Monthly Archives: July 2012

M Trebilcock, A Duggan and L Sossin, eds, Middle Income Access to Justice

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We are delighted to announce the publication of Middle Income Access to Justice, edited by Michael Trebilcock, Anthony Duggan, and Lorne Sossin. This highly anticipated book is a collection of papers presented at last year’s colloquium. If you are interested in ordering a copy, please see the information below.

Online: www.utppublishing.com

By email: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca

By mail:

University of Toronto Press

5201 Dufferin Street

Toronto, M3H 5T8

By phone: 1-800-565-9523 (North America)(416) 667-7791

By fax: 1-800-221-9985(North America)(416) 667-7832

L’AVOCAT DANS LA CITÉ : éthique et professionnalisme

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There is a new book on ethics and professionalism, L’AVOCAT DANS LA CITÉ : éthique et professionnalisme, published by les éditions Thémis and edited by Benoît Moore, Catherine Piché et Marie-claude Rigaud.  The publication is bilingual and includes chapters by members of CALE.  It will go to print in August and should be available this fall.

The table of contents is available if you click HERE.  You will eventually be able to buy the book through the Thémis website if you click HERE.

First Annual General Meeting of CALE

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Please take notice that the first AGM of CALE will take place on Friday, July 13, 2012 at 745am in the Vistas Dining Room at the Banff Centre.

Please see the attached agenda and below.  All members in good standing are entitled to vote at this meeting.  All members of the CALE listserv are considered members in good standing of CALE (if you would like to join the listserv, contact Adam Dodek at adam.dodek – at – uottawa.ca).

Please find attached CALE By-Law No 1.  The incorporating directors of CALE are Brent Cotter (Chair), Richard Devlin, Adam Dodek, Jasminka Kalajdzic and Alice Woolley.

Adam Dodek

Corporate Secretary and Treasurer Continue reading →

I. Mulgrew: Mistrial Declared After Lawyer Channels Carson to Mock Witness

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Written by Ian Mulgrew.

Posted to the Vancouver Sun, July 3, 2012:

The lawyer held up a sealed envelope and asked the ICBC accident reconstruction expert to play a psychic and divine the math problem it contained.

A puzzled B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Voith prohibited Thomas Harding from going further, but in closing argument the Surrey litigator spelled it out: “Although Johnny Carson is dead, the Amazing Carnac lives on.”

The judge said the lawyer went too far lampooning the professional engineer as the legendary talk-show host’s “wizard buffoon” persona – a “ridiculous, turbaned and bejewelled caricature” known as Carnac the Magnificent.

Like Queen Victoria, Justice Voith was not amused: “Though a jury trial ‘is a fight,’ I do not accept that it is an alley fight.”

A lawyer can zealously advocate for a client but there are limits, in the judge’s view, and Harding had crossed them with his sarcasm. Continue reading →

A Hutchinson: Salomon Redux: The Moralities of Business

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Allan Hutchinson, “Salomon Redux: The Moralities of Business” (2012) 35 Seattle University Law Review 1109 – 1133.

For all but the corporate lawyer, Salomon is more helpfully understood as a decision that is less about the legal status of a corporate entity and more about the morality of business practices, including but not limited to, incorporation. Continue reading →

J Kalajdzic: Self-Interest, Public Interest, and the Interests of The Absent Client

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Jasminka Kalajdzic’s new article “Self-Interest, Public Interest, and the Interests of The Absent Client: Legal Ethics and Class Action Praxis” (2011) 49 Osgoode Hall L J 1 is available if you click HERE.

Professor Janet Walker, Osgoode Hall Law School, discusses the article in a post on Jotwell, July 2, 2012:

It is surprising what you can learn by watching the next generation coming of age. In this way, lawyers in the United States can gain much from following the experiences of the Canadian legal community as it climbs the steep learning curve needed to formulate the parameters and protocols for complex litigation.

Civil litigation and the structure of the legal profession in Canada do not pretend to challenge American exceptionalism. There are important differences between the two legal systems. But they have enough in common that academics and others in the U.S. can gain useful insight into class actions practice by hearing how Canadians are currently struggling to meet the kinds of challenges that have long been the subject of debate in the U.S. In this fine article, Jasminka Kalajdzic explores a new subject, at least for Canadian lawyers: the special ethical concerns that arise for counsel in class actions.

For the full analysis, click HERE.

Ian Mulgrew: Mistrial declared after lawyer channels Carson to mock witness

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Written by Ian Mulgrew

Posted to the Vancouver Sun, July 3, 2012

The lawyer held up a sealed envelope and asked the ICBC accident  reconstruction expert to play a psychic and divine the math problem it  contained.

A puzzled B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Voith prohibited Thomas Harding  from going further, but in closing argument the Surrey litigator spelled it out:  “Although Johnny Carson is dead, the Amazing Carnac lives on.”

The judge said the lawyer went too far lampooning the professional engineer  as the legendary talk-show host’s “wizard buffoon” persona – a “ridiculous,  turbaned and bejewelled caricature” known as Carnac the Magnificent.

To read more, click HERE.