There are some recent decisions of the Federal Court that acknowledge the necessity of using online legal research sources and seem positioned to allow law firms to charge reasonable disbursements for them. The basis for having computer research costs allowed appears to be the ability to justify both the amount claimed, how it is calculated and the relevance and necessity of the research performed.

The key to costs happiness will lie in how legal researchers keep track of their work. A researcher in a costs argument will have to explain that the disbursements for billed research on Westlaw or Quicklaw . . . [more]

A friend of mine is concerned about the existence today of income inequality that is leading to the accumulation of disproportionate wealth and economic and political power into the hands of a few.

No one doubts that individuals try to better their condition. Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations at page 237 said “But the principle which prompts to save, is the desire of bettering our condition, a desire which, though generally calm and dispassionate, comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go to the grave”. President Abraham Lincoln said “I hold that while . . . [more]

Yesterday, Simon prepared a kind post to introduce me (again) to Slaw.ca.

I plan to post about civil litigation issues, class actions, and advocacy.

My first contribution is about Ontario’s Class Proceedings Act, 1992.

Last week, the Law Commission of Ontario released a list of issues it will consider to reform class action law in Ontario. The scope of its review will be broad, ranging from improving “take-up rates” by class members, canvassing different funding options for class actions, and providing guidance for when national class actions are appropriate.

For me, the topic that is most interesting about . . . [more]

We sometimes hear of bizarre laws still on the books. I had always assumed these were tucked away in obscure legislation and never applied. Not so, as many very surprising laws are contained in documents such as the Canadian Criminal Code. Here are some of the most surprising ones.

Those of us who have studied the Criminal Code know how complex it can be. What we may not have noticed is that it contains sections which appear to date from another time and place. This cannot be a product of the Code not having been amended in a while, . . . [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

Speech Recognition – It Really, Really Works
Dan Pinnington

Yes, I acknowledge that as the Tuesday Technology Tip, this is supposed to be a general bite-sized tip that is practical and easy to implement. However, when I came across this post from my good friend Jim Calloway today, I felt obligated to share it on SLAW Tips. . . .

Research

Policies
Shaunna Mireau

It is pretty easy to . . . [more]

It used to be that either a decision was “reported” (i.e. published in a print reporter) or it wasn’t (an unreported decision). Unreported decisions were hard to find; generally, you needed to get a copy from the court or from one of the parties involved. The situation started to change as publishers began to offer summaries of cases:

The WLP Decisions, along with the All-Canada Weekly Summaries led to the rise of ‘unreported decisions’ being readily available for lawyers to use in their research. The heyday of print law reports as the only official record of legal decisions had peaked,

Justice Pollak of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled that a real estate broker is not entitled to nearly $18,000 in commission as a result of its failure to notify the seller that the broker was acting for the buyer as well.

Royal Lepage (Partners Realty Ltd.) sued the defendant, Ms. Morrow, for $17,788.75 representing commission payable pursuant to a listing agreement that Morrow signed with Royal Lepage.

Ms. Morrow entered into a listing agreement with Royal Lepage and subsequently entered into an agreement of purchase and sale with a purchaser that was brought to Ms. Morrow through . . . [more]

Nothing says you can’t have a bit of a laugh on a Monday, right? So here’s something old and something new — and all of it borrowed, too.

Back in 1990, Ian Frazier did a brilliant take for the New Yorker on product liability law suits when he wrote a “claim” in the matter of:

Wile E. Coyote, Plaintiff
-v.-
Acme Company, Defendant
In The United States District Court, Southwestern District, Tempe, Arizona Case No. B19294, Judge Joan Kujava, Presiding

To give you a sense of the flavour of the claim, the dry unpacking of poor Wile E.’s . . . [more]

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.

Being able to access your . . . [more]

The NSA has been causing technology providers of all stripes — on-premise hardware vendors, cloud application providers, traditional software vendors — no end of headaches as the Snowden revelations continue to pile up. As a recent article by security expert Bruce Schneier outlines, the scale and impact of the NSA surveillance machine is almost beyond comprehension.

Microsoft’s GC, Brad Smith, went so far as to characterize the NSA as an “advanced persistent threat,” a industry term usually reserved to refer to sophisticated and malicious hackers backed by a foreign government. The cost to US technology providers of the NSA . . . [more]

We talk a lot about accomplishing our various goals through time management, but as I get older I realize the key is less about fitting increasing amounts of work into the time we have and more about focus–switching focus completely from one task to another, maintaining that focus during any given work session, and maintaining focus over time. When I was younger my synapses fired oh so fast and I could easily switch back and forth between activities. Now I notice it is harder to move from talking to people to writing, move from research to analysis or move from . . . [more]

I’m glad indeed to be able to tell you that Jean-Marc Leclerc is joining Slaw as a regular blogger.

Jean-Marc is a partner in the Litigation Department of Sotos LLP. Before he joined Sotos in 2012, he was a partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. His practice areas include class actions, franchise, antitrust, appellate advocacy, and public interest litigation.

Jean-Marc became an occasional contributor here at Slaw in 2010 and it’s great to have him move into regular blogging.

You can follow Jean-Marc on Twitter @j_leclerc. . . . [more]