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 the week of February 27 to March 5:

1. Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott 2013 SCC 11
   

   [2] The Saskatchewan legislature included a provision in its human rights legislation prohibiting hate publications. While emphasizing the importance of freedom of expression in a subsection of the provision, the intent of the statute is to suppress a certain type of expression which represents a potential cause of the

. . . [more]

I have always remembered the words of a First Nations woman, a tireless advocate for action to keep Indigenous women in Canada safe – long before the issue was attracting any media or political attention. We were sharing the podium for a press conference on Parliament Hill back in 2004. She realized how crucial it was to make people understand how serious and widespread violence against Indigenous women and girls was, right across the country. She put it simply, noting that “every aboriginal community, family and individual in Canada has lost a sister, mother, daughter, niece, cousin, neighbour or friend . . . [more]

It is settled law across Canada that employers are required to accommodate disabled employees to the point of undue hardship. While the legal meaning and extent of the terms “handicapped” and “undue hardship” are constantly being tested before tribunals at all levels, the concept is uncontroversial – an employer must adapt the workplace to accommodate a disabled employee to a certain point. Accordingly, employers may need to adapt workplaces by providing ramps or elevator access, special bathrooms, handrails, etc. Depending on a number of factors, it can be the employer’s responsibility to bear any costs associated with those adaptations. It’s . . . [more]

My colleague Alex Yiu and I recently presented at an Edmonton Social Media Breakfast. It was great fun, a neat venue, and a very engaged audience. SMBYEG as it is known on Twitter is held in this beautiful venue (Startup Edmonton HQ at the Mercer Warehouse):

The TEDx sign in the corner while we were presenting was a bit intimidating. I did get me thinking about legal industry ideas worth spreading though. Last August Connie shared a list of the most popular TED Talks. Simon commented on searching TED Talks for law. The search result is now 232 . . . [more]

There’s a series of three articles over on Law.com’s Law Technology News that you might find interesting. D. Casey Flaherty, corporate counsel for Kia Motors America, came to the realization that the billable hour was often spent in . . . well, unnecessary ways. Particularly:

[T]echnological incompetence is endemic to the [legal] profession; and the quantity of resources wasted on busywork is shameful.

As a consequence he devised a test, an audit, of potential outside counsel for Kia, and has run it nine times. His articles (The Origin of the Outside Counsel Tech Audit, Kia Motors Tests Outside . . . [more]

Now that I am retired and no longer have access to comprehensive fee-based law databases, I have been using a variety of free open access sites. You may be aware of these already, but I want to share what I have learned about some of these very useful sources.

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

For a Quick Exit Remember to Use the Escape Key
Dan Pinnington

In the top left corner of most PC and Mac keyboards is the humble and underused Escape key. It is labelled Esc on PC keyboards and esc on Mac keyboards. On both PCs and Macs, pressing the Escape key usually cancels or aborts the current operation. To put it another way . . .

Research

Dead Space . . . [more]

The Canadian Bar Association’s Access to Justice (A2J) Committee is currently working on its Envisioning Equal Justice project. There are 5 “building blocks for change” they are working on. Currently under Building Block #5: “Alternatives for increasing access to justice for the middle class”, the committee is circulating the paper Unexplored Alternatives for the Middle Class [pdf] for commentary. Comments are requested by March 31st.

These are some of the issues being covered in this discussion paper:

• Promising innovations to increase access to legal services
• Re-engineering dispute resolution processes
• Affordability of lawyers’ services

Discussion papers for Building Blocks #1-3 are . . . [more]

Debate about lawyers’ incivility – whether it’s on the increase, whether it’s worthy of concern, how it should be handled – caught the attention of many of us in 2012. The subject continues to be discussed, and we can expect to hear more about it in the coming months and years.

But high-profile cases aside, when does a lawyer’s conduct cross the line into unprofessional conduct, and what are the costs and other implications?

These questions are answered in a paper by Daniel Naymark of Lax O’Sullivan Scott Lisus LLP and LAWPRO’s litigation unit director and counsel Jennifer Ip. It . . . [more]

I receive between 100 and 1,000 business-related e-mails per day. Out of necessity, over the last few years I’ve developed a numbers of systems that help me manage my inbox effectively. This is the third in a series of posts describing the systems I utilize to stay on top of my inbox.

Most months I spend at least a few days the air, traveling from Vancouver to one of the many destinations Clio’s business brings me. Surprisingly, I find the time on the plane to be some of my most productive, as I’m without the myriad distractions of the office . . . [more]

My Slaw colleague Ian Mackenzie suggested that we each explore the topic of med-arb – I would take the perspective of mediation and Ian the perspective of arbitration. I thought that would be a great way to spur more discussion about this “hot” topic.

When I taught “Introduction to Dispute Resolution” to first year students at UBC Law School a few years ago we spent some time collaboratively constructing the “DR Continuum”. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the linear chart showing dispute resolution processes along a line from “avoidance” on the far left to “war” on . . . [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. Le Blogue du CRL   2. Environmental Law and Litigation   3. Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada   4. Thoughtful Legal Management    5. Entertainment & Media Law Signal