Recently Published Ottawa Decisions

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

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

Family Matters

Leedy v Leedy (2017 ONSC 868)
temporary spousal support — access — unwise — generous — ordered
Justice C. Hackland

Smith v McQuinn (2017 ONSC 859)
costs — offer to settle — motion — post-secondary educational expenses — support
Justice A. Doyle

Verhey v Verhey (2017 ONSC 837)
jurisdiction to vary — post-secondary education — married — agreement — separation
Justice M. Shelston

Wood v Evans (2017 ONSC 891)
mental health — child support — costs orders — private investigator — meritless
Justice T. Ray

Melis v Zwanenburg (2017 ONSC 613)
payee spouse — income — equalization — pension — double recovery
Justice R. Beaudoin

Civil Matters

Mannion Heating & Plumbing, Strang and Strang Management, v, Bam Industries and Bruce Minty Ltd. (2017 ONSC 934)
clients — entitled to accept unsolicited work — injunction — solicitation — enjoins
Justice M. Labrosse

McLeish v Daines (2017 ONSC 903)
jury — correcting instruction — analogy — police officer — cash grab
Justice R. Smith

Continue reading →

State of Washington & State of Minnesota v. Trump

Posted on by Brenda Lauritzen

It’s hard to stay away from the news these days, but those closely following the appeal from Trump’s Immigration Ban in the United States might be interested to see that due to interest in the case, the 9th Circuit has put up a webpage for all of the related court documents. Some light reading for those inclined.

There’s been quite a legal flurry north of the border in response to the ban as well. Courthouse Libraries BC has arranged an upcoming webinar entitled “Canadian Lawyers and the Impact of the US Executive Orders (Muslim Ban)”, to take place on Monday, February 27th, 3:30-4:30 PM EST. BC lawyer Peter Edelmann will be joined by US attorney Nikhil Shah to discuss:

  • The EO and whom it affects.
  • The effects of the various injunctions (MA, NY, CA, etc.) and appeals and what this means practically for affected people seeking access to the US.
  • Legal procedure and rights at the US Border.
  • Some expectations/predictions re future banned countries.
  • Canada’s next possible moves (e.g. Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement).
  • Information about the Canadian and US lawyer alliances/participation in this crisis.
  • What you, the lawyer on the front lines (or who wants to get involved) needs to know, e.g. what you can accomplish v. what you should expect.

You can register for the webinar here.

Research Tip: New CanLII Highlighting Feature

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

While we were preparing for the holidays and wrapping up those last minute reference questions in 2016, a cool new feature was quietly rolled out in CanLII – so quietly that we didn’t even notice until last month! If you’re a regular user of CanLII, you’ll want to check this out.

Highlighting terms within CanLII has always been a handy feature. If you’re performing a keyword search, CanLII will highlight where the words appear in the document you select and read from your search results, allowing you to scroll through the text to find those terms. Now, you can edit those terms right from within your search!

 

As in this photo, the keyword search was for “Constructive Dismissal.” The instances of that phrase in the document are highlighted in blue. Now, if you wanted to add another word or phrase, you can click on the little pencil icon next to the down arrow…

 

And a box will open, allowing you to type in another word or phrase! Hit enter… Continue reading →

#ThrowbackThursday: The Carleton Medal

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

Of the four awards handed out annually by the CCLA, the Carleton Medal is our oldest and most prestigious. This award celebrates someone from our community who has made a significant impact on the profession over the course of their career. The list of recipients of the Carleton Medal is truly impressive – you can check out the full list here.

Carleton Medal – Kenneth Jarvis, R.C.A. (1988)

The history of the Carleton Medal is told with great detail in the book that was written for the 100th anniversary of the CCLA. The Medal was actually struck in that year to mark the centenary, and was designed by Kenneth Jarvis, Q.C., R.C.A. The design was based on the armorial bearings of Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester. Here’s what The First Century has to say:

The main element of his armorial achievement was the broad arrow, and this has been incorporated in the design of the Carleton Medal in two modes; on the obverse it appears in the naturalistic form of the arrowhead plant, a hardy and familiar native of Canadian lakes and streams. In this form it represents growth and vigour, striving upward towards the light, and producing, in due season, fine white blossoms. At the top of the obverse of the medal are the buds of future flowers symbolic of continuing growth. The two plants with their leaves and blooms represent the French and English components of the Association.

The motto, vicimus virtute, may be translated victory through merit and combines the ideas of conflict and the just resolution of it in favour of the more meritorious or deserving. … The motto relates also to Guy Carleton’s motto, quondam his vicimus armis, which may be translated, with these arms of yore we conquered.

(From: William C.V. Johnson, ed, The First Century: Essays on the History of the County of Carleton Law Association by Various Hands on the Occasion of the Association’s Centenary, 1888-1988 (Ottawa: Bonanza Press Ltd., 1988).)

The recipient of this year’s Carleton Medal will be announced in the coming weeks, and will be presented at the CCLA Awards Dinner on March 7.

 

Ottawa Blog Roll: January 2017

Posted on by Brenda Lauritzen

Please find below links to blog posts or articles authored by the Ottawa legal community in January.

Civil Litigation

When Doctors Are Actually “Hired Guns”
– Frank Van Dyke, Van Dyke Injury Law Blog

Civil Lawyers Raise the Alarm on Case Delays
– Andrea Girones, Girones Lawyers

Construction Liens – Vacating Your Lien Does Not Mean Losing It!
– Patrick Simon, Vice and Hunter LLP

Condominium Law

Condo Manager Licensing in Ontario: The “General” licence
– Rod Escayola, Condo Adviser

Condo Managers With a Limited Licence Will Have to Work Under Supervision
– Rod Escayola, Condo Adviser

Who Will Be Exempt from Mandatory Licensing of Condo Managers?
– Rod Escayola, Condo Adviser

Licensing of Condominium Managers – Who Needs to be Licensed? (Blog No. 1 in a Series)
– Davidson Houle Allen LLP

Licensing of Condominium Managers- Licensing Timeframes and Requirements (Blog No. 2 in a Series)
– Davidson Houle Allen LLP

Licensing of Condominium Managers-Restrictions on Managers who have a Limited Condominium Management Licence (Blog No. 3 in a Series)
– Davidson Houle Allen LLP

Licensing of Condominium Managers-Who can obtain a licence to be a condominium manager? (Blog No. 4 in a Series)
– Davidson Houle Allen LLP

Licensing of Condominium Managers- Six Questions Answered (Blog No. 5 in a Series)
– Davidson Houle Allen LLP

Licensing of Condominium Managers-What are some of the statutory obligations placed upon licensees? (Blog No. 6 in a Series)
– Davidson Houle Allen LLP

Suspended Access Equipment- New OHSA Regulation Amendments in Effect January 1, 2017
– Davidson Houle Allen LLP

Corporate Commercial Law

Ontario Court of Appeal confirms Two-Year Limitation Period to Enforce American Judgments in Ontario
– Shawn O’Connor & Allison Russell, Startup.Buildup.Sellup.

It is a Governance Issue or a Management Issue? An Often Made Misdiagnosis
– Michael A. Chambers, Maclaren Corlett

Criminal Law

January 2017 Criminal Law Round-up
– Anne-Marie McElroy, McElroy Law

Justice Denied: Delay in Criminal Court and the Right to a Speedy Trial
– Anne-Marie McElroy, McElroy Law

You Are Not The Reasonable Person
– Louise Tanset, Mack’s Criminal Law

Continue reading →

Recently Published Ottawa Decisions

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

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

Family Matters

Boyer v Brown (2017 ONSC 501)
child support — evidence — impute income — expenses — motion
Justice L. Sheard

Gibeau v Parker and Rivard (2017 CanLII 2296)
costs — table child support — settlement — pay — successful
Justice M. Shelston

Bailliu v Chaloux (2017 ONSC 628)
spousal support — costs — offers to settle — lump — child support
Justice A. Doyle

Civil Matters

Walker v Hulse, Playfair and McGarry (2017 ONSC 358)
aggravated damages — termination — dismissal — deputy — distress
Justice R. Beaudoin

Soulliere (By his Guardian) v Intact Insurance (2017 ONSC 419)
structured portion of the settlement — non-structured portion of the settlement — draft — endorsement — payee
Justice S. Corthorn

Continue reading →

Fighting the Good Link Rot Fight

Posted on by Brenda Lauritzen

One of the things that keeps librarians up at night is something known as link rot (don’t get us even started on “fake news” and information literacy). There was an article highlighting this issue in the NY Times a couple of years ago, but basically, link rot happens when you cite something on the web that ends up moving its URL, changing its form somehow, or being deleted altogether. As the internet grows naturally from its infancy and more things change, it becomes harder and harder to identify sources, and more and more links lead to dead ends.

This is happening in case law and the legal world as well as the scholarly one, and you can understand how this might be important when the footnotes and links are referring to the basis of legal precedent. The Times article identified that in 2013, a study found that 49% of their Supreme Court decisions links no longer worked. There have been a couple initiatives to try and rectify this since then, the largest of which being Perma.cc, which archives and gives permanent links to resources so that they will no longer change.

Today, the Supreme Court of Canada revealed a similar project they have been working on, their depository of Internet Sources Cited in SCC Judgments (1998 – 2016), which contains permanent links to documents referred to in SCC decisions. Here is their news release regarding the service:

January 26, 2017

OTTAWA – Recognizing that web pages or websites that the Court cites in its judgments may subsequently vary in content or be discontinued, the Office of the Registrar of the SCC has located and archived the content of most online sources that had been cited by the Court between 1998 and 2016. These sources were captured with a content as close as possible to the original content cited. Links to the archived content can be found here: Internet Sources Cited in SCC Judgments (1998 – 2016).

From 2017, online internet sources cited in the “Authors Cited” section in SCC judgments will be captured and archived.  When a judgment cites such a source, an “archived version” link will be provided to facilitate future research.

An important step forward. Hopefully we will see similar initiatives by other courts to help address this issue.

Newly Received Materials from LSUC CPD

Posted on by Emily Shearer

Below are some of the most recent CPD materials added to the library collection. Each title links to the book record where you can view more details and the full table of contents. All materials are available in print at the library, or if you’re interested in only a couple of articles, feel free to email us a request for a scanned copy.

The Six-Minute Family Law Lawyer 2016 (November 29, 2016)

  • Defeating claims for the partition and sale of the matrimonial home / Cheryl Suann Williams
  • SCC watch 2016 / Martha McCarthy and Linsey Sherman
  • What’s new in collaborative law? / Brian Galbraith
  • Six recent custody and access cases you should know / Daniel S. Melamed and Jennifer L. Wilson

19th Annual Estates and Trusts Summit (November 3-4, 2016)

  • Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) issues in estate and guardianship litigation / Nimali Gamage
  • Strategies for success in “doomed” dependants’ support claims / Angela Casey and Angelique Moss
  • Case update : 2015-2016 / K. Thomas Grozinger
  • Changing trustees / Jordan Atin, Lesley Donsky, and Elizabeth Legge

Civil Litigation Practice Basics 2016 (October 5, 2016)

  • The initial client meeting and starting and defending the case / Andrew Kalamut
  • Pre-trial conferences and settlements: the basics / Andrew Winton
  • Preparing for trial and post-trial issues / Dena Varah

5th Annual Human Rights Summit (December 8, 2016)

  • Testing for drug and alcohol in the workplace / Bruce Demers
  • Addressing systemic discrimination through the law: a reflective and questioning perspective / Michael Gottheil
  • Major case law update: focus on disability and harassment / Melanie McNaught
  • Accommodating workplace stress, mental disability and other invisible disabilities / Anne M. Gregory

Research Tip: Using Google to Site Search

Posted on by Brenda Lauritzen

In the course of online legal research (especially legislative) it’s not uncommon that you come across a website’s built-in search engine that refuses to cooperate with what you want it to do. Whether that be a lack of filters, spurious results, or just a bad user interface, there are many offenders (especially, sadly, on our government websites). This at best can lead to frustration and at worst to wasting hours of time not being able to find what you’re looking for. Fortunately, there’s a underused method to leverage Google’s search engines to assist, which I’ll detail below.

But let me start by giving an example. Say we’re looking for Hansard Debates or Committee Proceedings on the Ontario Legislative Assembly website that discuss the Police Services Amendment Act of 1997. I was able to pull up the page for the bill, as seen below, but I unfortunately soon discover that the Act was earlier than when they start directly linking out to any related debates or committee reports from that page.

Knowing, however, that they do have the Debates and Committee Documents online dating back to at least the 1970s, there must be a way to find them. You could try using their built-in search engine at the top right, or even their Advanced Hansard search, but by doing so I’ve usually found myself wading through multiple long documents, most of which do not pertain to what I am looking for.

Fortunately, there’s a quicker way, and Google can be used to do a lot of the heavy lifting here. You can easily narrow a generic Google search to search only a single website. To do this, in a regular google search just type in:

site:http://www.ontla.on.ca/ police services act 105

This will search all of the Ontario Legislative Assembly’s website for the keywords Police Services Act and 105 (I used the bill number to narrow it down from other amending acts). Voila, you can see below our more relevant results linking directly to committee reports, in the usual Google format we are familiar with.

You can do this with any website whose search engine might not be the best. Just use:

site:[url] [keywords]

And let Google do its thing.

#ThrowbackThursday: Ottawa Public Library

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

There was an intriguing op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen this week regarding the hot-button issue of the location of a new Ottawa Public Library main branch. In a piece by architect Allan Teramura, the argument is made for building a new show-stopping library in Confederation Park (which, oh hey, is right across the street from the Courthouse!). I’m personally a huge fan of the current darling of the library world – the Halifax Public Library central branch, mentioned in the op-ed – and if we can have something of that caliber in our city, it would be truly exciting.

This lead me to thinking about the OPL main branch, and particularly what I had heard of but had never seen for myself – pictures of the previous main branch, which was a Carnegie library. Carnegie libraries were libraries built at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries with money donated from Andrew Carnegie. If you’ve never heard of these, here’s the wiki (and with 125 built in Canada, there’s a decent chance there was a Carnegie library near you at some point! Here’s some more information on Canadian Carnegies specifically.). Ottawa’s Carnegie library was opened in 1906, at the same location as the current main branch, and this is probably my favourite picture of it:

Swoon! This blog post from Unforgotten Ottawa has a great collection of pictures, and a lot more information on this library, including why and when it was eventually replaced with the building we have today.