Resource Spotlight: Bullen & Leake & Jacob’s Canadian Precedents of Pleadings

Posted on July 27, 2016July 27, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

Once a month, Robeside Assistance will feature a resource that we purchase for the library that you might not know we have. Our collection is full of great books, databases, programs, and other materials, so definitely visit us in the library if you’d like to use anything mentioned here!

If pressed to name our favourite books in the library, Brenda and I would both include Bullen & Leake & Jacob’s Canadian Precedents of Pleadings in our top three. Tucked away in the civil litigation section, this gem of a title seems to always provide just what we need, when we need it. Based on the long-published British book of similar name (Bullen & Leake & Jacob’s Precedents of Pleadings, currently in its 18th edition), this book offers a huge selection of sample pleadings in a wide variety of legal areas. I find myself reaching for this book when asked for sample personal injury pleading examples, and Brenda has used this for the construction pleadings as well. You can take a browse through the impressively detailed table of contents here. The book came with a CD-ROM, too, which has copies of the precedents contained in the book. No need to re-type – just let us know at the Reference Desk that you’d like to use the CD and you can take home copies of the precedents you that need, ready to be modified.

If you’d like to look through this excellent resource yourself, you can find it in our Texts section at KF 8868.1 B85 2013.

#ThrowbackThursday: Then and Now

Posted on July 21, 2016July 21, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

For an association as old as we are, there are shockingly few pictures from CCLA history. We can’t find any pictures from inside the old courthouse, our conferences and events weren’t well documented in photos (not anymore, of course!), and we don’t have pictures of many of our past presidents (or librarians!).*

We did dig out of storage, however, pictures from when the library at the Elgin Street courthouse was new. Old technology! Temporary signage! The Scotiabank calendar that is *still* in our copy room 28 years later!

1988 (left) and 2016 (right)
Click each picture to enlarge

Here are two pictures of our Canadian Law Reports section – as it was in 1988, and how it is today. It’s hard to believe those shelves ever had so much empty room. When someone does this retrospective in another 28 years, it’s safe to say there will be no law reports at all. With legal research moving online, this section doesn’t get a lot of use anymore, and like the law reports from many other libraries who’ve remodeled recently, this part of the collection will have to go when we renovate our space.

*All that to say, please send us your old CCLA pictures!

Recently Published Ottawa Decisions

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

Find below recently published Ottawa decisions, available for free through CanLII.org.

Family Matters

The Ottawa Children’s Aid Society v C.S. (2016 ONSC 3828)
children — crack cocaine — home — foster — care
Justice C. McKinnon

Gordon v Guimont (2016 ONSC 4569)
income — father — payor — child support — expenses
Justice A. Doyle

Farahani v Farahani (2016 ONSC 4174)
mediation — contempt — father — child support — motion
Justice P. Kane

Curry v Curry (2016 ONSC 4474)
incomes — trust — tax returns — support — equalization
Justice A. Doyle

Lagrove v Lagrove (2016 ONSC 4432)
father — child support — costs — expenses — settle
Justice M. Shelston

Civil Matters

Rahsepar v Mladenovic (2016 ONSC 4611)
motion for summary — litigation — costs — dismissal — amount
Justice C. Aitkens

St-Pierre c. Belisle, Sabourin, et al (2016 ONSC 4425)
parcelle retenue — acres — préclusion propriétale — détachement — fiducie
Juge M. Labrosse

Continue reading →

#ThrowbackThursday: Somerset House

Posted on July 14, 2016July 14, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

Everyone’s favourite downtown eyesore, Somerset House, was in the news again this week. For as long as I’ve lived in Ottawa, the building has been in a state of disrepair, and it got me wondering what this building looked like in its heyday. I managed to dig up this old picture courtesy of OttawaStart.com.

Somerset House circa 1900 (Image via Heritage Ottawa)

Somerset House was originally built in 1899, and over the years was a dry goods store, a hotel, and a pub. Unrelated to the building, but worth noting, is in the picture above, the person to the right in the foreground appears to be riding a donkey.

You can see a sliver of the building in this later photo of the corner of Bank and Somerset. The building in the centre of this photo was the Bank of Montreal, and is currently part of the Your Independent Grocer (known more commonly, of course, as Hartman’s) – you can still see this outer facade on the Somerset side of the building.

(Bank of Montreal exterior, 1954. Image MG393-NP-30364-001, copyright held by the City of Ottawa Archives)

Improved Search Function in WestlawNext Canada

Posted on July 12, 2016July 12, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

There’s an exciting new feature in WestlawNext Canada that we just had to share with our legal research keeners. Brenda and I cheered out loud when this feature launched a few weeks ago, it’s that exciting!

From any page on WestlawNext Canada, you can now do a targeted search by clicking on the “Find” button at the end of the white search box. This will open the “Find Dropdown” template, which is a search box that gives you the option of retrieving materials by case, statute, or regulation name or citation.

The benefit of using this template is that when you know what you’re trying to find on WestlawNext (a certain case, a specific section of an act, etc.), as opposed to running a general keyword search, this will bring those documents up to the top of your results list, and not flood your results with documents you don’t need. Try it out, and let us know how it works for you!

Research Tip: Ontario Labour Agreements

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

This legal research tip comes from In Session, the monthly newsletter of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL). Check it out:

Finding a copy of a collective agreement in Ontario is now easier than ever before! All collective agreements in Ontario are now available online through the Ministry of Labour’s Collective Agreements e-Library Portal. They are searchable by full text and also categorized by industry type. Collective agreements are available as downloadable pdf documents. A full list of all employer and union relationships in the province is also available through the Portal.

For further questions, contact Collective Bargaining Information Services: cbis@ontario.ca.

Here are some other frequently difficult to find labour resources:

Ontario Union Bargaining Certificates: Use the OLRB certificates database, a collection of certificates from 2007 to date. For older certificates from 1962 contact the Ontario Workplace Tribunals Library 416-314-3700 or owtl@wst.gov.on.ca. They will email .pdf copies free of charge.

Ontario Labour Arbitration Decisions: For unreported decisions contact the Ministry of Labour Arbitration Services at 416- 326-1300 or mol.arbitrationservices@ontario.ca. (CCLA Note: for reported decisions, Quicklaw has the best coverage, with a complete run from 1992 to the present as well as over 2700 significant decisions from 1949 to 1991.)

Ontario Education Relations Commission Decisions (ERC): Contact Ministry of Labour, Collective Bargaining Information Services at 416-326-1260 or cbis@ontario.ca.

Recently Published Ottawa Decisions

Posted on July 5, 2016July 5, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

Find below recently published Ottawa decisions, available for free through CanLII.org.

Family Matters

Daher v Burrowes (2016 ONSC 4368)
extraordinary expenses — amounts — allowed — motion — income
Justice P. Roger

Gamble v Longpre (2016 ONSC 4253)
costs — misunderstood — self-represented — proceeding — enforceable
Justice T. Ray

Swain v Montanaro (2016 ONSC 4295)
child support — undue hardship — arrears — long-term disability — financial circumstances
Justice P. Smith

Tajik v. Maharlouie (2016 ONSC 4248)
motion — costs — disclosure — proportionality — bring
Justice A. Doyle

Nye v Nye (2016 ONSC 3905)
termination of spousal support — costs — successful — life insurance — offer
Justice M. Shelston

Dumais c. Bergeron (2016 ONCS 4170)
père — mère — horaire — grands-parents maternels — accouchement
Juge A. Doyle

Civil Matters

Meehan v Good (2016 ONSC 4274)
costs — retainer — partial indemnity — motion for summary — proceeding
Justice B. Warkentin

Continue reading →

#ThrowbackThursday

Posted on June 23, 2016June 23, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

Credit: William James Topley/Library and Archives Canada/PA-

To quote the Joni Mitchell song, “They paved paradise / And put up a parking lot.” I don’t know that anyone would describe the Supreme Court as paradise, but what was once the beautiful old Supreme Court building is currently a parliamentary parking lot.

I stumbled across this interior picture on the Library and Archives Canada online image database, and immediately wanted to take a trip back through time to see this building. In use by the court from 1882 to 1945, the building was originally built as the Board of Works (nowadays Public Works and Government Services) Workshops Building, and it was actually shared with the National Gallery. Alas, the building was demolished in 1956, and the lot it was on has remained relatively empty since then (click here to see that spot in Google street view). To learn more about this building, and see some more vintage Ottawa pictures, check out this great post.

New Book Alert: Sopinka on the Trial of an Action, 3rd Edition

Posted on June 22, 2016June 22, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

Long considered a classic on trial advocacy, the third edition of Sopinka on the Trial of an Action has recently been published by LexisNexis. The second edition, published in 1998 (shortly after the sudden passing of The Honourable Mr. Justice John Sopinka in 1997), has been well-loved at this library. We’ve gone through several copies in the last 18 years, and we’re sure this new edition will inspire and educate a new generation of barristers.

For this edition, J. Kenneth McEwan, Q.C., has updated the previous version, while keeping so much of what made it a great book, and also included a new introductory chapter. For more a bit more on what to expect from this edition, check out the LexisNexis website.

The book is so new that we haven’t even let it out of our cataloguing area yet. If you would like to see it, however, just ask!

Recently Published Ottawa Decisions

Posted on June 21, 2016June 21, 2016 by Jennifer Walker

Find below recently published Ottawa decisions, available for free through CanLII.org.

Family Matters

Smilde v Smilde (2016 ONSC 3979)
girls — access — appointments — summer — daughters
Justice R. Beaudoin

Tremblay v Tremblay (2016 ONSC 3898)
costs — property — value — exceeded her offers to settle — successful
Justice K. Phillips

Castedo v Haldorsen (2016 ONSC 3870)
spousal support — payor — income — second family — debts
Justice A. Doyle

Martinuk v Graham (2016 ONSC 3686)
father — child support — costs — retroactive — offer
Justice P. Kane

Salame v Massoud (2016 ONSC 3268)
father — children — costs — motion — jurisdiction
Justice L. Sheard

Wirta v Wirta (2016 ONSC 3835)
retention — children s habitual residence — border — wrongful — removal
Justice J. Mackinnon

King v King (2016 ONSC 3752)
access visits — child — e-mail — father — hours in duration
Justice S. Corthorn

Civil Matters

Geographic Resources Integrated Data Solutions Ltd. v Peterson (2016 ONSC 3920)
deliver his responding expert report — schedule — circulate — steps — acting
Justice R. Beaudoin

McMurtry v McMurtry (2016 ONSC 2853)
gift — ownership — evidence — shares — relief
Justice S. Corthorn

Continue reading →