Microsoft held a press event on Monday to reveal its new line of tablets it has branded “Surface“. They announced 2 models – both built and sold by Microsoft. The first has an ARM chip, runs the RT version of Windows 8, and is meant as a competitor to the iPad. The second model is an ultraportable computer in tablet form. This second model will be an interesting test. Apple is adamant that tablets and notebooks should be totally different. Microsoft thinks not.

These tablets have a built in stand, and a cover that opens up to a . . . [more]

A perennial challenge for lawyers is managing client communication. E-mail remains a cornerstone of lawyer interaction with clients and colleagues but it requires constant tending. You can use cloud-based tools to help you to automate some of your e-mail management. When a new e-mail hits your inbox, slap a label on it and archive a copy of the e-mail to your online file storage service.

One way this is possible is with a service that has already been mentioned on Slaw called If That Then This (IFTTT). In the Year of Coding, it seems a fitting name for a . . . [more]

While this debate has already spanned many years now, this past week alone, the topic of assisted-suicide in Canada has been explored once more with the BC ruling discussed in this blog posting.

At this very moment, in the UK, this very same debate is ongoing, as the high court in London is currently hearing a case on assisted dying. Mr. Tony Nicklinson, who has suffered from locked-in syndrome since 2005, and his lawyer are arguing that the common law defence of necessity should be extended to doctors who assist individuals in cases of assisted suicide. At the moment, . . . [more]

Connie called out people working in knowledge management in Canada to start sharing. I decided to take up the challenge by sharing a tool from the Field Law arsenal of groovy things that the library shares.

Follow this link to a checklist for noting up administrative law materials.

The checklist is part of the materials that are shared with students attending the Edmonton Law Libraries Association Head Start program, which starts on Thursday, June 22, 2012. The program turns 10 this year and all of the organizers are thrilled that our annual event continues to provide articling students with . . . [more]

Listening to law librarians at their recent annual meetings, it is apparent that online services are now seen in the same light as loose-leaf services. Both are sources of increasing consumer frustration that is triggering the cancellation of services that were once seen as essential to the practice of law.

The fall from grace

In their prime, online services and loose-leaf services were each seen as the panacea for all that was wrong in the world of legal research. Given the inflated expectations as to what each format could deliver, a fall from grace was inevitable.

It is hard to . . . [more]

In the very entertaining decision of Ugovsek v. City of Toronto et al which was released last week, Master Haberman provided a lesson on how, and how not, to resolve a lawsuit.

The plaintiff, Ugovsek, slipped and fell on a piece of land in 2008. Having difficulty determining who was responsible for the piece of land in question, Ugovsek named the City of Toronto and others as defendants. By 2011 Ugovsek had determined that the non-City defendants (which I will refer to simply as the defendants) bore no responsibility and proposed to release the defendants from the lawsuit without costs. . . . [more]

I was fortunate to have been invited to teach a session in the Canadian Association of Law Library’s New Law Librarians Institute 2012 earlier this month. The focus of the one-week program is substantive law, but my session was of a more practical nature, entitled “Knowledge Management in the Legal Setting.”

This talk was given last year by Ted Tjaden. Since he was kind enough to share his paper from that talk with all of us (which I found immensely helpful), I thought it good to follow his example and do the same with mine. Click the image or link . . . [more]

At the end of this week Ontario lawyers will be receiving our third annual review of LAWPRO operations.

The big story in 2011 is claims. The number of claims reported is up 11 per cent to 2,468. And based on actuaries’ projections, claims costs in the E&O program could top the $90 million mark for 2011.

What’s driving the increase in claims?

As is more fully explained in the article, no matter how we slice and dice the numbers, the trend is up:

• It’s a more complex business environment in which you’re handling more complex files that seem to

An article soon to be published in the Virginia Law Review caught the eye of the Boston Globe, from where it came to my attention. In “Confronting Supreme Court Fact Finding” Alli Orr Larsen criticizes US Supreme Court judges for doing internet research on their own in order to supply legislative facts they feel are needed to resolve a case. I must say I hadn’t appreciated the degree to which, facilitated by the ease of access to data on the internet, the justices do this supplementary fact finding on their own.

The issue isn’t new, of course . . . [more]

Much is written and said about how it is undemocratic for unelected judges to make decisions that have an impact on public policy.

An interesting article last week in the UK Human Rights Blog makes the point that it is not so much the unelected bench that results in a democratic deficit, as the lack of meaningful public access to court decisions.

The authors point out that although judges may be somewhat out of touch, in the eyes of the public they are objective and fair.

The problem, they say, is that the courts are failing to use technology to . . . [more]

(and by Meredith James)

With Bill C-38, the omnibus Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-38, the Conservative government will bring sweeping changes to Canada’s environmental landscape. To make approvals easier for oil sands projects and related pipelines, the Fisheries Act will be particularly affected. Major changes will dramatically narrow what a reduced corps of fisheries officers will attempt to protect. However, while there will likely be even fewer prosecutions, penalties for those that convicted will soar.

According to the federal government, the purpose of these changes in is “to focus …on the protection of fish that support commercial, recreational . . . [more]

I always thought that I could never fall for an Internet-based scam.

Even if I needed them, I would never purchase pharmaceuticals over the Internet. And I’m pretty sure that I’m not on the rolodex of the Nigerian prince who needs urgent rescuing.

But I was recently contacted by a potential client via e-mail. They were contacting me from the Far East about a Canadian matter in an area I practiced in. I obviously requested the requisite pieces of identification, and expressed that I needed money up front in trust. Since they weren’t asking for any money from me, I . . . [more]