This has been a busy week for privacy news.

Anne Cavoukian, the Ontario Privacy Commissioner, released her annual report entitled “2011 Access & Privacy – Ever Vigilant”. Topics discussed in the report include privacy by design, biometrics, mobile devices, lawful access legislation, and open data. From the report:

The theme of my 2011 Annual Report — Ever Vigilant — was chosen in large part because this year Ontarians faced what I consider to be one of the most invasive threats to our privacy and freedom that I have encountered in 25 years of safeguarding citizens’ rights and championing openness and . . . [more]

The bio or “About” page is one of the most viewed pages on a lawyer’s website. On social media, the bio or profile helps new connections or potential followers make decisions about whether or not to interact with you. Your “elevator speech” is your spoken bio and it can make or break a new relationship with a potential client or referral source. But despite its importance, the bio is an often overlooked marketing tool, and many lawyers give it short shrift.

Elements of a Good Biography

Your website bio, online profile and your spoken introduction (“elevator pitch”) are just different . . . [more]

Raise your hand if you have ever used the interlibrary loan service of a public or educational institution library. Are you sure? This service is fairly transparent and may have included interlibrary borrowing between far flung branches of a regional library system. My little library in the town of Onoway, Alberta – population hovering around 1000 people, offers a library catalogue of nearly 3 milion items. Plenty of these items are shipped using the Library Book Rate, a Canada Post services that has provided a reduced rate for mailing library books since 1939.

In 2008, a Strategic Review of Canada . . . [more]

Big doings in the sky today — so big, in fact, that no one alive now will ever see their like again. Which is perhaps some small justification for intruding this information into a site on law. You’ll likely have read about it in your newspaper. But I thought you might like a reference to some websites that go into the phenomenon in greater detail and that offer a chance to see the event online, in case your sky is clouded over at the crucial time.

Go to TransitofVenus.org, where you’ll find pretty much everything you need to . . . [more]

At the outset of a file I ask my clients for all of the documents they have that are relevant to the lawsuit. Usually they respond by asking me exactly what I want. At this point I explain to them that they are obligated under the Rules of Civil Procedure to disclose any document that they may have (or formerly had) in their power, possession or control that is relevant to the lawsuit. “Whether it helps you, or hurts you, if it is relevant we need to disclose it.” is something I have said on many occasions and it’s true… . . . [more]

When my daughters sailed on the tall ships for several summers, the crew had a daily activity called “mandatory fun.” It seems like an oxymoron until you think about it a bit. If you tell people they’re going to have fun, they do.

If you tell people they have to try to resolve their disputes, or else… — they will.

I have had many “full and frank discussions” (a very useful diplomatic euphemism) with fellow commercial lawyers about whether to include mandatory mediation clauses in business agreements.

Those who are vehemently against the idea insist that forced mediation doesn’t work. . . . [more]

The following article appears in the May/June 2012 edition of LAWPRO Magazine. It is available at www.lawpro.ca/magazinearchives.

LAWPRO is seeing far too many real estate claims where the lawyers handling the deals are making or not catching fairly basic errors. Often these mistakes result from errors made by clerks – all or most of which the lawyer could’ve and should’ve caught.

Common mistakes include:

• Not catching errors in legal descriptions
• Missing executions
• Not doing searches
• Not bringing rights or way or easements to the attention of the client

We also see claims involving ILA. Sometimes there was no recognition . . . [more]

Others have talked about their contributions to lawTechCamp 2012 held in Toronto in May. I am sharing the slide decks from the presentation I did with fellow consultant Stephanie Barnes and the six minute demo I did the same day.

The first talk here is an introduction to Law Firm Knowledge Management. Included are some images developed by Stephanie, and some we have developed together, as well as content from other sources. . . . [more]

Abe Voelker recently authored a thought-provoking blog post on how version control systems used by software developers could potentially be used to rework the process of drafting legislation:

Imagine a public system like GitHub but instead of source code being tracked, legal documents such as bills/laws are tracked (and just like GitHub, versioned in git). Imagine if, before any bill is introduced to Congress, its contents were posted on this publicly available medium with adequate time before a vote?

What if any proposed amendments to legislation were posted publicly as pull requests?

What if anyone could write amendments to existing

Admin law people (and which of us aren’t?) can rejoice in the arrival of a new blog in their area, the aptly named Administrative Law Matters. Launched around the middle of last month, the blog is a single person effort by Paul Daly (@pauldalyesq), Assistant Professor at the Faculté de Droit of the Université de Montréal, with an emphasis on common-law jurisdictions. Posts appear nearly every day. A welcome addition to the already fine collection of Canadian legal blogs.

[hat tip: Blogging for Equality — a great blog, by the way, that I need to post about . . . [more]

Slaw is pleased to announce that Matt Maurer is joining us as a blogger. Matt (otherwise Matthew P.) is a Queen’s law grad, was called in 2007, and is now an associate in the Minden Gross LLP litigation department, regularly appearing before various courts and tribunals in Ontario.

Welcome to Slaw, Matt. . . . [more]

The UK Supreme Court last week handed down its 5-2 split decision upholding the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden, but later the same day the Court issued a “Further Statement” explaining it had granted Assanges’s lawyer 14 days to apply re-open the appeal for further written or oral submissions.

On reviewing the Court’s reasons Assange’s lawyer submitted the decision was made on a ground that was not argued at the hearing.

The question for the Court was whether it should validate the European Arrest Warrant seeking to extradite Assange to Sweden to be questioned concerning . . . [more]