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. Doorey’s Law of Work Blog 2. Thoughtful Legal Management 3. Social Media for Law Firms 4. First Reference Talks 5. Entertainment & Media Law Signal

Doorey’s Law of Work Blog
‘Insubordinate’ Articling Student Dismissed For Cause 

A lawyer in British Columbia has lost his wrongful dismissal case against a . . . [more]

A professional friend of mine in the health-care field once confided to me his very wise approach to automotive shopping. “You want to be classy. Refined. Executive. I can’t show up in an old econo-box and still expect the patients to trust and respect me” he said. “On the other hand, there’s a balance. You don’t want to be so classy, refined or executive that your patients leave your office through the parking lot wondering why they’re paying you so damn much.” Kia and Porsche? Not so much. Stylish but sensible Acura? Just right.

It turns out that courthouses can . . . [more]

When the Class Proceedings Act was introduced in Ontario in 1992, the major underlying rational was that mass tort claims could be dealt with more effectively and efficiently. Litigating these multiple claims collectively would save the courts time and money. Class claims would also be more economical for the parties because they would not need to re-litigate the same facts repeatedly in several forums.

For plaintiffs in particular, the ability to join claims together where the damages would not independently justify securing counsel gave rise to the possibility that members of the public could access the courts in ways that . . . [more]

Summaries of selected recent cases are provided each week to Slaw by Maritime Law Book. Every Sunday we present a precis of the latest summaries, a fuller version of which can be found on MLB-Slaw Selected Case Summaries at cases.slaw.ca.

This week’s summaries concern:
Criminal Law / Motor vehicles / Indians, Inuit and Métis/ :

Manitoba Métis Federation Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General) 2013 SCC 14
Civil Rights – Constitutional Law – Indians, Inuit and Métis

Manitoba entered Confederation on July 15, 1870, following the passage of the Manitoba Act, 1870. Section 31 of the Act provided for . . . [more]

I received from a friend, Banack Bencher News #114. This newsletter is sent out by Ontario Bencher, Larry Banack. What caught my eye was the following provision:

The Treasurer has cancelled the Law Society’s traditional end of term dinner which had recognized the hard work of Benchers and the sacrifice of our families. This will save about $75,000.00 [emphasis added]. This small step will hopefully be a prelude to more significant savings to reduce the high cost of self-regulation. It is in conjunction with the CEO quest for improvements to achieve operational and cost efficiencies to ensure that the Law . . . [more]

I would normally take care in posting something about “the curve” in law circles, as there is a good chance that somebody who graduated law school will break out in hives. Those who do break out in hives might be heartened to know that the curve has utility far beyond determining law school mark, one such is use is in explaining how polling works. With the results of most recent election in B.C. and the recent spotty track record of polls in various Canadian elections, I have found these recent tribulations fascinating as I distinctly remember a few years ago . . . [more]

The car was the computer of its day:

• A shiny piece of technology that “everyone” had to have,
• an object that divided owners into geeks who delved into the entrails and users who, trained-pigeon-like, merely pushed the provided buttons,
• a people-connector of immense and unprecedented power,
• the reason for the creation of a vast and intricate infrastructure, and
• the principal element in the industrial structure of the west.

I say “was” because I think that the car’s days are numbered, at least as we now know it, the first edge of this change being evident in Google’s self-driving camera cars, . . . [more]

The authors thank D.C. Superior Court Judge Herbert Dixon, who maintains a two-way street of information sharing with us on this subject.

It was inevitable that, after lawyers flocked to social media, judges would follow. Unsurprisingly, stories of judicial misconduct are beginning to appear. But let us begin with the biggest news story of 2013 involving judges and social media.

ABA Formal Opinion 462

In the most striking recent development, the American Bar Association issued Formal Opinion 462 on February 21, 2013. While it was not groundbreaking, it certainly reaffirmed the general trends among states which have looked the implications . . . [more]

Two resources I’d like to share with you, each touching on the topic of flipped classrooms. The first is Matt Homann’s 6 minute contribution at lexthink.1 where he talks about disrupting CLE. Moving beyond technology supported learning, Matt makes some interesting points on the physical structure of learning environments, telling us to “flip that classroom!”. (Click into this post to view the embedded materials.)

The second piece is from Rich McCue’s recent presentation at UVic on Flipped Classroom Benefits. The preceding link routes to a summary of Rich’s presentation, and his prezi slides are embedded below:

I would consider . . . [more]

With 10 years of experience as Privacy Commissioner of Canada behind her, and her term reaching its end, Jennifer Stoddart has released a report titled "The Case for Reforming the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act" which describes how to modernize Canada's private-sector privacy legislation to ensure it is able to meet the current and future challenges of the digital age and protect Canadians’ right to privacy.

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.

“Valour Rather Than Prudence”: Hard Times And Hard Choices For Canada’s Legal Academy
Harry Arthurs
(2013) 76 (1) Saskatchewan Law Review

Excerpt: Part C, The Return of Legal Fundamentalism

[Footnotes converted to endnotes and renumbered.]

I have not completed my catalogue of the hard times confronting our law schools. Perhaps the most serious . . . [more]

Somewhat off topic again this month as let’s face it legal publishing and talking about it an be rather dull to say the least. So let’s talk about Crime Wave Press Asia who have published 6 online titles since launching September 2012 and we do so love their tag line..”Crime Wave Press – It’s always too late for someone.

In the summer of 2012 two veterans of the publishing industry. Hong Kong based publisher Hans Kemp and Bangkok based writer Tom Vater got together and decided the time was ripe for a new publishing house, dedicated to crime fiction set . . . [more]