2013, the Benchers of the Law Society of British Columbia unanimously approved in principle, three recommendations that, if implemented, have the potential to significantly alter the future legal services landscape in the province.

The recommendations were contained in the final report of the Legal Service Providers Task Force, a group formed by the Law Society in the fall of 2012. The mandate of the task force was to examine issues relating to the question of whether the Law Society of BC should regulate only lawyers, or whether they should regulate all legal service providers in the . . . [more]

When Trinity Western University (TWU), a Christian-focused post-secondary institution, announced plans to pursue accreditation for a new law school, a tide of opposition swelled from within the Canadian legal establishment and academy.

A near unanimous chorus of professors, Law Deans, and student groups urged the Federation of Law Societies to reject TWU’s application on account of its homophobic “Community Covenant”. After the Federation and the provincial government approved the program last month, a prominent civil rights lawyer threatened to sue.

Personally, I was not bothered by TWU’s application for accreditation. The human rights opposition has insisted that a “one-size-fits-all” approach . . . [more]

What might Sardinian pastoral songs, Chinese oolong tea, and Moore Town Jamaica have in common?

The answer’s something of a cheat, because it’s: the United Nations, and more specifically, UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Back in 2003 the Conference of UNESCO approved the text of a Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage which came into force in 2006. The aim is to identify and to some extent work to preserve unique aspects of a nation’s or a region’s received culture — intangible heritage, which:

includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to

. . . [more]

Free resources can be great – the revamped Eur-lex in operation
When we use e-resources in the law, there has been a tendency to value the paid resources over the free ones. Sometimes the free resources are not seen as truly comprehensive collections, whereas the purchased ones are; sometimes the linking and cross referencing is more sophisticated in the commercial databases; often the value-added editorial content of headnotes prepared by legal editors has been enough to justify the outlay for these reports and legislation online.

However as more and more bodies such as governments make their resources freely available online, . . . [more]

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is accepting nominations for the 2014 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

It honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series, website or e-product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

Members as well as non-members of CALL can make nominations.

Nominations can be submitted to Cyndi Murphy, past president of CALL, before February 15, 2014.

The award honours Hugh Lawford (1933-2009), Professor of Law at Queens’ University and the founder of Quicklaw. . . . [more]

Spending time at a law school allowed me to see something very disturbing; law students are actively and deliberately told by law schools to expunge all social media activity.

The clear message to students is: Do Not Have Any Web-Presence Whatsoever.

Given this message, it’s no wonder that most Canadian lawyers view social media with fear and take no part in it. It also explains the shocked looks when I asked my class to create Twitter and LinkedIn accounts – then use them for class participation. Oh the horror!

Imagine if I had asked them to create blogs!

In my . . . [more]

The Russian Federation is the fourth country to ratify the United Nations Convention on the use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (the ECC). The UNCITRAL press release gives the details.

The other countries now in the Convention, and among which it is in force, are Singapore, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Russia’s ratification is a step towards spreading the benefits around, and several other countries are moving towards ratifying too.

Should Canada be interested? The Uniform Law Conference discussed the policy questions about how it might be implemented here, in 2010, and adopted a uniform implementation statute in . . . [more]

Access to justice is a quasi-constitutional right in Quebec where the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms guarantees “a full and equal, public and fair hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.” However, numerous stakeholders, including many in the legal community share a growing concern that access to justice is increasingly posing challenges to those who need it, and obstacles such as time, expense and representation stand in the way of securing this right for all Quebec citizens.

The legal profession is about to start shrinking. That’s the conclusion to be drawn from the United States, anyway, where law firms continue to downsize associates and even partners, and where both law school application and first-year enrollment levels are lower than they’ve been since the 1970s. Canada hasn’t yet experienced such drastic outcomes, but the rising number of graduating law students who can’t find articling positions should be considered a warning alarm of similar trouble.

There’s reason to believe that the total size of the legal profession is shortly going to plateau, and perhaps even reverse. Why? Because work . . . [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.

STATUTORY WILLS FOR PERSONS WITHOUT TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY
Uniform Law Conference of Canada

The paper, excerpted here (pp. 1-3, 12-13) is a Background Discussion on Statutory Wills, as part of the ULCC’s Uniform Wills Act project. The material in the paper has been updated to May, 2012 by Debra Hathaway, with input from Jenna . . . [more]