The availability of Canadian court information varies greatly from province to province, as do the ways in which researchers can access it.

Sarah Richmond of Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP has put together a very helpful table of where to search for or obtain court documents from the various provinces and territories. Meris Bray, a Librarian at the University of Windsor, has converted this table into a freely-accessible webpage which can be found at https://www.uwindsor.ca/law/library/390/canadian-court-recordsdockets.

— Susannah Tredwell…

Those in need of a lawyer are often in one of the most stressful experiences of their lives. Divorce proceedings, criminal accusations, or personal injury claims turn entire lives upside-down, while something as routine as the purchase of a first home can still be overwhelming. What for the client may be a fulcrum holding their future in the balance, for their lawyer may be just a Tuesday—one of perhaps over a dozen files ongoing at any time.

Yet, it is easy for the lawyer to invest themselves in their clients’ causes and fortunes, taking their wins and losses to heart, …

Nevertheless and nonetheless mean the same thing (‘notwithstanding’), so they can be used interchangeably. Nonetheless is a more recent coinage.

Both started as three words, but over time ended up as one. It’s now always nevertheless, but the three-word form none the less is still seen, especially in the UK.

There is a certain logic to none the less, if spelling it as a single word might suggest an odd pronunciation (non-EATHE-less, with the second syllable rhyming with breathe).

But you’re fine nevertheless with nonetheless.

–Neil Guthrie (@guthrieneil)…

It’s so tempting to scroll through your LinkedIn feed and ‘like’ stuff, isn’t it? There is so much pressure to show up and post something. Everyone else seems to be. But is hitting the ‘like’ button really the right response?

Today’s tip isn’t just a tip. It’s a challenge!

For the next 30 days, every time you find yourself reaching for that ‘like’ button, stop yourself. Ask yourself if you can go further. Is there anything you can write that would add value? Convey point of view, experience or insight? Or simply present your personality?

Why is this so important?…

A student who is helping a partner with writing a book (I hope he gets due credit) called to ask which verb tense to use in describing cases.

My answer was that it depends on context.

I think you would say that a judge found, held or stated something in a particular case.

Perhaps where you are talking about a judge’s obiter dicta rather than ratio decidendi, you would use the present tense: In this case, So-and-so J discusses the applicable factors. But you would say, The judge said in dicta that …

Where the description is depersonalised, …

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT) has published a detailed tip sheet on finding WSIAT decisions online.

It explains how to search by topic, issue, words or phrases and more. Step-by-step instructions are provided for searching by WSIB policy number, section of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, and with summaries.

Instructions are for CanLII but also cover the “Noteworthy Decisions” section of the Tribunal’s website.

Hat tip to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development What’s New newsletter for highlighting this resource.…

Ontario now allows legal professionals to search for Superior Court of Justice court cases online. To search, you will need to set up a ONe-key account. (There is no cost to set up an account.)

You can search by either party name (i.e. surname or business name) or by case number.

Information provided includes the parties, the name of the lawyer representing the person or company (if represented), the claim amount (for civil matters), the date the case was opened, the most recent order type and date (for civil matters), the next appearance type and date (if a …

You may have seen that the US District Court for the District of Columbia has issued guidance (it isn’t framed as a directive, exactly) on its preferences for typefaces in documents submitted to the court.

Briefs (as they call them in the USA) must be at least 14-point in size (judges tend to be older, and presumably need large-print formats), and in a font with serifs. (Oddly the court’s notice is in a sans serif typeface.)

The court then goes on to say it has ‘determined that certain typefaces, such as Century and Times New Roman, are more legible than …

If you’re a power Lexbox user, you’ll be interested to know that Lexbox Premium is now available. The premium account includes:

• integration with Clio
• 5GB of uploads storage (or even more: 20GB for an additional fee)
• up to 100 alert feeds (or even more: 400 extra alerts for an additional fee)
• unlimited history, hyperlinking of your docs to primary law, and search within your docs

See a comparison between Base (free) accounts and Premium accounts here.  The Premium account is $20/month and is billed monthly.

It’s also important to note that “all revenues generated are kept within the …

The meanings of words change over time.

A nice example is condescending, which not so long ago meant something along the lines of ‘being gracious to the underlings’ (the King James Bible, Dr Johnson and Lord Byron use it in this sense). Since the later nineteenth century, it has meant ‘patronising’ (in a bad way; that also once had a neutral or even positive connotation).

Another is meticulous, a quality we now seek in new legal hires, but a word which used to mean ‘timid’ or ‘fearful’ rather than ‘detail-oriented’.

Only a pedant would cling to the old …