I’ve written a few posts recently about access to justice and the current flaws in our system. In the past month those flaws have reared their ugly head in my practice.

1. Where are your Documents?

I act for the plaintiff. In mid-August I sent my client’s productions to opposing counsel and requested his client’s productions and discovery dates. Between mid-August and mid-November I followed up on eight separate occasions. I was given a variety of excuses that “the documents were coming” / “meeting with my client next week” / “should have them for you next week”. Alas, they never . . . [more]

Back in 2009 Ted Tjaden put together what I consider a seminal paper called “The 7 Faces of Legal Knowledge Management.” [PDF] Knowledge Management is still a young discipline, with thinking and the areas it encompasses in flux. At a couple of recent meetings, including Knowledge Workers Toronto (a KM-related meetup group I help to organize), we explored how KM is changing, how it is varying from these “7 Faces”. Here are a few of my notes co-mingled from those discussions.

KM as a place to develop new frameworks and models

As the place to develop new thinking, . . . [more]

2012 has not been a good year for RIM. The company became a favorite punching bag for technology pundits as it continued to delay products and fail in everything from marketing to developer relations. RIM’s co-CEO’s lost their job, and the company’s new CEO, Thorsten Heins, promised the company’s new operating system, BlackBerry 10, would catalyze a turnaround for the company, something many tech experts thought was delusionally optimistic.

The company has finally pinned a release date on BlackBerry 10: January 30th. Rogers and other carries are taking pre-orders today, and RIM is sending out preview hardware and software to . . . [more]

In the past 18 months, we have seen significant developments in jurisprudence on a variety of family law issues. In addition, a number of cases have come out that, while not strictly related to family law, should be kept in mind. The following are the top ten noteworthy cases that every family law lawyer should know about. Several are Supreme Court cases that will be of interest to family lawyers across Canada. CanLII links are included where available.

1. Kerr v. Baranow and Vanesse v. Seguin (2011, S.C.C.) – Joint family venture
2. Schreyer v. Schreyer (2011, S.C.C.) – Effect of discharge

. . . [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. Rule of Law  2. Legal Feeds Blog  3. Michael Geist’s Blog  4. Small City Law Firm Tech  5. Official Clio Blog

Rule of Law
New Limitation Act Information on Ministry of Justice Website
British Columbia’s new Limitation Act will come into effect on June 1, 2013. This . . . [more]

Ab Currie, currently Chief Research Advisor and Principal Researcher: Legal Aid and Access to Justice, in the Federal Department of Justice, is leaving the Government of Canada to join the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ) as the Senior Research Fellow. CFCJ is Canada’s leading non-governmental independent think tank devoted to research and policy development on access to civil justice and civil justice reform. Dr. Currie will also hold a visiting appointment at the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, where CFCJ is currently housed. He will be fully engaged at the CFCJ by April 1, 2013.

Ab Currie, originally . . . [more]

Hier soir, dans un dépanneur, j’ai fait quelque chose que je fais rarement: j’ai jeté un coup d’oeil aux magazines. La mention “Édition Spéciale 40 ans” de la revue Protégez-Vous a attiré mon attention. La case “Obtenir un meilleur accès à la justice” – en page couverture! – encore plus. En lisant ceci toutefois il fallait que je ramène la revue chez moi:

Coûts exorbitants, délais interminables, décorum d’un autre temps, language incompréhensible… Pour la grande majorité des citoyens, la justice demeure un beau principe. À quand l’accessibilité véritable? – Priscilla Franken

La question de l’accessibilité à la justice n’est . . . [more]

One of the challenges with Twitter, especially once you start to accumulate a following and engage thousands of people, is that it appears as if the information is fleeting and quickly gone forever.

What happened to that interesting legal case in that other jurisdiction that we were discussing on Twitter last month? If only I had bookmarked the page…

Twitter announced earlier this summer that users would be able to download Tweets, a promise that was reiterated last month with a deadline of the end of 2012. Some users are sharing that the feature has already been rolled out on . . . [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 are in Discovery, Divorce, & Liability Insurance

By Darryl Singer

On September 28^th 2012, the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) terminated, as of December 31^st, funding of the Ontario Lawyers Assistance Program (OLAP), an arm’s length/Chinese-walled service provider for 35 years to LSUC members suffering from alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, financial stresses, marital breakdown, stress, burn-out and a myriad of other personal and professional issues that impact a lawyer’s ability to properly practise law and serve one’s clients. Their replacing OLAP’s services with Homewood Human Solutions (Homewood) ought to be discomfiting to all members of our profession and the public. Why?

Because . . . [more]

Canadians are not only in the middle of the holiday season, attending social gatherings and exchanging greetings and gifts, but also in the middle of the fundraising season supporting our local food banks and children’s charities. Today is the last day for the 2012 Toronto Law Firm Daily Bread Food Bank Challenge. This friendly competition between law firms is in its 10th year organized by Blake, Cassels & Graydon, LLP.

Last year, 35 law firms participated and raised more than $245,000 in cash and food donations. In total, the Law Firm Challenge has raised more than $1.5 million for . . . [more]

No the Omni design has not been brought back for a new bus.

As disturbing as that may sound, the continuing debate over the “omnibus” has creepy characteristics itself.

In fairly recent times the Omnibus has been the subject of a few posts here at Slaw, The Unreasonable and Transgressive Nature of Omnibus Bills (Michael Posluns, June 24, 2011) , & Library of Parliament Paper on Omnibus Bills back in November by Michel-Adrien Sheppard. and myself when the storm of Bill-38 was occurring. Well I’m back with an update. In recent years all of us in Canada have been riding . . . [more]