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VOOZH | about |
Used by hostage negotiators, journalists, mediators and others, active listening provides a shortcut to developing trust and understanding between people. For lawyers, its application is professionally significant: those who listen actively stand to develop stronger client relationships, gain clearer insight into client needs and are better positioned to provide effective representation.
B.C.’s top court has turned back an argument by a man who went to the United States to receive medical treatment that the province’s failure to reimburse his costs violated his constitutional rights.
Ottawa has proposed a new legislative regime for private-sector privacy regulation that imposes a raft of obligations on how businesses and other non-governmental organizations handle Canadians’ personal data, with oversight from a robust dual privacy and digital harms regulator armed with audit and binding order-making powers, backed by hefty administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) and fines for the most serious new offences.
The federal Liberal government’s expansive new bill targeting online harms to children from social media and AI chatbots also takes aim at terrorism and violent extremist content, content that foments hatred and intimate content communicated without consent. Introduced in the House of Commons June 10 by Marc Miller, the minister of Canadian identity and culture, the 92-page Safe Social Media Act (Bill C-34) would enact two other statutes: the Digital Safety Act and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act.
The Supreme Court’s controversial Jordan decision, which has sparked the dismissal of thousands of cases due to unconstitutional trial delay, is still good law, but stays of proceedings are not a cure for undue systemic trial delay, Canada’s top judge says. “One stay of proceedings is too many,” Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner stressed at his annual press conference in Ottawa June 9.
Canadian real estate lawyers are accustomed to handling closings end to end. Under Canada’s Torrens-style land titles systems, the government register provides statutory assurance of title, and closings largely involve inter-law-firm fund exchanges. When your client purchases real property in the United States, however, the process is fundamentally different. There is no government guarantee of title. Instead, title evidence and settlement are private-market functions performed by title insurers and escrow/settlement agents. Understanding these differences is essential to properly advising your client on a U.S. real estate acquisition.
McLennan Ross has welcomed Alexa Pashovitz to its Calgary office, where she has joined the insurance defence and commercial litigation team.
Yukon’s Supreme Court has issued a directive on the use of generative AI “in written and oral representations” in a bid to reinforce the “integrity and credibility of legal proceedings.”
When a Canadian court or tribunal finds that a party has relied on a case that does not exist, the consequence is far from uniform. In one decision, the lawyer responsible was ordered to pay $17,550 in costs personally. In another, the order was $100. In 60 of the 177 decisions we reviewed, the adjudicator identified the problem but imposed no consequence at all.
Hayley Main has rejoined Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP (TDS) as a litigation associate in its Winnipeg office.