SmartChicago is a group formed with the aim of using technology to better the lives of Chicagoans. Among other things, they support centres that help citizens get access to their health records, they promote free broadband access, they work to improve citizens’ technological skills — and they try to make relevant laws easier to understand.
To assist with this last aim, they’ve done a very practical and perhaps surprising thing: they’ve opened an account on the Rap Genius site, a place to go to learn the meaning of a lot of rap lyrics — or poems, or items in the . . . [more]
[This is the second part of my two-part column pondering the relationship between access to law schools and access to justice in Canada. Part I was posted on May 15, 2013 and can be read here.]
As mentioned in Part I of this column, Canadian law schools have made significant strides in increasing their ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity profiles over the past decade. Though much remains to be done to mirror the diversity profile of Canadian society, law schools have been eager to report on their progress. They have been less eager, however, to report on the subject . . . [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.
Core Values: Professionalism and Independence Theories in Lawyer Regulation
Noel Semple
http://ssrn.com/abstract=2262518 [This paper is part of a book project with the working title Justicia’s Legions: Legal Services Regulation at the Crossroads.]
Excerpt prepared by the author.
[Footnotes have been converted to endnotes here.]
I. INTRODUCTION
North America is the common law . . . [more]
One of the final sessions at this week’s American Association of Law Libraries conference offered participants a guided opportunity to work with the yet-in-beta Congress.gov. As THOMAS “himself” confirmed, the venerable THOMAS.gov — now the ripe age of 18 years — is looking to retire:
THOMAS will be retired! Tomorrow at 2:30 PDT we'll tweet about its replacement, #Congressdotgov. #aall13 http://t.co/FIOKzk6K7Q
— Congressdotgov (@congressdotgov) July 15, 2013
As we noted and discussed at the time, the Congress.gov public beta was launched several months ago. It has received several iterative updates since then: inclusion of the Congressional Record, . . . [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. The accused was charged with the offence of parking in a crosswalk, contrary to section 144(e) of the Highway Traffic Act. As a result of the events which followed the alleged parking in the crosswalk, he was also charged with offences under the Criminal Code of causing a disturbance and resisting arrest. I have
Last week the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled on a 7 year long custody battle between gay parents. At issue was the constitutionality of the Alberta Family Law Act and Family Law Relations Act.
At the centre of the drawn out family law litigation was the best interests of a 10 year old girl who spent her first 3 years living with her two dads. When the men split up the biological father and the birth mom objected to the non-bio dad having custody and access to his daughter. In his quest to be declared a legal parent and . . . [more]
Some retailers are following customer movement in stores by tracking cell phone movement. From a legal perspective it raises issues around privacy and perhaps wiretapping laws. To a great extent whether or not such activities comply are dependent upon the subtleties of how it is being done, and how anonymously it is being done.
The other issue – as is often the case when dealing with privacy related issues – is the customer acceptance or “creepiness” factor. Some people would welcome getting a coupon on their phone while wandering through a store. But for others it feels like surveillance and . . . [more]
It is important for all persons working in the legal field to have an understanding of how this impacts on perpetual access to legal information from the federal government.
This email was sent to members of the infodep listserv (from the Depository Services Program) on July 8, 2013:
. . . [more]“The new Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) Procedures for Publishing are now in effect. These procedures clarify the continuing role of Publishing and Depository Services during the Government of Canada’s transition to electronic publishing.
They apply to all departments listed in Schedules I, I.1 and II of the Financial Administration Act,
I’ve just received word of — and a copy of — McMillan’s first brochure featuring their pro bono legal services. You can access the announcement here and the brochure itself here.
This got me thinking a bit about the difficulty that you’d face in preparing such a brochure, for example:
Introduction
On May 21, 2013 Matt Maurer posted on SLAW noting that the Law Society of Upper Canada had decided that Ryan Manilla was of sufficiently good character to be admitted as a member, reversing its prior decision that he lacked such character (here).
In this post I place the Manilla decision in the context of the broader application of the good character requirement for Law Society admission and, in particular, in the context of the Federation of Law Societies’ recommendations for reforming that requirement ((National Admissions Standards Phase 1 Report). My comments reflect my . . . [more]
One of the important ways we serve British Columbia lawyers here at CLEBC is by keeping them informed about changes in the law, both large and small. We are always alert for information about new legislation. What’s happening and when? Our legal editors and program lawyers have wide networks throughout the legal profession so we can know very early whether changes are in the wind. This information is critically important to our work.
If a significant new legislative regime is being considered, our BC government tends to recruit an advisory committee to provide input on the new statute, rules, or . . . [more]
This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada | Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada