Both Google and Yahoo! have run into litigation (class actions) in the US for allegedly looking at (inspecting, reviewing, mining) information in emails carried over their free email services, gmail.com and yahoo.com. It is not alleged that any human being is opening the mail and reading it. It’s all about automated review in order to test the interests of the senders and perhaps recipients, for marketing purposes.

Would such activity be prohibited under PIPEDA in Canada too? Is that ‘collecting personal information’? Is the type of information being collected actually PI or PII?

Any use made of the information . . . [more]

Yesterday was a horrible day for officers in the Edmonton Police Service Canine Unit. They lost a colleague in the line of duty. Quanto, a decorated Police Service Dog, was killed by a creep allegedly fleeing a stolen vehicle. Note where allegedly and creep are in that sentence.

Today’s Globe and Mail and National Post are reporting that there are calls to change the Criminal Code to allow for stiffer sentencing for killing or injuring a police service animal.

Let me preface what follows with the statement that I love my dog and even some other dogs that are . . . [more]

Last Friday I attended a symposium on alternative business structures (ABS — and not to be confused with anti-lock braking systems, American Bureau of Shipping, the absolute value of a number regardless of its sign, etc.) hosted by the Law Society of Upper Canada. I hope that over the next few days, I and a couple of other Slawyers who were there, can fill you in on some of the interesting stuff that we heard (though I’m happy to say that broadly speaking none of it would have been news to a dedicated reader of Slaw). But today I want . . . [more]

Most of us will agree that doing legal research is generally tedious (and frustrating when you get the same results over and over again no matter what search words you use, without finding anything on point !). But once in a while, you will come across a funny case which will somehow make your day a little brighter. In the post-Lord Denning era, this is a post on my recent Canadian favourites.

Bruni v. Bruni, 2010 ONSC 6568 :

Contrary to Quebec, Ontario publishes the names of parties to divorce proceedings. These two, Catherine and Larry, probably wish they . . . [more]

The issue of lawyer civility—or lack thereof—continues be a hot topic this fall, with the Groia matter reaching its way to a Law Society Appeal Panel hearing on September 9 and 10.

Many arguments have been advanced both in favour of and against creating formal regimes to monitor and sanction lawyer incivility. For example, the disciplinary panel that originally heard Mr. Groia’s case suggested in its reasons that regulating lawyer civility is necessary to protect the proper administration of justice, trial fairness, and public confidence in the justice system. Others, including myself and fellow Slaw columnist Alice Woolley, have questioned . . . [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

15 Tips for Preventing Identity Theft and Online Fraud
Dan Pinnington

Cyber criminals and identity thieves want to steal your personal information to commit fraud. They may try to get a credit card in your name or to access funds in your bank account. On top of directly losing money, your credit status can be damaged and it can take a great deal of time and expense to restore . . . [more]

Justice Price held that a lawyer falsely informed the opposing party that he had received instructions to accept their offer to settle and asked for a draft release “believing that when he received it, he could prevail upon his client to accept the settlement and sign the release.”

However, not only could the lawyer not convince his client to accept the offer, he ended up having to pay substantial indemnity costs to both parties when the offeror brought a motion to enforce the settlement.

The full decision of the case can be found here.

The plaintiff retained a lawyer . . . [more]

Bloomberg Law released an interesting video with Lee Pacchia interviewing Steve Sunshine, partner at Bryan Cave on the program he initiated for junior lawyers in his firm on business development. The program focusses on lawyers developing their own plans for bringing in business.

The program, in its sixth year, has been delivered to about 800 members of the firm. Its original audience was junior partners, but has since been delivered to junior and senior associates, some senior partners, directors of administration and offices, and paralegals. While not all of these will be involved in rainmaking, he says there is . . . [more]

Mark Twain wrote in his autobiograhy:

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”

A recent article in the Vancouver Sun, about an Angus Reid survey regarding “Canadians’ openness to the religions of others” based on “the results of a major survey of more than 2,000 residents by Vancouver-based pollsters Angus Reid” highlights the importance of context and clarity in stating conclusions based on statistics.

The article . . . [more]

In June of 2013, the CBA Legal Futures Initiative issued a report entitled “The Future of Legal Services in Canada: Trends and Issues” (the “Report”). For those who have not read the Report I highly recommend a reading. The report breaks down a wide variety of trends and issues that are important for all those within the profession to be aware of. While there are many important discussion points raised in the Report, the one issue that stands out to me however, is that of competition within the legal marketplace.

The issue stands out for me as one requiring further . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada's award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from forty-one recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Rule of Law   2. First Reference   3. Avoid a Claim   4. BC Injury Law Blog    5. University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog

Over the last 15 years, praticePRO, LAWPRO’s risk and practice management program, has produced a large collection of tools and resources aimed at helping lawyers avoid malpractice claims. The September 2013 issue of LAWPRO Magazine celebrates practicePRO’s 15th birthday and contains a pull-out (www.practicepro.ca/15thpullout) that has our best claims prevention content in in a convenient 4-page format.

Here’s what you’ll find in the pull-out (which uses ’15’ as a theme):

• The top 15 things you can do to avoid a malpractice claim
• 15 of our most practical and helpful checklists, precedents and resources
• Top 15 Technology articles and

. . . [more]