Legal citations like to pack the largest amount of information in the smallest amount of space. However, if you are not familiar with the abbreviation for a specific law journal or reporter, it can be tricky figuring out what is being referred to from a few scant letters. Adding to the confusion is that one journal may be referred to by different abbreviations and the same abbreviation may be used for multiple law reports. (For example, does the B in B.L.R. refer to Business or Building or Burma?)

Fortunately there are a number of resources to assist in deciphering these …

I’ll be tuning into the videocast of Barry Fisher’s 16th Annual Employment Law Summit in a few hours, so I suppose I have CPD on my mind.

Today’s post might be half rant, half tip, but I do have a few suggestions on Ontario’s CPD program for the LSUC that I will take the liberty of outlining:

1. As your technology departments are capable of the miracle that brings CPD programmes directly to our video screens in real time, surely they can also develop a simple protocol to automatically post our LSUC CPD hours directly to the LSUC portal once a 

My first tip is simple: get writing!

Or, more to the point, get blogging.

Blogged content has high visibility and much higher readership than content that is distributed by e-mail. Unless you have a very targeted and well-maintained e-mail distribution list, it’s unlikely that a publication sent by e-mail will be opened (much less read) by more than 5% of its recipients.

Contrast that with material that is posted on a blog, which can easily get views in the four digits. Blog posts also have the advantage of being picked up the aggregators (LinkedIn, Lexology, Mondaq, JD Supra), which widen …

♫ I got something that will sure ’nuff set your stuff on fire
…
Tell me something good (tell me, tell me, tell me)…♫

Lyrics and music by Stevie Wonder, recorded by Rufus and Chaka Khan,

Lawyers are sensitive souls. No lawyer wants to receive a complaint from a client.  However, what you don’t know can, in this case, actually hurt you.  The failure to complain by a dissatisfied client may result in the client leaving quietly but then causing maximal damage to the law firm’s reputation by talking to others about their bad experience.

When given a …

I shared some tips about technology skills with some fine folks via webinar with CBA Manitoba’s Legal Research Section recently.  One of the tech skills was about noting up:

Note up cases for judicial history as well as consideration of decisions by other cases and legal commentary using multiple database sources (fee and free)

The tip was about the way to execute performing a noteup using CanLII, WestlawNext Canada and LexisNexis Quicklaw.

Melanie R. Bueckert, LL.B., LL.M., Legal Research Counsel at the Manitoba Court of Appeal offered this excellent addition:

The only thing I would have added, if we had

Large enterprises typically have entire departments dedicated to maintaining positive cash flow.  They employ predictable, set  billing cycles, procedures that address accounts receivables, and where appropriate, safeguards to ensure that adequate deposits are on hand to secure pending purchases or services to be delivered.

Small businesses and professional practices generally do not have the resources or the know-how to maintain such discrete departments or to otherwise implement such efficiencies.

Nonetheless, with a bit of planning, organization, and structure, businesses and professional practices of every size can adopt procedures that can generate significant improvement in ongoing cash flow performance.

Here are …

♫  I need to hear from You 
Before this night is through 
I need to hear from You 
So I’m waiting, waiting just to hear from you…♫

Lyrics and music by: Robert Hartman, recorded by Petra.

This week, Garry Wise and I chatted about the possible topics that we could cover in this column over the next while.  Without being exhaustive, I pulled together the following list from our discussions.  Now it is up to you. In the comments section, please indicate which topic(s) are of greatest interest to you!  We really want to hear from you and to …

Today’s Tip was inspired by a news release that crossed my email:

Canadian startup launches law search engine
Legal technology puts 5 million pages of laws from around the world

(September 24, 2015, Toronto) – Canadian startup, Global-Regulation Inc., has just launched a law search engine that enables searching 225,000+ laws from the European Union, United States, Canada, China, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Germany, Japan and other countries.

“Our software automatically translates laws into English so our users can search the world’s laws,” says Founder Addison Cameron-Huff. “Automatic translation makes the world’s laws instantly accessible to researchers,

They may be the three most difficult words for certain professionals to utter.

The mere temptation to speak them aloud has even been known (among some, it is rumoured), to dredge up sweaty palms, blinding pillars of ego and fortress-thick walls of denial.

I don’t know. 

Or if you prefer, I dunno.

Je ne sais pas.

Or or as it is said in ancient legalese, “a comprehensive answer to this most important enquiry is not yet at my immediate fingertips.”

However you phrase it, get used to saying it.

I don’t know. 

There are lots of things we are all …

♫ Where you lead, I will follow
Anywhere that you tell me to
If you need, you need me to be with you
I will follow where you lead..♫

Lyrics and music by Toni Stern and Carole King, recorded by Carole King.

Lawyers, I surmise, believe with their long history and experience that they are the innovators of any changes in the legal/justice system.  However, that theory may need further examination. In fact it may have to be turned onto its head.

There is a countervailing theory, promoted by Eric von Hippel and others, that users and consumers of …