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. Meads v. Meads 2012 ABQB 571
   

   [1] This Court has developed a new awareness and understanding of a category of vexatious litigant. As we shall see, while there is often a lack of homogeneity, and some individuals or groups have no name or special identity, they (by their own admission or by descriptions given by others) often fall into the following descriptions: Detaxers;

If you’ve never given much thought to your life insurance, there’s a chance you’re paying too much. Here are 7 tips that could help you save thousands on your life insurance costs.

1. Your excellent health could qualify you for discounted rates

Most insurers can offer discounted life insurance rates to applicants with a combination of much better than average medical test results, no family history of serious diseases, and healthy lifestyle choices. Commonly referred to as Preferred or Elite, these lower rates are subject to strict underwriting rules. As a result, most people can’t qualify; but if you do, . . . [more]

It has been suggested to me, at a couple of levels of hearsay, that that “the US government had to implement a provision to require the financial institutions to accept electronic signatures on agreements of purchase and sale [of land] for the purposes of financing.”

Can anyone tell me what is behind this statement? I have several questions, besides this general one:

• ‘had to implement’ – meaning ‘as a condition of validity’? or ‘to make some particular policy effective’?
• ‘to require the financial institutions to accept e-signatures’ – really? Mandatory acceptance of e-signatures? *Any* e-signatures or only those with

For those of you who do not know, Quebec will likely enact Bill 28 An Act to Establish the New Code of Civil Procedure early next year. Despite the fact that the last major overhaul to civil procedure in the province is less than 10 years old, the new Code will bring major changes to the way proceedings are conducted in Quebec. The mere fact that the articles contained in the Code will be whittled down from 1221 to 777 should give you an idea of how significant the amendments are.

Most interestingly, many of the amendments are clearly aimed . . . [more]

The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP), a US group “working toward actual LEGAL rights for members of species other than our own,” yesterday filed an application in Fulton County Court in New York state to free “Tommy, a chimpanzee, who is being held captive in a cage in a shed at a used trailer lot in Gloversville.” The organization is seeking a writ of habeas corpus and asking that Tommy be moved to a sanctuary run by the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance. In their explanatory blog post, the NRP draws parallels to the famous 1772 case of Somerset v. . . . [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

There was no tech tip this week.
Dan Pinnington

Research

CourtListener – Access to U.S. Decisions
Shaunna Mireau

Thanks to an intriguing post at Bob Ambrogi’s LawSites blog today’s tip is to check out CourtListener for access to US decisions. CourtListener is a core project of the Free . . .

Practice

Inbox Zero: Unsubscribing (And the Next-Best Option)
David Bilinsky & Garry Wise

Where do all these email . . . [more]

The tagline for the African Law Library is “Innovative access to law”. The service, which requires a registration for which there is no cost, links to documents published by the African Legal Information Institute and other collections, including suggestions for research projects and the ability to support communities of practice (workgroups).

The African Law Library uses the online platform of Globethics.net for the integration of a broad variety of document sources and participants profiles. It offers the following features:

• Online library with documents that are full text, multilingual, from all countries in Africa;
• Access to legal texts, selected

The case Medos Services Corporation v. Ridout and Maybee LLP 2013 FC 1006 is an example of what happens when the owner of a registered trade-mark ignores a Section 45 notice. 

As a basic premise a registered trade-mark must be used in order to maintain those rights and a procedure exists under Section 45 of the Trade-Marks Act to weed out dead wood from the Register. Upon receipt of such a notice the registered owner has 3 months to provide an affidavit or statutory declaration showing, with respect to each of the wares or services specified in the registration, whether . . . [more]

I have had the unfortunate experience of participating in lengthy undertakings and refusals motions. I think the only people who like these motions less than counsel are the Judges and Masters that have to hear them.

Often these motions are lengthy due to the fact that the moving party moves on nearly every outstanding undertaking and refusal without bothering to try to pare the list down to questions that are important.

In a recent decision, Justice Brown came up with a concept that may deter counsel from bringing refusal motions that are unnecessarily lengthy. Justice Brown advised counsel, before . . . [more]

Lateral hiring of partners or associates occurs at firms of every size, and is becoming far more common. In addition to reviewing the transferring lawyer’s credentials and suitability, the transferring lawyer and firm will need to identify and deal with potential conflicts of interest that may arise with respect to clients at the transferring lawyer’s previous firm, and in particular, clients for whom the transferring lawyer worked.

This critical task is not as easy as it might seem on first thought. The hiring firm must have sufficient information to complete an internal conflicts check, while at the same time making . . . [more]

Auditions are currently open until December 6th for students who would like to participate in the third Twitter Moot taking place on Friday, February 28th. Unlike a traditional moot held in a courtroom type facility, a Twitter Moot takes place online via Twitter (hashtag #Twtmoot).

From the West Coast Environmental Law website:

On Friday, February 28th, 2014 at 10am PST (1pm EST), students from law schools across Canada will argue an appeal over Twitter about the duty of Canada’s governments to consult First Nations on mines development.

The appeal, to be heard before three judges of the

Canadian International Lawyer, a journal published by the Canadian Bar Association’s section on international law, has put out a call for submissions in all the journal’s sections (articles, case commentary, practice notes, legal developments) for its two upcoming issues (summer 2014 and winter 2015). According to Noemi Gal-Or, the journal editor:

Articles should have a practice focus, relevant to Canadian international legal practitioners. Instructions to authors can be found [via email] at CIL@cba.org.

The journal is published twice annually with articles in English or in French and is available free to CBA members who have joined the international . . . [more]