by Erik Magraken

I’ve written many times that the phrase tort ‘reform‘ is often used in association with efforts to strip the rights of injury claimants. Reform, however, is a neutral concept in and of itself. Reform simply means change and the change could be for better or worse. With this in mind I’d like to share a tort reform idea for the better which recently crossed my mind. In short the idea is to add a pool of liquidity to rectify the injustice of dry judgement.

The thought crossed my mind as I was reading reasons for . . . [more]

There’s an old saying among lawyers (and law profs) that claims “you can’t suck and blow at the same time.” But it would seem that inventor Sir James Dyson is managing to expel steam from his ears even while his vacuum cleaners continue to inhale a decent share of the “hoover” market. The reason for his turbulence is that his share has been somewhat lessened in Britain thanks to a recent decision of the court of appeal for England and Wales. In Dyson Ltd v Vax Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1206 the court decided not to overturn a trial . . . [more]

Drafting proper trade-mark use descriptions when registering a trade-mark is important to get the right protection. Drafting uses can sometimes be a challenge when the wares or services the mark is used for is new and changing technology. The use description must accurately describe the wares and services the mark is used for, must stand the test of time, and must satisfy CIPO’s (Canadian Intellectual Property Office) rules on use descriptions.

Software is a good example of how things can rapidly change. If a business is selling software in the traditional manner where the user installs it on his/her computer, . . . [more]

Decades ago when I was looking for legal information on gays in the military worldwide, resources were scarce. Those gopher, pre-web days are gone and now researchers can find a wide variety of resources on the global legal status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) people. So, let’s check to see how these resources cover military law related to LGBTQI persons around the globe.

The newest resource is the International Commission of Jurists’ Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Justice: A Comparative Law Casebook (September 2011). It includes a foreword by the Hon. Michael Kirby, former President of . . . [more]

Save Library & Archives Canada. That is the heading on a new website recently launched by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT).

CAUT is using this site to outline some very valid concerns about issues at LAC, which some of you remember as the National Library and some of you remember as the National Archives of Canada.

In 2004, the National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada were drawn together by the Library and Archives of Canada Act to create a new knowledge institution for Canadians—Library and Archives Canada, a source of enduring knowledge and

The Supreme Court’s decision in Alberta (Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development) v. Cunningham has left me scratching my head a bit. It overturned an Alberta Court of Appeal decision that seemed quite sensible to me. (One of the things that got me thinking about “double dipping” — since it was one of the respondents’ arguments.)

The case arose because the Cunninghams, long-time residents of an Alberta Métis settlement, were removed from the settlement membership list after they registered as Indians. The Cunninghams had sought to be registered under the amended Indian Act in order to get access to . . . [more]

As a professional working in both official languages day in and day out, I found a recent study conducted by the Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine and the Institut de recherche sur le français en Amérique particularly interesting: nearly 14% of employees in Quebec’s education, health and public sectors predominantly use English as a language of work and this, with Anglophones only representing 9% of Quebec’s population (the study was based on the 2006 census). Moreover, less than half of these jobs are held by individuals who described themselves as Anglophones.

When compared to the reverse situation in Canada . . . [more]

The push towards the importance of work-life balance began during orientation week of my first year at law-school. Work-life balance (or study-life balance as it was back then) was emphasized as integral to surviving law school, and pursuing a healthy successful career. I recall one professor recommending that students should treat law school like a “9 to 5 job”. He suggested that students should spend the mornings and afternoons tackling classes and readings, so that they could use their evenings to unwind, socialize and pursue their favourite hobbies. I took my professors advice, recognizing that there were days that I . . . [more]

Here are the three most consulted cases on CanLII for the week of November 1 – 7.

1. Sam’s Auto Wrecking and Lombard General Insurance, 2011 ONSC 6441
   

   [12] The central issue is whether or not the personal injury experienced by Mr. Ferber, indirectly at the hands of an employee at Sam’s operating within the scope of his employment, was or should have been covered by the commercial general liability which was part of the comprehensive business policy provided by Lombard.

2. Tuchenhagen v. Mondaux, 2011 ONSC 5398
   

   [1] During the month of July 2008, the City of Thunder Bay

Loads of lawyers and law firms are posting content in various forms all over the Web. Firm websites, LinkedIn or Facebook updates, tweets, blog posts and comments, and so on. That is great, but it only gets you partway down the path to greater visibility on the Internet.

At the most basic level, the cornerstone to making yourself more visible is good content and linking. Do you know why linking is so important? Do you understand the ranking factors Google and other search engines use to determine what content appears at the top of search results? Are your links trusted . . . [more]

My post this week comes to you from the posh Millenium Hotel in Knightsbridge, London, where the organizers of IBC’s 3rd annual trust litigation symposium (brochure) have been kind enough to instal their speakers and panelists.

My panel “Caught in the Wrong & Possibly Putting it Right” is on a 2011decision of the UK Court of Appeal in two cases in which that court said the law had taken a “seriously wrong turn” over the last few decades. (My post on this decision – 12 September). The panel’s job is to air views on the likely impact of . . . [more]

Over at the Small Firm Innovation blog there’s been a number of terrific posts with some of the legal industry’s top minds sharing their thoughts on time management.

Niki Black kicks the discussion off with a discussion of how the just-released iPhone 4S’s digital assistant Siri can be used to more efficiently manage our time. Niki describes how Siri’s voice recognition facilities not only allow iPhone 4S users to efficiently and easily create appointments, tasks to help with managing their time, but how they can save time by dictating these items while we would otherwise be unproductive (such as while . . . [more]