Even in 2011, I receive a surprisingly large number of documents that require me to print them, sign them, and fax them back to the sender. Ironically, most of these documents are sent to me as PDF attachments to e-mails.

We’ve banned physical fax machines at Clio, and instead use RingCentral for sending an receiving faxes. My workflow below helps me avoid having to print and scan documents that require completion and signing:

1. Download the PDF document
2. Open in Adobe Acrobat Professional
3. Use the “typewriter” tool to complete form fields
4. Open a separate PDF file where I’ve signed my name

Just in time for Hallowe’en, we get the scary news from the UN that the population of the Earth will be reaching 7 billion today (give or take 50 million). According to today’s National Post:

Mounting concern over humanity’s environmental impact and fears that we may not be able to feed ourselves 100 years from now cast a cautionary tone over the buildup to Monday’s milestone.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon told students at a New York school last week: “Seven billion people who need enough food. Enough energy. Good opportunities in life for jobs and education. Rights and freedoms.

From my earliest days as a professional I have taught about how best to carry out legal research. Over the years I have instructed high school students, undergraduates, prisoners, graduate students, paralegals, librarians and many, many law students. Something not quite rational drove my interest. Many times I have paraphrased the lines spoken by John Belushi in the classic movie The Blues Brothers, telling people that I was on a mission from God to teach legal research. I have written books, made cassette tapes, video tapes and DVDs about legal research. If this almost obsessive interest had not been . . . [more]

This week the Ontario Suprerior Court of Justice ruled in the costs award in the online defamation case of Baglow v. Smith.

The plaintiff, who lost on summary judgment, sought only minimal costs based on public interest because he claimed the case dealt with a novel point of law and fact situation. He based this on the commentary in the decision on “removing the sting” in blogging, which as I’ve noted here before was a unique approach to dealing with online defamation.

Annis J. rejected this argument and stated that his decision was primarily based on two points:

1. the

Imagine going into Walmart, Superstore or Loblaws to buy Halloween candy and being offered the chance to make a will or get summary legal advice on some issue. This might sound spooky or even scary to many Canadian lawyers but could become a reality in England and Wales with the launch of Alternative Business Structures (ABS) under the UK Legal Services Act. The New York Times has a great article today on non-lawyer ownership of legal services. Australia has permitted non-lawyer ownership of law firms for several years and the US is seriously considering it with the American Bar . . . [more]

Klout’s recent tweaking of it influence scoring algorithm has a lot of people questioning the value of the various online tools that measure influence – especially those that saw their Klout score plummet. Mine actually went up :-)

What do these scores really measure? Do they really mean anything? How do you really measure your online influence?

Listen to this impromptu audio recording by Robert Scoble for his views on the value of online influence ranking tools, and the factors you should consider in accessing your online reach, influence the value of the content your post through social media channels. . . . [more]

This has been Open Access Week across North America and even further afield. There have been many events. In Canada, CARL/ABRC has a list of OA Week events, but not everything is noted there. UVic’s own events, for instance. The ACRL Blog has collected a few highlights.

Of course, it is libraries that are often organizing these events, as librarians are best positioned to witness the daily spectacle of publicly funded research given away for peanuts or less into private hands. These in turn do very well by it, whether it is delivered in print . . . [more]

I want to revist Crookes v Newton, 2011 SCC 47 which Simon C mentioned previously. What I find interesting about this case is the expansion of legally defined technology terms (yes I know I might be the only one who finds this interesting). There is currently a paucity of legally defined technological terms and Crookes v Newton has expanded that pool by only adding a few definitions.

Previously hyperlink has been legally defined in in the lower court ruling 2008 BCSC 1424 in para 29 where hyperlink was defined as: “A hyperlink is like a footnote or a reference . . . [more]

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is a Special Operating Agency of Industry Canada. Industry Canada is responsible for the administration of intellectual property in Canada. The Copyright Office is part of CIPO. Below is an excerpt of an interview with newly appointed Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trademarks and Chief Executive Officer of CIPO, Sylvain Laporte.

1. How many copyright registration certificates are issued in Canada each year? 

(Note that the fiscal year end of CIPO is March 31. The figures below and reported throughout this interview reflect this year end. For example, 2000-2001 reflects the period from April . . . [more]

Absence may make the heart grow fonder (the “liquor is quicker” crowd would claim it’s absinthe that really does the fonding), but it certainly leaves us holding some strange states in English. In this fillip I want to take a look at one group of things that, well, aren’t there.

As you know, the language has a number of ways of bundling a lack into a word. For one thing, there’s “lack” itself. Thus, lacklustre, for instance. Then there are the prefixes dis-, de-, in-, dys-, un-, and the like, that can flip something . . . [more]

Canada’s electronic commerce legislation in Canada tells us how to create an electronic document that will satisfy a legal requirement that the information must be in writing. Most such legislation also tells us that a legal requirement that a document be signed is satisfied by an electronic signature. In the common law provinces and the territories, however, it stops short of telling us how to create a sealed document.

This article addresses that shortcoming, if it is one. It will restrict itself to seals on transactional documents. Seals by public authorities will be the subject of a future column. . . . [more]

This is a post in a series to appear occasionally, 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.