In September, I attended the 18^th “Intranets for Corporate Communications” conference hosted by Federated Press. Attendees and speakers were an interesting mix of marketing, corporate communications and knowledge management experts as well as intranet consultants. The focus of the two day course was on using intranets to better maximize internal communications, breakdown silos, motivate employees, promote organizational change and firm branding. The three themes that really stood out for me were the importance of an intranet’s usability, content and role in helping to communicate change through out an organization.

Don Hameluck, a usability expert, talked about the winning formula . . . [more]

Fraud attempts against lawyers can involve a great deal of counterfeit documentation, starting with the initial client ID (passports, licenses), various agreements, loan documents and bank statements, and ending with the cheque that finally arrives at the lawyer’s office. When we add posts about a fraud to the AvoidAClaim blog, we also provide images of these fake documents that lawyers have provided to us.

On a new page on the AvoidAClaim blog we have post a large selection of the fake passports, licenses, documentation and cheques in one place. The page is called “Huge collection of fake IDs, documents . . . [more]

Given the recent interest in whether the nominees for the Supreme Court should be bilingual, I thought readers might be interested in a dispassionate overview from those great folks at the Legal and Legislative Affairs Division of the Parliamentary Information and Research Service: “Bilingualism in the Federal Courts,” [PDF] by Marie-Ève Hudon.

This document analyzes the rules that govern the use of both official languages in the federal courts, that is, the courts established by Parliament. It gives a brief overview of Canada’s court system before examining the legislative, constitutional and judicial framework of bilingualism in the federal

Outsourcing deals are often long-term arrangements that span over periods of 10-15 years. It is not unusual to see personnel changes on both sides of the contract during the term of the deal, right up to the point where there is no-one left from the original deal team on either side. For many this might not sound like an issue – after all, knowledge transfer tends to be an ongoing exercise for both parties (including knowledge transfer on how to manage and interpret the contract). Unfortunately, when the original deal team has left, and this does happen, something valuable could . . . [more]

Ever since I set up a shingle four years ago to consult independently, I have been asked periodically as to whether I do legal research. Most recently, a few people have asked if this is a service I provide for the public. My response until now has been that I really don’t know of anyone who does any substantive legal research for the public. It would be great to have the great collective mind of the Slaw community work on a solution since it is something I haven’t been able to crack myself.

Some libraries (public and academic) may be . . . [more]

♬ Why can’t people just get along
What a world it would be
If we could all just have fun
‘Cause it don’t do nobody right
When it comes down to a fight hey
Why can’t people just get along…♬

Music and Lyrics by David Lee Murphy and Minnie Pearl.

Monday Oct 24th to Friday Oct 28th is Cyberweek 2011. Cyberweek is a conference focusing on the world of Online Dispute Resolution. Since ODR is an online method of resolving disputes, it stands to reason that Cyberweek would be a world-wide online conference!

Cyberweek is hosted by:

• Werner Institute

The CBC Radio Show “Ontario Today” recently covered the auto insurance reforms that went into play one year ago,

One year after changes to auto insurance in this province, who’s better off?

Hear from a doctor who says insurance companies are turning almost everything down; a lawyer who says there is a lot less money for treatment if you’re in a car crash; and an insurance industry spokesperson who says you will be taken care of if you’re hurt.

The changes continue to be highly contentious, with insurers saying they were desperately needed, and many clients and assessment centres saying . . . [more]

While Canada has not exactly had its bottleshock moment, over the last few decades various regions of Canada, including British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Ontario have become notable for their wine producing regions. These producers have developed to such an extent that demand for their products has grown to a point where requests for their wines come from all quarters (undeniably is a good thing) except for when the wine producers have to decline certain requests, which happens on a regular basis because of the Importation of Intoxicating Liqours Act, RSC 1985 c I-3. Specifically section 3(1) of . . . [more]

Hey, you greyheads, remember back in the day? You wrote letters. Or, if you were lazy, you read letters that others wrote to you. Now, for those of you who still have a spring in your step after you go walking, let me elaborate: the national service that now brings flyers and the occasional bill to your door would once upon a time bring you news from friends and relations, a kind of Facebook on feet, if you will. Often these epistolary efforts were longer than emails, done in a personal cursive, and, as a bonus they never needed to . . . [more]

The British Columbia Supreme Court has recently given judgment for Century 21 Real Estate company against a company (affiliated with Rogers Communications) that scraped real estate listing information from the Century 21 sites and repackaged it on its own site: Century 21 v Rogers Communications 2011 BC 1196 .

The court thoroughly reviewed US and Canadian law on the topic and recited a number of factors that might support a finding that a ‘browsewrap’ contract (i.e. one that did not depend on any active assent to its terms, but that operated by mere use of the web site) would be . . . [more]

Librarians often use the rule that 20% of a library’s collection accounts for 80% of its use. However a recent OCLC study found that 80% of the circulation in a university library was driven by just 6% of the collection. Given that law libraries, whether academic, courthouse or private law firm, are constantly under space pressures, does this mean that we should be discarding the other 80-94% of the collection and using the space for something else? (Spoiler: my answer is “no”.)

Usage is not necessarily a good measure of the value of an item. There are items in my . . . [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.