Canada

Alberta court rules licence plates as public info, Ottawa Citizen

Danny Williams's ex-law firm under fire, CBC

Ontario enjoys 35 years of seatbelt laws, The Barrie Examiner

United States

Arizona's illegal immigration dispute frozen by courts, Fox News

Court tells Winklevoss twins to accept Facebook settlement, Reuters

International

Regulators define how to regulate 'shadow' banks, Reuters 

Egypt still rigid over free speech rights, Reuters

Governments often slip little-noticed and seemingly unrelated items into their spending plans, but just a single line in the recent provincial budget measures bill is causing a split within Ontario’s medical community.

Photo: John Foxx

Section 15 of the “better tomorrow for Ontario act,” which is currently in second reading before the legislature, would amend the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to provide an exemption for the release of “information provided to, or records prepared by, a hospital committee for the purpose of assessing or evaluating the quality of health care and directly related programs and services provided by the hospital.”

The provisions take effect Jan. 1, 2012. The new amendments come just a few months after the government passed Bill 122, the Broader Public Sector Accountability Act, that provided broad public access to hospitals’ administrative and policy-related information for the first time by subjecting them to the freedom of information act. The latest proposed changes would partially reverse those reforms.

A nurses’ organization has slammed the move. “The public has a right to know what’s happening in its local hospitals,” the London Free Press quoted Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario executive director Doris Grinspun as saying.

“It’s absolutely shameful and the height of arrogance,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath chimed in.

But Health Minister Deb Matthews has defended the move to exempt information related to quality of care from public release. According to the Free Press, Matthews believes subjecting hospitals and doctors to greater scrutiny would prevent open dialogue about problems and how to fix them. “They must have a very open and frank discussion,” she said.

Canada

Canadians drool over U.S. pot insurance, CTV

Pension ruling could throw wrench into insolvency proceedings, The Globe and Mail

Nova Scotia makes historical decision in abused woman case, The Globe and Mail

United States

Concussion law to protect high school athletes, indystar.com

New Jersey prosecutor leads insider-trading investigations, Reuters

International

France initiates face veil ban, Reuters

Bahrain prosecutor questions three opposition reporters, Reuters

A coalition of equity-seeking groups hopes to make diversity an issue in this year’s bencher elections in Ontario, with a new web site that lists candidates’ responses to a probing survey on their approach to diversity in the profession.

Milé Komlen says bencher candidates are taking diversity issues seriously.

Late last month, the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers, the Ontario Bar Association’s sexual orientation and gender identity committee, the Women’s Law Association of Ontario, the South Asian Bar Association, the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, and the Hispanic Ontario Lawyer Association teamed up to distribute its Bencher Candidate Equity Survey to all candidates in this year’s Law Society of Upper Canada bencher election.

Candidates have until April 11 to get their responses in, but several early birds have already set out their positions, and you can view them at the project’s web site. The web site will be updated as candidates respond.

“Anyone can just say on their platforms ‘I want to increase diversity,’” says Jason Leung, president of the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers. “What we would like to find out is what in your past shows you have a history of making this a priority, and what ideas do you have for making it go forward.”

Milé Komlen, the director of human rights and equity services at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., also chairs the LSUC’s equity advisory group, where the idea for the survey came from. The group is made up of representatives from the seven associations involved, and Komlen says this initiative is the first time there’s been such a concerted effort to get diversity on the agenda for bencher elections.

“People are taking it seriously. The responses we’ve seen so far indicate they’re thinking about these issues,” he says.

Canada

Canada equipped to deal with alleged war criminal, Calgary Herald

Ex-judge's candour potential liability for Liberals, Winnipeg Free Press

Tories to promise anti-crime bill, CBC News

United States

New York criminalizes strangulation, Reuters

Time Warner Cable, Viacom grapple in iPad TV lawsuit, Reuters

International

U.K. law firms dabble in policy-making, The Guardian

Belgian PM to discipline prince, Reuters

The Law Society of Upper Canada bencher elections are well under way and it seems for the first time in the almost 14 years I’ve been writing about law in this country, that there’s a certain energy and, maybe, even enthusiasm for this year’s poll.

The combination of online voting, which opened on Monday and runs until April 29, and this apparent increased interest in the election, will hopefully lead to a few more lawyers actually exercising their franchise. In the 2007 election only 33.1 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots. The numbers have been going down over the years: in 2003, 36.7 per cent voted and in 1999, 38 per cent did.

It’s not that the issues for the profession were fewer or less pressing over the years, so perhaps it was the strain of getting the ballot into the envelope and then mailing it that led to the decrease in voting. So the LSUC decided to embrace technology and offer online voting. No need for filling in paper ballots and then remembering to actually send them off to be counted. Now, a few minutes in front of your computer (where you are most of the time anyway) and you can have your say.

That’s all good, in my opinion. But it is the first year, so there will be a few bumps along the way. A number of readers let us know that the e-mails from Computershare, the company running the online election, which contained their voting access information have ended up in their spam mailboxes. Chances are quite a few votes are now lost that way so next time the LSUC will have to be sure to come up with a way of sending the info out without it getting automatically expunged. That choice should be up to the members to do that manually!

The online polling has met with fairly good feedback from the candidates I’ve spoken to, many of whom are also optimistic that it will increase participation. But quite a few of them have also noted that a full month is a really long time for the voting to be open. When ballots had to be mailed in, it made sense, but online, voting is instantaneous. Deadlines tend to motivate people to action, but giving too much time before a deadline just means people put it on the backburner and then forget about it.

It also seems that it’s not clear that you can vote for just a few benchers and don’t have to pick 40 candidates if they would prefer not to. The pressure of trying to pick 40 may also drive some voters away, so a bit more of an obvious heads up on that front would probably help too.

So I do think there are a few bugs to be worked out but we’ll have to wait a few more weeks to see if the new system has proven to be more successful in getting people, particularly young lawyers, to vote.

But get out there and vote . . . for benchers and for MPs in the upcoming federal elections.

Follow the bencher elections on Law Times' dedicated election web site.

Canada

New biofuel law may raise price of diesel, The Gazette

Vancouver school board tangled in tuition lawsuit, The Vancouver Sun

Federal parties silent on access-to-information law, Edmonton Journal

United States

Petition seeks raise for court-appointed lawyers, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Court upholds former Enron executive's conviction, Reuters

International

Australia plans tough anti-smoking laws, Reuters

Kenyan leaders in ICC for human rights case, Reuters

The Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s latest In-House Counsel Barometer Survey suggests most lawyers are happy with their jobs and the people they work for.

The study, conducted by the CCCA in conjunction with Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP and Vision Critical, reveals the average in-house counsel has been with the same organization for seven years. At the same time, 95 per cent of those polled said they would recommend a career as in-house counsel to their private practice counterparts.

The data also suggests the trend of legal outsourcing will continue to grow, with 97 per cent of respondents revealing that outsourcing legal work is a part of their job. The report also finds that larger companies are more likely to outsource.

Meanwhile, 43 per cent of in-house counsel said they are subject to key performance indicators. However, while 61 per cent said KPIs help highlight the utility of in-house counsel, 59 per cent believed KPIs fail to live up to their promise when utilized.

The study also reveals the importance in-house counsel place on their role of managing or reducing risk. Eighty-five per cent cited risk management as their key contribution to their organization. Ensuring regulatory compliance was cited by 48 per cent as their primary function.

Law firms will be interested to know that most respondents said area of expertise is the key factor when it comes to choosing external counsel. Factors such as billing rate, directory ratings, reputation, and consistent performance were also cited as considerations, albeit for fewer respondents.

The CCCA said 864 in-house counsel filled out the online questionnaire from which the Barometer results flowed. The total sample is considered accurate to within about three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

CCCA chairman Robert Patzelt said the data would be used to help the association create “the most relevant and timely services and products for our members.”

Canada

Court dismissal keeps May out of debates, The Chronicle Herald

Top court to consider prostitution laws, Edmonton Journal

Officer gets 90 days in jail for breaking man's arm, Metro

United States

Wisconsin's union issues affect Supreme Court race, Reuters

Two arrested for $32M insider-trading scheme, Reuters

International

Italian PM sex trial adjourned until May, Reuters

Kenyans accuse U.K. of colonial human rights crimes, The Guardian

Air Canada in-house counsel Fred Headon.

Canadian Bar Association members have elected the first ever in-house lawyer as second vice president, the first step toward the organization’s national presidency, which Fred Headon will take on in 2013.

Based in Montreal, Headon heads Air Canada’s in-house labour and employment law team. He is also part of the leadership of CBA’s subgroup for in-house counsel, the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association, which is currently holding its annual spring conference in Toronto.

Legal Feeds caught up with Headon at the conference. He says he sees his election as a reflection of the changing makeup of the bar, as in-house lawyers grow in number across Canada.

“I also think this is in recognition of the strategic role that we play managing the relationship with external counsel and the files that we work on with them,” says Headon. “And I think it’s exciting that the CBA executive will now have a reflection of that part of the bar.”

About 4,200 in-house counsel are CBA members out of a total membership of 37,000.

Headon’s election comes three months after disagreements over funding and independence between the CBA and the CCCA led to the CBA abruptly dismissing all CCCA board members — including Headon. However, unlike most of the former board members, Headon was called back to be part of a transitional CCCA executive committee until a new board is constituted in August.

He says his dual role in the CBA-CCCA is a sign the organization works well with external and in-house counsel under the same umbrella.

“We are part of the same family, and this is how we work together. I think there is a lot that can be learned from both organizations,” says Headon. “There are significant differences, but at the end of the day, we all practice law.”

Called to the Bar in Quebec in 1997, Headon has been a member of the CBA since 1999. He was previously an associate and then partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. He assumes the second vice presidency of the CBA in August, 2011. A year later he becomes first vice president, and, in August 2013, takes over the national presidency.