Slaw has always had an interest in publishing and in technology, so I’m using this track record as an excuse for telling you about Bibliotype, even though it has nothing whatever to do with law. My deeper reason is that we’re all in this together, and anything that might help improve the experience of reading materials online should interest lawyers. So much for the prolegomenon.

Bibliotype is the work of the niftily-named Craig Mod, a writer and book designer. I came across it because of Mod’s article in the online web designer’s publication, A List Apart. There he . . . [more]

The annual Consumer Electronics Show is about to start in Las Vegas. The CES officially runs from January 6 to the 9th, but there are several press conferences today for new product announcements. The show is huge – 2700 exhibitors, and over 100,000 attendees. Most of the major electronics brands will be there showing off their latest computers, cameras, TV’s, home theatres, and accessories. (With the notable exception of Apple.)

One of the hot items this year will be tablets. As I’ve mentioned before, (and I’m certainly not the only one) tablets will forever change how we consume . . . [more]

Given that lawyers are heavy users of Blackberrys, most Slaw readers will already know that RIM just announced the Playbook tablet, which is an iPad competitor.

RIM has taken an interesting approach. It is designed for business users, and as a companion device that will tether to a Blackberry. Indeed, its promo hits heavily on features that the iPad has been criticized for lacking – such as a forward facing camera, and usb. It may very well be a compelling choice for Blackberry users.

While it was just announced, it is not available until early 2011. I suspect it was . . . [more]

This story by Erika Kinetz (AP) is on Google news with an AP logo, but I’m not sure what you’d say was the most authentic source for it. I found it serendipitously on Roger Ebert’s Journal (from which it appears since to have been removed.)

Christopher Dawson of ZDNet has also commented. . . . [more]

2010 will see some interesting and useful developments in the tablet / e-book reader space. The concept of a thin, light, portable device with a decent screen size (i.e. a letter sized piece of paper) and long battery life to read things on – such as newspapers, magazines, books, the web – is quite compelling.

There are a few products on the market already – such as the Kindle. In my view the tipping point to widespread adoption will be colour screens that can render glossy magazine resolution, the ability to get web content via wifi rather than just over . . . [more]

INTRODUCTION

In the midst of writing this post yesterday, January 6th, I thought back to that day in 2021 when Donald Trump attempted a coup in the United States to seize the presidency despite having lost the 2020 election. This year’s certification of the 2024 election involved no such threat to democracy only because Trump won the election. But it may be because I have the concept of “coup” on my mind that I am tempted to describe West Whitby Landowners Group Inc. v. Elexicon Energy Inc. (Ont. CA) (“West Whitby”) as a “judicial coup”, albeit a coup somewhat more . . . [more]

In R v. Pike^[1] the Ontario Court of Appeal considered the expansive search power of Customs and Border officers under s. 99(1)(a) of the Customs Act.^[2]

The Ontario Court of Appeal set the stage for the conflict between the respectful approach to border security and individual privacy rights as follows:

Millions of Canadians travel internationally each year with their personal computers, tablets, and smartphones. The contents of these devices attract some of the strongest privacy interests known to law because they are a window into their users’ lifestyles, beliefs, interests, desires, relationships, finances, health, and much more. But

This note provides some suggestions for lawyers taking family law cases to arbitration, offered from my perspective as a family law arbitrator.

The theme that runs throughout this article is straightforward. Your primary object in arbitration is to get the best possible outcome for your client, just as it is in litigation, and your chances of getting that outcome are maximized when you make it as easy as possible for me to understand your client’s evidence and comprehend your argument.

I. A peek behind the curtain

Before getting into the nuts and bolts, I think it might help to provide . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT): Une peine de 90 jours de détention assortie d’une probation de 30 mois est imposée à un accusé âgé de 18 ans qui s’est reconnu coupable de possession de matériel de pornographie juvénile.

Intitulé : R. c. Drouin, 2022 QCCQ 3474
Juridiction : Cour du Québec, Chambre criminelle . . . [more]

As part of a holiday party gift-exchange mixup, you have been accidentally given a time machine. Since the Rules of Professional Conduct don’t specifically say you can’t tamper with history, you may now use it to travel throughout all of the past and future. You decide to visit great legal moments along the timeline, because you’re weird.

Respond to the following scenarios with the choice that seems the most appropriate.

1. You are present as the Code of Hammurabi is finalized in 1750 BC. Impressed by your Fitbit, Hammurabi invites you to add a line to the Code. What do . . . [more]

Just When You Thought You Had Perfected Your Cybersecurity Training for Law Firm Employees . . .

Time to think again. It’s no secret that cybercriminals have increased all kinds of phishing activity since the pandemic. More people utilizing consumer grade equipment in a less secure work-at-home environment creates a fertile ground for phishing attack victims.

According to a ZDNet report, phishing attacks are shifting to mobile devices. That’s not surprising since mobile devices are the primary computing technology for more than 50% of users. The goal of the attackers is to obtain usernames and passwords that could be used . . . [more]