In what the London Times describes as a “groundbreaking” decision, the UK High Court last week ordered Facebook to disclose the email and IP addresses and other information of anonymous internet tormentors – “trolls” – who set up a fake profile of a woman using her photograph.

The order must now be served on Facebook in the US. It has declared it will comply with the order.

How easily Nicola Brookes became a target is described by Women’s Views on News. She was labelled a paedophile and drug dealer. (She has since set up a face book page Trolls . . . [more]

I met with my client after supper on a Friday in the vestibule of a church. It was near my place and, it being a pleasant spring evening, I walked there, pushing my then-infant daughter in her stroller. He was a regular at this particular church, and Fridays were reserved for family social events. His young children were also at the church – a rare and special occasion, authorized in this instance by the family court. The child welfare officer was due to return shortly so we chatted only briefly before he signed over his $2700 tax return and rejoined . . . [more]

Last week I shared a slide deck from an introduction to Knowledge Management. If you didn’t have a chance to look at it, I will wait until you have a quick look now.

The slide I heard most about was slide 14 (below) which charts the functionality of various types of enterprise technology against one another. Unfortunately visual presentations do not include a lot of explanation, so I thought it would be of interest to pull out this specific graph and discuss it a little further. Click for a larger image:

This graphic was put together by fellow presenter . . . [more]

For some potential investors, the hype over Facebook’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) was obvious, largely around inflated expectations over advertising revenues and business model.

Facebook is already facing a couple class actions in the U.S., directed against the funders of the IPO. But now Facebook is facing a series of Canadian class actions against Facebook itself.

A class action was filed this past week in Saskatchewan, with another being filed in Ontario tomorrow, and B.C. to follow thereafter. The class action allege that the bank analysts involved were privy to insider information regarding revenue expectations for the second . . . [more]

Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of June 1 – 8.

♨ 1. R. v. Roy 2012 SCC 26

[1] Dangerous driving causing death is a serious criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Like all criminal offences, it consists of two components: prohibited conduct — operating a motor vehicle in a dangerous manner resulting in death — and a required degree of fault — a marked departure from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in all the circumstances. The fault component is critical, as it ensures

Diamond Jubilee talk was nearly inescapable about a week ago, the Queen of Canada has been on throne for 60 years. This got me ta thinkin’ about Canada in 1952 and more specifically (because this is a law blog) about our legal institutions and specifically the Supreme Court of Canada 60 years ago.

In 1952 the SCC was adapting to recent changes as the court and indeed the nation entered a new phase of maturity as appeals to the Privy Council had been abolished in 1949 by 13 Geo IV c 37, whereby the SCC became the final court of . . . [more]

No matter how many tens—nay, hundreds—of thousands of words we have in English, we still feel the need to take a thought from column A and apply it against something in Column B, or C, or D. At its purest, this is metaphor: x is y goes the assertion that no one believes but almost everyone understands. And appreciates. Much of the time, rather than a crisp and literary metaphor, it’s a whole expression that’s ported from one trade to another, or just into common parlance. Thus, something can be “all Greek to you” even if Η γλώσσα δεν είναι . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

Assume there are 2 lawyers with similar incomes, dependents, savings and debts. The only significant difference between them is their overall health and lifestyle choices.

Lawyer A is a male, 35 years old, exercises every day and plays soccer in the summer, hockey in the winter. His blood pressure, cholesterol and Body Mass Index score are excellent. He’s never smoked, drinks in moderation and looks 10 years younger than his actual age. It’s not an exaggeration to say that this guy’s health is better than average.

Lawyer B is also 35 years old. He wants to exercise, but never finds . . . [more]

As traditional computers and laptops increasingly compete against mobile devices like Apple’s iPads and iPhones, every business that operates online will be forced to reevaluate the effectiveness of their delivery. Asking questions like, “How well have we replicated our web experience on mobile devices?” Or, in cases where the mobile interface has been completely re-engineered, “What’s missing when comparing the two experiences?”

Admittedly, the necessity for this kind of comparison is still in its infancy in the legal market. But probably not for much longer; higher percentages of mobile visitors may be here in as little as 12 to 18 . . . [more]

Statistics Canada has published an article in its Juristat publication on Police-reported clearance rates in Canada, 2010.

The article shows that police are solving more crimes than in the past.

Among the highlights:

• In 2010, three-quarters of homicides were solved by police.
• In 2010, almost three-quarters of violent crimes were solved by police compared with about one-quarter of property crimes.
• Police solved just over 8 in 10 aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault incidents in 2010, among the highest clearance rates for violent offences.
• About 4 in 10 robberies were solved by police, the lowest of any violent offence.

There is so much talk these days about the business of law: rainmaking, marketing, business development, etc. All of this in pursuit of landing “clients”. Truth be told, it is actually quite easy to land a client. Many lawyers find to their surprise months or even years later that some casual encounter is actually deemed to constitute a “solicitor-client relationship” or at least the makings of one.

This has huge ramifications for a lawyer in terms of the law of conflicts of interest, the ethical duty of confidentiality and the client’s substantive right of solicitor-client privilege. It can also be . . . [more]