As most everyone will know, the story broke last week that lawyer Edgar Schmidt is suing the federal Attorney General because of a practice within the Department of Justice, where he is employed, that too easily finds legislation passing the Charter "sniff" test. Two documents in that case are available on Slaw via the links below.

Recently I decided to move house. We love our neighbourhood and neighbours but the house itself just wasn’t what we needed for our family. We had done a number of renovations to make it work but it was still missing a few things we really wanted so it was time for a new home. By “new” I mean moving from a house that was built in 1913 to one that was built in 1920…

When speaking with our agent about our wish list for the new house, inevitably the question of budget came up. I had a rough idea of . . . [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 January 15 to 22:

1. Canada (United States of America) v. Equinix Inc. 2013 ONSC 193
   

   [1] The Attorney General of Canada applies for an order pursuant to s. 15 of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act (the Act) sending mirror-imaged copies of thirty-two computer servers to authorities in the United States of America. . . .

2. McCain v. McCain 2012 ONSC

. . . [more]

I spent yesterday attempting to snorkel in Hanauma Bay, a coral reef nature sanctuary attached to the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. A beautiful part of the world which is protected by laws to help keep it beautiful for future generations as well as the current one.

Because this area is a nature preserve, there is a limit to how many people can be in the beach area and in the water. There was a mandatory 9 minute video presentation facilitated by a volunteer that instructed all the people who would be allowed into the beach area about how they . . . [more]

Copyright assignments are often back-dated or retroactive. A Federal Court decision – Harmony Consulting Ltd. V. G.A. Foss Transport Ltd., 2011 FC 340, aff’d 2012 FCA 226 – demonstrates the dangers of such assignments, and two (2) questions anyone relying on such an assignment should ask.

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

[There was no technology tip last week.]
Dan Pinnington

Research

Use Storify to Save and Send
Shaunna Mireau

One of the things that we are careful to do in the Field Law Libraries is to make sure that the output of research is the way that it is needed. There is no sense in providing a printed copy of something if the requester wants to send a tweet about . . . [more]

The lengthy decision of Justice D. M. Brown released today in York University v. Markicevic is required reading for all civil litigators in Ontario.

It contains an up-to-the-minute, detailed consideration of the governing legal principles of: Mareva injunctions; fraudulent preferences; the admissibility of subjective intent and drafts in interpreting releases; and the test for summary judgment. It also powerfully reinforces the case law requiring unsuccessful parties to file their own bills of costs if they attack the quantum of costs sought by the successful party. See Justice Brown 2013-01-21 York U v. Markicevic . . . [more]

The UK House of Commons Chamber started tweeting on January 4th on the feed @HouseofCommons. The feed is maintained by House staff and provides official news and information including links to relevant items on the www.parliament.uk website and Twitter feeds from members and others. They have also been re-tweeting the UK Parliament (@UKParliament) and responding to suggestions.

 Hat tip: CBC parliamentary/political reporter Kady O’Malley  (@kady) who issues a challenge to the Canadian Parliament:

. . . [more]

New Zealander Kim Dotcom, that large gadfly who is still facing extradition to the US for alleged "piracy" of American entertainment (see the WSJ story) has launched his new—and improved—cloud file storage service, MEGA.

• I will ensure I meet with my clients in person at least once: In most real estate practices the staff handle many aspects of the client’s matter. However, ultimate responsibility still lies with the supervising lawyer. Take the time to meet with the client in person to review the transaction and understand the client instructions, particularly with respect to the client’s intended uses of the property. Not every matter is straightforward, and you don’t want to have to be addressing a problem that was only noticed the day the deal is to be closed, or never noticed at all.

. . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada's award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from thirty-five 2010 & 2011 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. Clicklaw Blog   2. Small City Law Firm Tech   3. Rule of Law   4. Doorey’s Workplace Law Blog    5. Social Media for Law Firms

Between November 5^th and 9^th, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law’s (UNCITRAL) Working Group III met for its 26^th session, the fifth session dedicated to the drafting of procedural rules for online dispute resolution for cross-border electronic commerce transactions. Those who would need a refresher course on the working group’s agenda and mandate can read John Gregory’s posts from April of 2012 and 2011. As with the previous three sessions of the Working Group, work was to be centered around the “preparation of legal standards on online dispute resolution for cross-border electronic transactions . . . [more]