As social media expand they bring lawyer stuff with them to bedevil the previously innocent denizens of the world, rather as missionaries were carried along with waves of colonialism to people who were just fine without them. The latest site for the social-medium-IP-dance is nail polish, of all things. Ciaté, a British cosmetics company, was in the process of trade marking their latest nail polish, Caviar Manicure — a product that has you sprinkle coloured beads onto your glue-spread nails. Bloggers began to write about this caviar manicure process; and some of them got a shirty email from Ciaté, instructing . . . [more]

Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of July 23 – 31.

♨ 1. Ivens v. Lesperance 2012 ONSC 4280

[3] The defendant seeks an order or declaration that the plaintiff’s claim for non-pecuniary losses is barred by s. 267.5 of the Insurance Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. I(8). This section of the Act stipulates that the owner of an automobile is not liable in an action for non pecuniary losses, unless the injured person has sustained “a permanent, serious impairment of an important physical, mental, or psychological function”. The defendant therefore submits that the plaintiff’s

Marketing is hard work, especially when you are constantly trying to get new clients in the door. One way that lawyers can get “new” business is by concentrating on their existing and former clients. People like to work with people they know, like and trust. It takes time to reach that point. Your existing and former clients have used your services in the past, or are using them now. They already know you. A level of trust has been established. It will be much easier to get additional work from those clients than it will be to get work from . . . [more]

Every two years for the past few years I’ve written something before the Olympic games about the IOC’s social media and web rules, which are overly controlling, out of touch, and behind the times. This year is no exception. Even though we are just a few days in, there have been several stories vying for the most outlandish social media excess medal. For example:

Carmi Levy wrote an article just before the games began entitled The IOC’s social media anti-lesson for business that starts off with:

As the final hours tick down until the 2012 Olympic games get started in . . . [more]

[Sean Dwyer assisted in the preparation of this column.]

Like many others, we have, on this blog and elsewhere, claimed that online dispute resolution (ODR) platforms and processes constitute an extremely useful tool for conflict resolution. This being said, it is unfortunately possible to assert that a majority of attempts to create a system for ODR have fallen short of expectations, making our assertions seem somewhat difficult to defend. However, we remain convinced that the fault doesn’t lie with the technology or the concept, but rather that ODR’s failure is in large part due to the absence of obligation . . . [more]

A picture is worth a thousand words. A streaming video is worth a lot of bandwidth, or is it? From Supreme Court of Canada live and archived webcasts to CanLII training videos on YouTube to political speeches, there is plenty of valid, useful, legal content on the web that is being blocked from viewing in an office near you.

A common argument used by organizations to support blocking streaming content is based on productivity drain, usually kicked around with the word bandwidth.

What is the bandwidth drain of streaming content? A service provider with the unlikely name of Bummer Hosting . . . [more]

Legal complexity is nothing new. The scope of its unhappy consequences, however, seems to be getting ever wider thanks to the internet. Now texts land right in the living rooms — or the pants pockets — of half the planet at a keystroke. And, as a colleague once complained, computers and the internet “grease the skids of prolixity” where lawyers are concerned: ten words can become a hundred or a thousand at no marginal cost.

The terms of service “agreements” governing almost all the software and services you use are famously long and impenetrable. Just to read privacy policies alone . . . [more]

On January 1, 2010, a number of substantial amendments were made to Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure. Among the most notable changes were those made to Rule 20, Ontario’s Rule dealing with summary judgment motions.

Prior to the Rule change, judges hearing summary judgment motions were not allowed to assess credibility, weigh evidence, or draw inferences of fact. The result was that summary judgment motions were generally only brought in very straight forward cases where, at least in the opinion of one party, there was no genuine issue for trial.

Starting on January 1, 2010, motion judges were given . . . [more]

The on-going debate on whether women lawyers can hold demanding jobs, especially at senior levels while also raising children, has exploded with this month’s article in The Atlantic magazine, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”. 

This well-written, lengthy article by a lawyer and professor at Princeton who gave up her dream job working with Hilary Clinton at the State Department in Washington, DC to return to Boston to be more present with her teenage sons, has sparked debates from the New York Times to the Globe and Mail. The Atlantic reports the article has broken readership records . . . [more]

Is the fact that the trial judge cuts and pastes 85% of one party’s closing written submissions into his judgment “cogent evidence” displacing the presumption of judicial integrity which includes impartiality?

This is the question the Supreme Court of Canada will be considering in November in Cojocaru.

The trial judge awarded $4 million for brain damage suffered at birth. Of the 368 paragraphs in the trial judge’s reasons, 321 were taken, without attribution, word for word, from the plaintiff’s closing submissions.

Since Simon Fodden’s post here on the B. C. Court of Appeal’s majority decision, leave to appeal to . . . [more]

It has been a number of months since we have blogged about Omar Khadr. The Canadian government promised his return a number of months ago, but they are now delaying.

Senator Roméo Dallaire is running a petition online via the Change.org website:

The case of Omar Khadr—a Canadian citizen and former child soldier—is a stain upon our society and shows a blatant disregard for Canada’s obligations under international law.

…

After years of dragging its feet, Canada finally agreed to his return in 2010, so long as he served one additional year in Guantánamo. No one forced the government’s

To mark this past Canada Day, the National Archives of the UK put online hundreds of old photos of Canada, many of which pre-date Confederation. There’s some amazing shots in there.

Ontario lawyers may recognize this building…

. . . [more]