Not a clamp on her nose.

Or, you can’t always get what you want, especially if the judge doesn’t agree that’s what you need.

Kidd v. Canada Life Assurance Co., 115 O.R. (3d) 256, 2013 ONSC 1868 per Perell J is instructive reading.

It is a class action in which a motion for approval of an amended settlement to replace the original settlement was rejected because the court held that the amended settlement was unfair, even if better than the original. The original settlement had become unfair to a significant portion of the class because unanticipated events that occurred . . . [more]

An interesting perspective on the Canadian system of articling was offered up during this week’s Twitter chat by Valarie, @YoungSmartLegal, who has recently moved here from the United States.

“The idea of articles sort of baffles me,” Valarie said in response to questions about the advantages and limitations of articling for professional training.

Twitter chat moderator Omar Ha-Redeye noted that Canadians seem to think it’s necessary, to which Valarie responded: “In principle it makes sense, but if you’re going to a big firm it just seems like a way to keep salaries low.”

Articling students would be first-years at U.S. . . . [more]

I like to look for law reform commission reports when doing legal research.

Law commissions consult widely with stakeholders, sometimes compare how other jurisdictions have dealt with the same problem and they frequently dig into the history of an issue.

Here are a few reports released in the past few weeks.

• Alberta Law Reform Institute Final Report on Estate Administration: “In our Final Report on Estate Administration, ALRI makes a number of recommendations for reform (…) The objective of these reforms is to create clear, rational and accessible legislation that will provide guidance to estate representatives who are responsible

. . . [more]

Almost exactly four years ago, the European Parliament passed Regulation (EC) No 1007/2009 restricting the marketing of products made from seals to:

only where the seal products result from hunts traditionally conducted by Inuit and other indigenous communities and contribute to their subsistence.

and incidentally:

the placing on the market of seal products shall also be allowed where the seal products result from by-products of hunting that is regulated by national law and conducted for the sole purpose of the sustainable management of marine resources. Such placing on the market shall be allowed only on a non-profit basis. The nature

. . . [more]

This is just a quick reminder to IT law folks: the Seventeenth Annual Canadian Information Technology Law Association (“IT.CAN”) Conference will be held in Toronto, October 24-25, 2013. The full conference brochure is available on the IT.CAN website, and registration is possible online in English and en français. The brochure contains details concerning CPD and CLE credits available.

Please direct any questions about the conference to Lisa Ptack, IT.CAN Executive Director at lisa.ptack@rogers.com . . . [more]

Unless you’ve been completely disconnected from international economic news, you’ve heard about the fact that, for four years now, Canada and the European Union have been negotiating “the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in order to bring their trade and investment relationship to a new level”. As explained on the EU’s website:

CETA will cover the key issues relevant to a modern trade and investment environment, from ambitious new market access opportunities to clear rules for European and Canadian traders and investors.

Of course, one of the key issues relevant to a modern trade environment (or . . . [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.

Ontario Energy Law: Electricity
Fred Cass, Ron Clark and Scott Stoll
Toronto: LexisNexis Canada, 2012

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION TO ONTARIO’S ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY

Electricity has been an integral element of the province’s development over the past 125 years and it will continue to be a vital part of our success – economic and . . . [more]

In light of the most recent round of federal judicial appointments announced last week, I wasn’t surprised to find 24 women and just one man attending the Manitoba Bar Association’s lunch & learn event, So You Want to be a Judge? earlier this week. The event, co-sponsored by the Women Lawyers Forum and Equality Issues section focused on providing practical information on the process of seeking an appointment to the provincial or federal bench.

Panelists from the Manitoba Court of Appeal, Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench and Provincial Court of Manitoba spoke frankly about their own experiences on the bench . . . [more]

Over two and a half crisp autumn days last month, The University of Alberta Faculty of Law capped its centenary celebrations with a stimulating conference: The Future of Law School. I imagine a conference so named can either entice or repel, depending on one’s interest in the plethora of discourse on practice-ready graduates, tomorrow’s lawyers and the goals of legal education. Firmly in the camp of the enticed, I made the homecoming weekend trip to the U of A to hear the thoughts of the stellar lineup of presenters.

The keynotes, panels, and question sessions brought external experiences and . . . [more]

ICANN has been busy dealing with applications for new gTLDs (generic Top Level Domains). There are currently 22 TLDs (.com, .net, .org …) but the number of TLDs is about to explode with the first showing up later this year. Despite a hefty application fee of $180,000, ICANN received 1930 applications for new TLDs. Agreements signed recently include .menu, .land, ventures.

The thought of having hundreds if not thousands of TLDs is concerning to some brands, who fear that opportunists will try to scoop their brand names on some of these TLDs. 

For a complete listing of new TLDs in . . . [more]

Jennifer Senior: Had you already arrived at originalism as a philosophy? Justice Antonin Scalia: I don’t know when I came to that view. I’ve always had it, as far as I know. Words have meaning. And their meaning doesn’t change. I mean, the notion that the Constitution should simply, by decree of the Court, mean something that it didn’t mean when the people voted for it—frankly, you should ask the other side the question! How did they ever get there?

We are several years into the social media era now. As social channels mature the major platforms are ramping up integration of paid advertising options into their systems. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube all offer paid tools to promote your posts, updates, tweets or videos to audiences beyond those with whom you are already connected. In short, significant advertising dollars are starting to go social. A question few in the legal industry have yet asked but that will increasingly need to be considered is whether paid social media advertising makes sense for your firm, and if so, how best to . . . [more]