The Quebec Riot

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of CALL, it is perhaps worth reminiscing about one of its most infamous and contentious dialogues with a legal publisher. Some of you may know it as the Quebec Riot, an expression no doubt coined by the ever perceptive and distinguished, but sometimes mischievous, Denis Le May.

It came about as any riot usually does, when law librarians felt no one was listening to them.

They were right.

The seventies and eighties saw a veritable explosion in the number of reported cases. New jurisdictional and topical law reports, combined . . . [more]

Legal Project Management (LPM) has received a major boost downunder with the leading Australian/Asian firm King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) launching a program with the assistance of Edge International. Tony O’Malley, Managing Partner Australia, King & Wood Mallesons and Pam Woldow, Edge International give a convincing 5 minute of why it is such a good idea.

If it is true as Shaun Plant says in that “much of the practice of law is not about technical legal detail, but managing projects”, and, as Tony O’Malley has said that “Clients have been telling us this for a while”, why has it . . . [more]

I’d hoped for a happier first post for my return to Slaw, but I do think it’s important to shine the light on the forthcoming reductions to Library and Archives Canada and any broader impact or mirroring of reality. The cuts to the LAC announced in last month’s budget received some media coverage and commentary from interested parties at that time. This coincides with LAC’s announcement of a phased-in shift in the manner in which reference services are handled, to provide service with reduced staff.

This week we learned more precisely the nature of the impact on LAC. According to . . . [more]

CanLii just released a new feature today, which allows one-click citation of statutes and regulations. You can read more about this feature here.

With the addition of new search features the free legal database is continually closing the gap with the commercial publishers, who will have to develop completely innovative services to take legal research to the next level. . . . [more]

We are heading to a legal services world where increasingly more legal advice and legal services will be provided online. It is not a matter of if, but when. And people have access to massive amounts of information and advice online – some good, some not so good. For many online businesses geography and thus jurisdiction is unimportant and revenue can come from almost anywhere in the world.

Combine that, and it is easy for a business to take the attitude that it can figure it all out itself – without the help of lawyers or accountants. Or at the . . . [more]

The National Law Journal reported that the UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco will reduce the size of its student body by 20% over the next three years. Hastings is ranked 44th in the US News and World Report rankings of US law schools.

At a time when new law schools are opening in Canada, and some schools have increased their enrollment, the reason for the reduction in the class size as stated by Hastings’ Dean is very interesting and timely given the New York Times declaration last November that “legal education is in crisis“, . . . [more]

Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of April 23 – 30.

♨ 1. Price v. Turnbull’s Grove Inc. 2007 ONCA 408

[1] The main question in this appeal concerns the legal effect of a rent increase purportedly imposed by a landlord in respect of a residential tenancy without written notice to the tenant. At issue is the interplay between ss. 127(1), 127(4) and 141 of the Tenant Protection Act, 1997, S.O. 1997, c. 24 (the “Act”).

♨ 2. Tucows.Com Co. v. Lojas Renner S.A.
2011 ONCA 548

[1] Tucows.com Co. (“Tucows”) and Lojas Renner

Tectonic plates are shifting in the world of legal information. The sale of the Bureau of National Affairs to Bloomberg surprised me. I worked with BNA a bit back in the pre-Internet days. I was a great fan of U.S. Law Week, a research tool that I felt was much undervalued. I even made a promotional video for them when they began to transition from offering solely a print product into adding a digital platform. Being employee-owned and devoted to high quality editorial content, BNA was easy to like. When Bloomberg came on the scene I saw the shades of . . . [more]

The Quebec provincial government has filed today a reference motion with the Quebec Court of Appeal regarding the legality of Bill C-7 (see article here).

Bill C-7, or in its full title, an Act respecting the selection of senators and amending the Constitution Act, 1867 in respect of senate term limits, seeks, as it name suggests, to modify the way the country selects senators and how long they can sit for. The federal government would select its senators from a list of nominees proposed by the provinces, following an election in each of those provinces. Senators named after . . . [more]

♫ All the details in the fabric? ♫ 

Lyrics and music by Jason Mraz and Dan Wilson, recorded by Jason Mraz.

Slaw is mighty pleased to announce that Kim Nayyer will be rejoining us as a regular blogger.

Kim is currently a law librarian at the University of Victoria, where she focuses on collection development, instruction, and digital community engagement. She is also a non-practicing member of the Bars of Alberta (1994) and Ontario (2004), and while a research lawyer at a small Edmonton firm in the mid-90s, she managed the library and helped build a knowledge management system. Kim was also a research lawyer in large firms in Calgary and Toronto and at the courts, in which settings she worked . . . [more]

The Toronto Star recently reported that the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto may change its grading system in an attempt to reduce the stress that law students feel, specially during exam time (“Yoga, foot massage and dogs: This is law school?” by Louise Brown):

[T]he University of Toronto’s law school could become the first in Canada to scrap the often nerve-wracking letter grades of A, B, C, D and F for the kinder, gentler ratings of Honours, Pass and Fail.

I’ve got three thoughts about this, as reported.

First, the writer was wrong to scoff . . . [more]