Back in the day some important numbers in music were 78, 33 1/3, and 45. Now, of course, numbers just don’t enter into it — the “it” being the speed at which data is lifted off a medium: “faster” (cousin to “more”) is the only watchword, as numbers exponent (should be a real verb) beyond our understanding.

(An interesting sidelight: I always thought these numbers represented technological progress or something akin to that. Turns out that, like so much else, they were simply fabrications born of capitalist competition, designed to dupe the rubes. And for a forehead-slapping “Doh!” incident, I . . . [more]

There has been a much-needed recent focus on the state of the civil litigation process in Canada. Of course, the courts are only a small (albeit vital) part of our system of justice. In fact, a majority of people in Canada will have little, if any, direct contact with the courts; they are more likely to encounter various aspects of the administrative justice system in disputes with neighbours, in their workplace and with governments. In this column, I will focus on the justice system for unionized employees – the labour arbitration process.

Labour arbitration was introduced as part of the . . . [more]

Preserving one’s reputation is a fine value – and one that the law of libel strives to protect. But it’s not absolute, and the law recognizes that some communications are so important that they must trump reputation. That’s why communications that enjoy privilege are defensible in defamation cases. So is there a qualified privilege when reporting relevant information to the police in good faith, protecting the individual reporting the information from a libel suit. The answer is Yes.

Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York today dismissed the copyright violation lawsuit that US author groups had launched against Google.

The search giant has been digitizing tens of millions of books to create a massive online library / bookstore but the project was opposed in a lawsuit by US publishers and author organizations that started in 2005. The publishers’ group split off and settled earlier.

The judge wrote that the ambitious project respects authors’ rights and is a case of “fair use” (equivalent to fair dealing in Canadian copyright . . . [more]

An attempt by a Canadian online dating service, Plenty of Fish, to buy the database of a bankrupt competitor has run aground on privacy considerations (in Texas, of all places).

This has echoes of a situation a decade ago where the database of a toy company was going to be acquired. My recollection (subject to correction by Slaw readers) is that the purchase was derailed by public outcry more than by operation of law.

How would you go about making sure that your clients’ databases of personal information are saleable assets – or can this be done in Canada (or . . . [more]

Is the exclusion of “non-lawyers” from ownership of law firms simply a relic of the belief in lawyers’ superior morals? And is lawyers’ professionalism dependent on that particular organizational structure?

Those were questions raised in Tuesday night’s wide-ranging Twitterchat hosted by Monica Goyal, a partner in Aluvion Law and a member of the CBA Legal Futures Initiative’s Innovation and Business Structures team.

One of the most frequent objections to the idea of changing the current regulations regarding the ownership of law firms is the purported impact this will have on the professionalism of those involved.

“Is the reservation to diversifying . . . [more]

Bernard Drainville, Quebec’s Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions and Active Citizenship, has finally introduced legislation affirming the values of secularism and religious neutrality with respect to the province of Quebec. The name of the "Quebec Charter of Values" has changed, but the substance remains essentially intact.

No one loves progress (status) reports. They take time to write. The writers believe they’re unread.[1] And as one wag put it, they mostly demonstrate the lack of progress.

The problem with these reports is twofold. One aspect, of course, is that the intended recipients are busy. The other is that the reports contain little to no information the recipient can act on, other than perhaps taking frustrations out on the project team.

Consider the sign pictured here, on one of the floating bridges across the lake into Seattle. It tells me what I’m about to be charged for . . . [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.

Cross-Border Torts: Canadian-US Litigation Strategies
Wyatt Pickett
Toronto: LexisNexis Canada, 2013

[Footnotes omitted.]

§3.1 If I could reduce the message of this book to one simple axiom, it would be this: “If you can bring your client’s action in more than one jurisdiction, you should bring that action in the forum whose substantive . . . [more]

A refuge remains for the printed page. Herewith the tale:

Ross Davies, one of my culture heroes, has published a fascinating article which goes by the salubrious title “The Increasingly Lengthy Long Run of the Law Reviews: Law Review Business 2012—Circulation and Production” in Volume 3, No. 2 of the Journal of Legal Metrics (2013). Professor Davies is an accomplished scholar at George Mason Law School who produces excellent scholarship in the usual mode for a legal scholar. But it does not stop there. He also has an endearing fixation on the mechanics of legal information and a love of . . . [more]

London’s Emerging Leaders organization just released survey results about attitudes of younger workers resulting from lack of employment opportunities. The unemployment rate amongst recent graduates is higher than the general unemployment rate, and I suspect many who are employed are under employed.

Are employers partly to blame for this? One of the problems cited by the Emerging Leaders executive director is the typical requirement of “3 to 5 years experience“. Employers surveyed ranked ambition and attitude ahead of qualifications as the top factor in hiring a candidate. But how would an employer ever know that a job candidate had . . . [more]

Ontario’s Court of Appeal yesterday issued decisions in 6 cases arising out of challenges to the mandatory minimum sentences imposed with respect to various firearms-related offences. In two of those decisions, R. v. Smickle and R. v. Nur, the Court found that the mandatory minimum sentence provisions of s. 95 of the Criminal Code breached s. 12 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but did not breach s. 7 of the Charter.

Two recent decisions from the Court of Queen’s Bench in Manitoba have similarly challenged the constitutionality of the Criminal Code’s mandatory minimum sentencing provisions in relation . . . [more]