Form 53, report timetables adding cost for litigants in civil cases
By Michael McKiernan | Publication Date: Monday, 26 July 2010
New rules governing the use of expert witnesses in the civil justice system have increased costs and caused confusion, according to lawyers who retain them.
By Michael McKiernan | Publication Date: Monday, 26 July 2010
A Toronto lawyer who admitted last week to bilking Legal Aid Ontario out of $30,000 in over-billed services has had his licence suspended ahead of a hearing to determine whether or not the Law Society of Upper Canada will disbar him.
Crowns’ libel case against MPPs to be closely watched
By Michael McKiernan | Publication Date: Monday, 26 July 2010
Defamation lawyers will be closely watching a libel case launched by three Crown lawyers against two MPPs that touches on some of the most contentious issues in the field.
Fighting crime worth the cost: Toews The Truth in Sentencing Act was passed to ensure that convicted offenders serve a sentence that reflects the severity of their crimes.
NOTED LAW PROFS DIE Daniel Soberman, the last surviving founding faculty member at the Queen’s University Faculty of Law, died last week at age 80.
In 1957, the constitutional and corporate law expert left Dalhousie University to team up with Alex Corry and Stuart Ryan at the new law school.
He later became the faculty’s second dean and was awarded an honorary doctor of laws at its 2008 spring convocation.
During a 42-year academic career at Queen’s, Soberman served as president of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers and conducted influential studies examining academic freedom. Flags on campus were lowered to half-mast as a mark of respect.
At the same time, University of Windsor law professor John Whiteside died last week, nearly 50 years after helping establish the university.
He was on the original board of directors in the early 1960s before joining the law faculty in 1975 after a long career in private practice. In 1990, he was named professor emeritus while continuing to teach after his retirement.
In 1999, the Law Society of Upper Canada awarded Whiteside the Law Society Medal for his contribution to the profession.
Windsor lawyer Peter Hrastovec, a former student of Whiteside’s, described his memories of his colleague to the Windsor Star. “[He], to put it very simply, was a giant among lawyers,” he said.
OBA MAKES TOUGH DECISION The Ontario Bar Association has named Bonnie Tough as the recipient of its 2010 Award for Excellence in Civil Litigation.
“If I go on a web site and I see all this colour and personality, but when I walk into the office and it’s all bookcases and maybe some boring old pictures of judges or worse, pictures from Home Depot, then they’re not portraying themselves as who they really are in the office space.”
— Jo-Ann McCluskey, Joan of Art corporate art consultancy