…and a love-in for Roy McMurtry

The Osgoode Society held its annual book launch last Wednesday at Osgoode Hall. The event was a stellar occasion, with many celebrity authors and guests in attendance and four choice titles to applaud. Authors Charlotte Gray and Roy McMurtry in particular helped draw a record crowd that included among many notable jurists, Aharon Barak, a former chief justice of Israel, and Rosalie Abella, a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the leading cheerleader for legal research and writing in Canada.

McMurtry himself was the object of a virtual “love-in” as long time . . . [more]

Every once in a while you come across a lawyer or other professional who has such a bad presence that you question whether they are real or competent. It is often because they do some basic image affecting things horribly wrong.

Here are a few things needed to leave a good impression, are often done wrong, and yet cost little or nothing to do right:

• Have a web site. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but needs to include basic info like what you do, where you are, and how to contact you. It also needs to look professional. Blog

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Skype is now as ubiquitous as ICQ once was. We have family in Calgary and we regularly connect to them from Montreal using Skype. Using laptops at both ends, the software is simple and making the connection is a snap. Sure, the picture is grainy and frames are dropped: so what? It costs nothing.

Enter the world of courts, tribunals and commissions. The question is bound to be asked: why can’t we allow witness so and so to appear remotely using Skype or a similar program? If you think this reasoning simplistic, think again, as evidenced by the George Zimmerman . . . [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. Pro Sys Consultants Ltd. v. Microsoft Corporation 2013 SCC 57
   

   [1] It is no simple task to assess liability and apportion damages in situations where the wrongdoer and the harmed parties are separated by a long and complex chain of distribution, involving many parties, purchasers, resellers and intermediaries. Such is the problem presented by indirect purchaser actions in which downstream individual purchasers seek

. . . [more]

Most legal libraries subscribe to a number of online services, so library users frequently have to search multiple electronic resources as part of their legal research, and trust that they have not inadvertently missed any relevant resources. Researchers need to know what electronic products they have access to, what materials these products contain, and how to best to search them. Other challenges related to online research include the duplication of resources (some materials can be found in multiple online services) and cost containment.

University libraries have been dealing with precisely this problem for a while now. Discovery tools (such as . . . [more]

Inspired by Simon’s Guy Fawkes day post and still being in the midst of budget season I thought it appropriate to think, and write, about what services should be blown up. Indulge me by thinking about the services within a law firm – my perspective is from the library department, but let this inspire your inner stop sign.

Reports clarify that “missing stop signs are considered an emergency and are immediately replaced”; by analogy, stopping a non-value adding service is a way to ease pressure on people with heavy workloads – an immediate solution.

Thinking about my law library it . . . [more]

When a colleague told me a few weeks ago that it is legal in 29 states for someone to be fired solely because they are gay, I almost didn’t believe him. Although I know of the still prevalent discrimination faced by LGBT individuals in the United States, I was surprised (to say the least) that majority lawmakers in many states still openly oppose employment protections for gay, bisexual and transgender persons.

As most of you know, in Canada, discrimination in the private realm is prohibited in all provinces by the Human Rights Acts and by the Quebec Charter of Human . . . [more]

Four hundred and eight years ago today the public in England learned that on the previous night the king’s men had foiled a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament with eighteen hundredweight of gunpowder that had been stashed in the basement and enhanced with timbers and iron bars. The target of the plot was the king and queen who were scheduled to attend a ceremony at the House of Lords on the 5th of November. In all, some thirteen men were arrested and the eight survivors were swiftly tried and executed. The event is commemorated in England as . . . [more]

The law of libel is continually evolving to strike and maintain a careful balance between the protection of reputation and the interests of free expression. This balance was most recently readjusted by the Supreme Court of Canada in its adoption of the new defence of Responsible Communication in Grant v Torstar Corp., 2009 SCC 61. However, proposed legislation in Ontario will have the effect of disrupting this carefully crafted balance, which will ultimately be detrimental to litigants, the right to protect one’s reputation and the overburdened Ontario justice system.

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

How to Use Google to Search With a Specific Website
Dan Pinnington

The search functionality on many websites is dismal, and in sometimes it is non-existent. If you are looking for something on a specific website and can’t find it, don’t despair, Google comes to the rescue.
You can use Google to search within a specific website by preceding your query with “site:SpecificSiteURL” [substitute your URL and don’t use . . . [more]

The patent infringement action between Bell Helicopters and Eurocopter has been a topic of discussion among patent lawyers since the trial decision was released in January 2012. The Federal Court of Appeal recently dismissed the appeal and cross-appeal (Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Limitée v. Eurocopter, 2013 FCA 219) in a lengthy decision covering many hot topics in Canadian patent law.

While the decision has a number of interesting issues, including utility and sound prediction, I will focus on the award of punitive damages.

In general, punitive damages may be awarded when the defendant’s conduct is “in exceptional . . . [more]

Justice Edward Belobaba has approved the settlement reached in the Groupon class action lawsuit.

For those not familiar with Groupon, the company sells a variety of vouchers at a discount that can be used towards the purchase of goods or services. For example, a customer may be able to pay $50 for a voucher that can be redeemed to obtain $150 worth of duct cleaning services.

Up until recently, the vouchers carried an expiry date. The plaintiff alleged that it was illegal (for a variety of reasons) for the vouchers to carry an expiry date.

The settlement provides that customers . . . [more]