Today’s Toronto Star has an article on the email-based scams that have been plaguing lawyers the last few years.

It claims that these frauds have cost law firms in North America $70 million. That sounds like a huge figure at first, but from what we’ve seen the size of these scams are about $200,000 to $300,000, so it would only take about 250 or so lawyers to fall for it to reach that total. practicePRO’s fraud-reporting email address has received thousands of emails since it was set up, but that’s probably only represents a small portion of the lawyers who . . . [more]

The Quebec Bar Association has launched the Votre Justice (Your Justice) website to raise access to justice issues during the provincial election campaign. Quebecers will be electing Members of the National Assembly on September 4th, 2012.

The Association has identified four issues.

For each one, the website describes the current situation, outlines the Association’s position, suggests questions for debate, and (when available) summarizes the proposals of the 5 main parties (Parti libéral du Québec, Parti québécois, Québec solidaire, Option nationale, and Coalition Avenir Québec).

The issues are:

• underinvestment in the justice system
• changes to the tax system to increase accessibility

. . . [more]

ABA’s Law Practice Management section has launched an App version of their Law Practice Magazine in both the iTunes App Store and on . Here’s a screen shot:

This new digital rendition will be available as both a member benefit (free) and to non-member subscribers for a $20 per year. For current LPM section members, gaining access was as simple as typing in your email address registered with the ABA. The interface has a simple page-by-page finger slide to navigate, and is built on the Texterity platform.

Count me as impressed. The look and feel of the App’s execution seems . . . [more]

Next month I begin teaching a course on innovation in legal services at Western University Law School. I’m excited about teaching this new course, but I’m even more interested in the mood and thoughts of today’s law students. How do they perceive the legal marketplace given that 13% of Ontario law school graduates did not find articling positions this year? More importantly what do they think of the profession itself?

Do they feel the same sense of uncertainty about the future that many lawyers feel today? Or do they see themselves on the cusp of a new era with boundless . . . [more]

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice just decided that although an employee was constructively dismissed when he was suddenly “laid off,” the employer did not owe the employee any damages because he failed to mitigate his loss.

Over one year ago, Canada Post and its largest union, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), were involved in a disruptive labour dispute that put employees out of work, disrupted the flow of mail and lost Canada Post money (brief background here). In an effort to stop the bleeding, the Conservative Government passed back-to-work legislation that provided for set wage increases and mandatory interest arbitration to impose a new collective agreement – with an arbitrator appointed by the Federal Government (unless the parties settled). Some months later, the Government appointed Colter Osborne, a well-respected former Ontario judge to . . . [more]

Legal research is often the bane of a criminal lawyers’ existence. Whenever I glance at the mountain of paperwork that forms the spine of a civil case I give a reassuring nod of my head secure in my early career decision to abandon corporate commercial litigation for the more fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants lifestyle of a criminal barrister.

And yet, arriving in court without a meticulously researched legal position is less fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants and more akin to showing up before the bench without any trousers at all.

Sentencing law in particular raises a unique challenge for the busy criminal practitioner. While textbooks can provide . . . [more]

ABA Decision Not to Accredit Foreign Law Schools Means Canadian Law Schools and Students are Winners. . . For Now

Last week the ABA`s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar decided not to get into the business of accrediting foreign law schools. The vote was unanimous. However, sounding somewhat like the Federation of Law Societies of Canada in its report on accrediting the Common Law Degree, the Governing Council of the section acknowledged that it needs to establish sandards and procedures for licensing foreign lawyers who want to practice law in the United States.

ABA accreditation . . . [more]

One of the many highlights for me at last month’s American Association of Law Libraries 2012 Conference was the opportunity to meet Priya Rai of the National Law University in Delhi and to observe her presentation, Access to Legal Information in the Digital Age: A Comparative Study of Electronic Commercial Databases and Public Domain Resources in Law.

Ms Rai is an accomplished law librarian and legal research instructor trained in law. One of her accomplishments is participation in the Information Institute of India Project. She attended and presented at AALL 2012 as the recipient of the FCIL Schaffer Grant . . . [more]

Privacy breaches are often caused by simple things that should be easy to avoid. Take, for instance, the Elections Ontario lost USB keys. The Ontario Privacy Commissioner’s recent news release points to “systemic failures“, and failure to build privacy into their routine information management practices. The details point to a series of simple failures, including failure to follow a policy that required encryption, a lack of understanding of front line staff of how to encrypt or what that meant, and a continuation of the same practices after the loss. The Commissioner recomended that Elections Ontario retain a third . . . [more]

As everyone in Canada will know, the Canadian women’s soccer team lost to the US team in a way that has excited some comment, first of all by a couple of star members of the Canadian team who were highly critical of a decision made by the Norwegian referee. FIFA — Fédération Internationale de Football Association — the governing body of football let it be known that it will examine the players’ comments with an eye to possible suspensions. Today, however, we learn that no actions will be taken by FIFA until after the game in which Canada competes with . . . [more]

INTRODUCTION 

There are many similarities between Canadian and American trade-mark practice, such as the overall steps in the application process. However, sometimes Canadian lawyers and clients make erroneous assumptions about US trade-mark laws that can have a significant impact on a trade-mark portfolio. Likewise, some US lawyers and clients incorrectly assume more similarity between US and Canadian laws than actually exists. This article gives an overview of some of the similarities and differences between Canadian and US trade-mark practice so brand owners can structure their affairs accordingly when managing a cross-border trade-mark portfolio.

SOME SIMILARITIES

1. “First to File” 

In . . . [more]