I say, Doctor, Doctor! The Economist has a Johnson column on lawyers in the U.S. who call themselves "Doctor" because they have a J.D. degree. Apparently some states' ethical rules frown on this practice while others don't. The columnist comes down in favour of "common sense," which reserves that title for medical practitioners by and large.

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.

Ron Ellis
Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013
(*see below for discount)

Excerpts: pages 134, 137-38 (selected by the author, who has a companion website: Administrative Justice System Reform)

[footnotes omitted]

Getting the Context and Terminology Clear, the Concepts Straight, and the Prescription Right

And so it is that we have an executive branch . . . [more]

I’ve enjoyed recent columns by Gary Rodrigues and Robert McKay about the history of Canadian legal publishing. I joined CLEBC in 1988, and over my career it has been fascinating to watch the changes; for instance, Lexis’ purchase of Quicklaw, Carswell’s purchase of Canada Law Book, the rise of CanLII (and its technology partner Lexum), and the development of Irwin Law. 

You might conclude that with all the products and services offered by publishers such as Lexis, Thomson, CCH, and so on, there would be no need for any other legal publishers in Canada. There’s no doubt that . . . [more]

We all want our marketing efforts to go the distance. We want our work to be valued and valuable. I don’t know any legal marketing professional who doesn’t want their efforts to count. For these reasons, I believe, the Legal Marketing Association, Vancouver Chapter, asked me recently to present a session on how to increase marketing’s return on investment (ROI). How can our firms get even more from the ‘busy work’ of their marketing teams?

Put lightly, it’s a deep and complex topic and a challenge to skim its surface in a lunch session. Nevertheless, four key ways to . . . [more]

Clients with unrealistic expectations, complaints about legal costs and dissatisfaction with results achieved are just a few of the issues addressed in the recent report from the Legal Ombudsman of the United Kingdom, The Price of Separation: Divorce related legal complaints and their causes. While the concerns raised are not new to most lawyers in family practice, the Ombudsman takes a solution-focused approach that makes this report a valuable manual on client services in family law.  

The report is based upon complaints received by the Legal Ombudsman’s office in 2011-12, of which some 18% related to family law matters. . . . [more]

Social media is often touted as an important influencer on public opinion and political causes. The Pew Research Centre just released an interesting survey called Twitter Reaction to Events Often at Odds with Overall Public Opinion.

From the report:

At times the Twitter conversation is more liberal than survey responses, while at other times it is more conservative. Often it is the overall negativity that stands out. Much of the difference may have to do with both the narrow sliver of the public represented on Twitter as well as who among that slice chose to take part in any . . . [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 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.