Irish Law Reform Commission Issues Paper on Disclosure and Discovery in Criminal Cases

The Law Reform Commission of Ireland last week released an Issues Paper on Disclosure and Discovery in Criminal Cases.

The Commission is seeking input on four related issues:

1. The scope of the prosecution duty of disclosure
2. The possibility of discovery in criminal cases
3. The possibility of a procedure to provide the accused access to materials in the possession of third parties - the issue may arise in sexual offence cases where the accused seeks access to therapeutic records held by a third party who has treated or advised a potential witness. This involves the competing rights of the accused to a fair trial and the confidentiality rights of third parties and their patients or client
4. The interests of various parties in criminal proceedings, including claims to privilege 

As the document explains:

"The purpose of an Issues Paper is to provide a summary or outline of a project on which the Commission is embarking or on which work is already underway, and to provide readers with an opportunity to express views and to make suggestions and comments on specific questions. The Issues Papers are circulated to members of the legal professions and to other professional groups who are likely to have a particular interest in, or specialist knowledge of, the relevant topic."

2014 BIALL Conference Programme Available

The 2014 annual conference of BIALL (the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians) is taking place June 12-14, 2014 in Harrogate, in Yorkshire.

The Provisional Programme for the event is now available on the BIALL website.

Law Library of Congress Report on Biometric Data Retention for Passport Applicants and Holders

The Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has published a new comparative report on Biometric Data Retention for Passport Applicants and Holders.

The report compares the regulation of biometric data obtained in connection with passport applications and the preservation of such data in fifteen selected countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United States.

The Library occasionally publishes reports that compare the laws on a given theme in a number of countries. Earlier comparative law reports from the Law Library of Congress have covered topics such as:

• Adjudication of Sexual Offenses in Military Justice Systems
• Bioethics
• Campaign Finance
• Children's Rights
• Constitutional Provisions on Women's Equality
• Education of Non-Native Language Speaking Children
• Foreign Aid Regulation
• Guest Worker Programs
• Habeas Corpus Rights
• Online Privacy Law
• Repatriation of Historic Human Remains (return of indigenous remains and cultural items)
• Sex Selection & Abortion

The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2.65 million volumes from all ages of history and virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Statistics Canada Article on Police Personnel and Expenditures, 2013

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat published an article last week on Police Personnel and Expenditures, 2013:

"Using data from the Police Administration Survey (see the “Survey descriptions” section for details), this Juristat article will focus on the most recent findings regarding the rate of police strength and police expenditures. The Police Administration Survey captures police-reported data on the number of police officers in Canada by rank and sex, as well as civilian employees, based on a snapshot date (which is May 15, 2013 for the most recent data). Data on hiring, departures, and eligibility to retire in this report are based on either the 2012 calendar year or the 2012/2013 fiscal year, depending on the police service."

"Information from this survey is provided for Canada, the provinces and territories and census metropolitan areas (CMAs). In addition, this article provides information on workplace mobility within police services, including the hiring of and departures by police, and eligibility to retire. Finally, it summarizes data on the characteristics of police officers, including gender, age group, and Aboriginal and visible minority status. To provide a more complete picture of the state of policing in Canada, the following contextual information are included: policing responsibilities and strategies within the economics of policing discussions; international data on police personnel and gender from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); and wage information from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey (LFS)."

Among the highlights:

• there were 69,272 police officers in Canada, 233 fewer officers than in 2012, representing a rate of police strength of 197 police officers per 100,000 population. The 1.5% decrease in the rate of police strength reported in 2013 was the third consecutive annual decrease.
• Police services employed almost 27,900 civilians on the 2013 snapshot day. The ratio of officers to civilians has been slowly declining over the long term. A decade ago, there were 2.8 officers employed for every civilian, compared to 2.5 in 2013.
• For a second year in a row, Manitoba was the province with the highest rate of police strength, at 213 police officers per 100,000 population. Once again, Prince Edward Island reported the lowest rate of police strength, with 160 officers per 100,000 population.
• Among the census metropolitan areas, the highest rates of police strength in 2013 were reported in Thunder Bay (189) and Winnipeg (189). The lowest was reported in Moncton (111).
• The increased presence of women in policing continued in 2013. The number of female officers increased (+1.2%), while the number of male officers declined (-0.7%). Females now account for 20% of all police officers, compared to 16% a decade ago.
• Of new police officers hired by police services during the fiscal or calendar year of 2012, over two-thirds (69%) were recruit graduates, with the remainder being experienced police officers.
• In the fiscal or calendar year of 2012, 11% of police officers were eligible for retirement, yet only 2% of police officers actually retired. Retirements were the most common reason officers left a police service that year (69%).
• Expenditures on policing totalled $13.5 billion in the fiscal or calendar year of 2012. Controlling for inflation, this marks an increase of 2.8% from the previous year. With the exception of 2011, constant dollar spending on policing has been increasing since the late 1990s.

SLA April 3 Twitter Chat on Proving the Value of Information Services

The SLA (which I still like to call Special Libraries Association) is hosting a live Twitter chat on April 3rd at 3PM Eastern on the topic of Proving the Value of Information Services:

"In 2013, SLA worked with Financial Times to publish The Evolving Value of Information Management – and the five essential attributes of the modern information professional. The report focuses on how information services are perceived by executives, and finds common trends on how to ensure these services are being utilized to the fullest. These trends are boiled down into 5 essential attributes that, when exhibited, lead to an effective, lasting relationship between the information provider and the user(s). For this Twitter chat, we’ll focus on 4 of these attributes, and ask participants to share how they exemplify these attributes as information providers."

The topics are:

• Communicating Your Value – how do you overcome the difficulty in demonstrating the value of your information services to the business? How do you constantly “get closer to the action”?
• Understanding the Drivers – This can easily read “Understanding the strategy,” or “Understanding the preferences.” How do you gain an understanding of the overall strategy of your organization, and use that understanding to proactively contribute? How do you capture user preferences on an ongoing basis, and cater your services to those preferences? 
• Managing the Process – How do you develop a project management approach to delivering your services and projects? How do you manage the complexity of data at your disposal, along with the internal and external resources? How do you encourage self-service and establish multiple access points to your services? 
• Providing Decision-Ready Information – How do you ensure the utmost relevancy of your information? How do you not only provide the information needed, but seek opportunities to influence the decision yourself? What tools do you use to provide bite-size, easy-to-digest chunks and visuals? 

English Law Commission Report on Contempt of Court: Court Reporting

The English Law Commission has released its report on Contempt of Court: Court Reporting.

The Commission's recommendations include:

• Ensuring that court reporting orders banning publication for the duration of proceedings are all posted on a single publicly accessible website (a similar website currently operates in Scotland)
• Including a further restricted service where, for a charge, registered users could find out the detail of the reporting restriction and could sign up for automated email alerts of new orders
• Where there are reporting restrictions in place relating to the names of parties to the proceedings (including those whose purpose is to protect other individuals who might be identified if the names of the parties were known) the online list will identify cases by number, with a suitably anonymised case name, as is currently the practice with public court lists

The report is part of the Commission's Contempt of Court Project that also looked at juror misconduct on the Internet and contempt in the face of the court.

The Commission has provided quite a number of consultation documents, including one on contempt of court in other jurisdictions including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland.

British Columbia Queen's Printer Moving All Legislative Content Over to Free Site in April

Earlier this week, Catherine Best wrote on her Canadian Legal Research Blog that the Queen's Printer of British Columbia has announced that subscription-based legislative materials now on the QP LegalEze platform will be made available on the free BC Laws website starting next week.

The transition of content from the fee-based site to the free BC Laws will be gradual. QP LegalEze will be discontinued once all the content has been transferred over to the free site.

As Best writes:

"This is great news for anyone wanting to research British Columbia legislation. In particular, the removal in the 1996 revision of legislative history information from the legislation itself – into tables available only by subscription or through libraries – has resulted in many lawyers and students not taking the extra step to consult those tables. This information is necessary for any kind of historical legislative research, and for finding judicial consideration of earlier versions of the legislation. Starting on April 2nd, it will be freely available on BC Laws."

Here is the press release from the B.C. government.

Law Commission of Ontario Papers on Legal Capacity, Decision-Making and Guardianship

The Law Commission of Ontario has released four research papers to provide background research for its Legal Capacity, Decision-making and Guardianship project.

The papers are:

• Health Care Consent and Advance Care Planning: Standards and Supports
• Decisions, Decisions: Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Who Are Subject to Guardianship 
• Understanding the Lived Experiences of Supported Decision-making in Canada 
• Understanding and Addressing Voices of Adults with Disabilities Within Their Family Caregiving Contexts: Implications for Legal Capacity, Decision-making and Guardianship 

March/April 2014 Issue of LawNow on Disability and the Law

The most recent issue of LawNow is available online.

The magazine is published by the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta.

The current issue is devoted to language and the law and to disability and the law.

UK Government Triennial Review of English Law Commission

The Law Commission for England and Wales has just gone through the British government's triennial review of its programmes and earned mostly positive remarks.

Once every three years, what are called non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs, in other words arm's-length bodies such as the Law Commission) are put through a substantive review by the British government:

"The Cabinet Office has identified two principal aims for Triennial Reviews: 

• to provide robust challenge to the continuing need for individual NDPBs – both their functions and their form (Stage One); and

• where it is agreed that a particular body should remain as an NDPB, to review the control and governance arrangements in place to ensure that the public body is complying with recognised principles of good corporate governance (Stage Two)." [from page 4 of the Report of Stage Two]

In the case of the Law Commission, it is the UK Ministry of Justice which conducts the review.

While the report makes a number of recommendations to improve the corporate governance practices of the Commission, overall, it has identified many areas of good practice, such as:

• "Openness and engagement with stakeholders, the professions and the general public are at the core of the Commission’s work. It goes to great efforts to engage on the development of its Work Programmes as well as at all stages of individual projects, including in the development of recommendations and supporting Law Commission Bills through Parliament. The Commission’s commitment to openness was one of the key themes coming through in the responses to the Call for Evidence during Part 1 of the Triennial Review, where it was greatly welcomed by the Commission’s stakeholders. Its open and transparent approach to law reform and policy making is an exemplar of the kind of open policy making championed in the Civil Service Reform Plan (...)
• There is very regular contact between the Commission and its sponsors at all levels, on a wide range of issues relating to strategic issues, individual law reform projects and sponsorship issues. This is underpinned by regular meetings between the Commissioners and Ministers (...)
• The Law Commission has a clear purpose, set out in statute. That purpose is not just understood by the Commissioners and the Commission staff, but by the wide range of people the Commission works with, inside and outside Government and Parliament, including the general public and the legal professions." [pages 12-13]

The Law Commission for England and Wales was established by the Law Commissions Act 1965.

Twitter as a Legal Research Source

Kim Nayyer, a law librarian at the University of Victoria, published an article today on Slaw.ca about Mining Social Media for Legal Research. 

The article describes a session in her advanced legal research and writing class that looked at Twitter as a legal research source.

It describes hashtags that are useful for following discussions about the legal profession, lists a number of good Twitter accounts about law, and describes searching Twitter feeds for law-related material.

The article is the first of two. The later article will look at using blogs for legal research and maintaining privacy in web activity.

2014 Law via the Internet Conference Call for Submissions

The organizers of the 2014 Law via the Internet conference have posted a call for submissions.

The event takes place in Nairobi, Kenya 30 September-1 October 2014. The submission deadline for abstracts is 15 April 2014:

"Submission of papers is invited on topics including but not limited to the following:

1. Building economically sustainable Legal Information Institutes
2. Electoral management, politics and policy making through technology and web based applications
3. Open data platforms
4. Open access to legal information: impacts and effects
5. The promise and reality of e-participation
6. Success stories and case studies in open access to legal information
7. Mobile access & Africa – Frog Leaping through the desktop age
8. Making legal information accessible and useful
9. Making accessibility and usefulness a reality for citizens
10. Semantic Web
11. Engaging or disseminating legal information? The power of blogs / forums
12. Universally Accessible Laws: A dream or reality?
13. Multi-lingual databases
14. Plain Language Movement: Enhancing access to law without altering / replacing the intended meaning
15. Legal Informatics: Analysing available legal data and interpreting the results
16. Open access to law in developing countries, challenges and opportunities
17. Emerging trends of access to legal information
18. Enhancing Access to legal information using Creative Commons
19. Social media and its implication to free access to legal information
20. Role of the Legal Information Institutes (LII’s) in economic development
21. Transforming legal process through technology: the reality, the possibility, the promise"

"Abstracts on other aspects of law via the Internet are also welcome. Abstracts purely on 'cyber law' or 'internet law' will not be accepted unless they relate directly to free access to law on the Internet. Abstracts should raise issues of theoretical or practical interest to others who are developing or using internet-based law resources."

The conference brings together people from the Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) from different countries and continents that together form the Free Access to Law Movement.

The goal of the LIIs is to maximize free access to public legal information such as legislation and case law from as many countries and international institutions as possible. CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, and  Lexum, which publishes the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada online, are prominent members of the movement.

Earlier Library Boy posts about the Law via the Internet annual conference include:

• Papers from Hong Kong Law Via the Internet Conference (June 5, 2011)
• Program Announced for 2012 Law Via the Internet Conference (June 4, 2012)
• Twenty Year Evolution of Free Access to Law (October 11, 2012)

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of March 1-15, 2014 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library lends materials from all but the most recent New Library Titles list in accordance with its Interlibrary Loan Policy."

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Researching Canadian Companies for Free

Last week on Slaw.ca, Susannah Tredwell, the Manager of Library Services at Davis LLP wrote a piece about Researching Canadian Companies for Free that contains many useful tips.

She breaks down the process of researching companies into 3 steps:

• Determine what information are you looking for
• Is it a public company, a private company or a crown corporation?
• Jurisdiction? (i.e. federal or provincial)

She then describes the free research tools out there: company websites, Google Finance, Yahoo Business, Strategis (Industry Canada site), SEDAR (documents filed by public corporations), CanLII, court registries, even LinkedIn.

She concludes:

"These are just some of the resources available; depending on geographical location and what is being looked for, there may be other equally helpful resources not listed above. As I mentioned above, I also recommend checking with your local public library to see what databases they offer access to. That said, if you do a lot of company research, you will want to look into subscribing to one of the paid services that have already compiled and analyzed company data, as this will save you a lot of time."

Interview With Law Library of Congress Foreign Law Intern Ozlem Aydin Sakrak

In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Library of Congress in Washington, has been running an interview series featuring members of the library staff. The series started in late October 2010.

There are more than 100 posts in the series.

The most recent interview is with Ozlem Aydin Sakrak, a Foreign Law Intern originally from Ankara, Turkey:

"Why did you want to work at the Law Library of Congress?"
It is definitely an honor for me to work in such a prestigious institution that has the world’s largest collection of law books and other legal resources from all countries and serves members of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the executive branch of the U.S. Government, as well as researchers, lawyers, and other members of the public. I can surely say that it is one the best places to work to improve research and writing skills and understand different legal systems. Moreover, interning at the Law Library of Congress provides me with an opportunity to contribute to Turkish law research, improve the Turkish law collection, and make my country’s laws more understandable, while at the same time learning form legal specialists from different jurisdictions."

"What is the most interesting fact you have learned about the Law Library of Congress?
I was fascinated by the collections that the Library of Congress possesses. I was especially excited to see the significant Roman Law collection, which I believe is a privilege to see for a lawyer in his/her lifetime. The other interesting and exciting fact I discovered about the Law Library of Congress is that the Global Legal Research Center has a diverse group of foreign law specialists and provides global jurisdictional coverage for over 240 jurisdictions. It is a unique experience to work with such a group of experienced international lawyers. "

The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2.65 million volumes from all ages of history and virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

2014 Legal Research Teach-In Toolkit from American Association of Law Libraries

The Research Instruction and Patron Services Special Interest Section (a sub-group of the American Association of Law Libraries) has released its 22nd Annual National Legal Research Teach-In Kit:

"Materials cover a wide range of topics such as statutory law, secondary sources, empirical legal research, federal legislative histories, local government law, administrative law, cost-effective legal research, and much more.  Notably, this year’s Kit also has a more tech savvy focus.  We received materials about cloud computing, legal apps, and mobile technology which will surely have great utility in your course or presentation planning."

Every year, the Section solicits contributions from the law library community that other librarians can use to develop their own instructional activities at their institutions.

There is also a list of kits from previous years.

March 30 Deadline for Canadian Association of Law Libraries Research Grant

Members of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) have until March 30, 2014 to apply for a CALL Research Grant.

The grant provides financial assistance to support members who wish to do research on a topic of interest to members and to the association, and which would promote an understanding of legal information sources or law librarianship.

Proposed research projects need not be large or formal; research could include surveys, bibliographic projects, pilot projects and feasibility studies. Grants have been previously awarded for a survey of the education of law librarians in Canada, a comparison of electronic citators, and a bibliography of common law materials written in French.

There is not a fixed limit to the amount of the Research Grant. Recent awards have ranged from $1400 to $4400.

Statistics Canada Article on Legal Aid in Canada, 2012/2013

Statistics Canada published an article in its publication Juristat entitled Legal aid in Canada, 2012/2013:

"Access to justice in Canada is a priority of governments and policy-makers, legal professionals and the public. One aspect is access to legal services. Not all Canadians have the resources to pay for a lawyer. Legal aid plans have been established in all provinces and territories with the common goal of assisting lower-income Canadians who require legal services either for criminal or civil matters. This Juristat bulletin presents results from the Legal Aid Survey which collects information on the operation of Canada’s 13 legal aid plans."

"In order to operate and provide legal services, legal aid plans receive funding from governments (both federal and provincial/territorial) as well as from client contributions, cost recoveries from legal settlements, and contributions from the legal profession and other sources."

"The federal government provides criminal legal aid funding to the provinces and criminal and civil legal aid funding to the territories.2 In 2012/2013, the federal government reported providing a total of $112 million to all provincial/territorial legal aid plans in Canada."

"Provincial and territorial governments directly fund both criminal and civil legal aid. In 2012/2013, provincial and territorial governments reported contributing $658 million to legal aid plans across Canada."

"Legal aid plans in Canada reported receiving funding of almost $835 million in 2012/2013 ... Government sources contributed the vast majority of this amount at 93% of the total."

"The remaining 7% of funding was received from client contributions and cost recoveries from legal settlements, contributions of the legal profession and other sources."

WILU 2014 Information Literacy Conference in London

Western University in London, Ontario is hosting WILU 2014, May 21-23, 2014.

WILU stands for Workshop for Instruction in Library Use and is an annual conference devoted to research and innovations in the area of information literacy and library instruction.

There are details about the program sessions on the conference website.

WILU was founded in 1972.

CLA Government Library Network Interview With Debra Power

For the past few months, the CLA Government Library and Information Management Professionals Network, part of the Canadian Library Association (CLA), has been publishing 13 Questions With..., a series on its website that profiles a member of the Canadian library and IM community every week.

This week's interview is with Debra Power, Senior IM Analyst, Cogniva Information Solutions:

"Career advice – what’s your top tip?
Look people directly in the eyes when you are delivering good and or bad news."

Supreme Court of Canada Hearings Calendar for March 2014

The Supreme Court of Canada has published its calendar of appeal hearings for March 2014.

To find out more about any particular case, the Court's website has a section that allows users to find docket information, case summaries as well as factums from the parties. All you need to do is click on a case name.

Library Journal's Movers and Shakers 2014

Library Journal has released its 2014 list of Library Movers and Shakers:

"The 50 individuals recognized here are passionate about what all types of libraries can do to enhance lives—for adults, teens, schoolchildren, infants, and toddlers. If there’s a common theme among their profiles, it’s that as much as the library is a place to go, it is also a place on the go—to wherever patrons or potential patrons are. The Class of 2014 brings the total number of Movers to over 650. It was difficult to select just 50 people to honor from the more than 225 nominations we received. There’s not one Mover, however, who hasn’t told us that they couldn’t succeed without their colleagues, so, in effect, the Movers & Shakers represent hundreds more who work in and for libraries. "

The publication provides a map of all the Movers and Shakers from 2002 to 2014.

Over the years, a number of Canadian librarians have been selected, and this year there were two:

• Myron Groover who challenged the Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) new restrictive Code of Conduct. Myron is the Chair, British Columbia Library Association (BCLA) Information Policy Committee
• Sharon “Smitty” Miller, Community Librarian, Chilliwack Library - the page about her has this quote: "If I had to shout one truth from a mountaintop, it would be that the public library exists for everyone in the community: the smelly, the wealthy, the fat, the brown, the ones with carts, and the ones with homes. The services the library offers are as important for those who don’t walk into the library as for those who do."

Canadian Association of Law Libraries - Keynote and Concurrent Sessions at Upcoming 2014 Annual Conference

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) has posted the list of keynote speakers and concurrent sessions at its upcoming annual conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The conference takes place May25-28, 2014 under the theme of "The Confluence: Knowledge Meets Inspiration/Au confluent du savoir et de l’inspiration".

Registration information is available on the CALL website.

2014-2015 Information Management Priorities of Canadian Government Departments

The CLA Government Library & IM Professionals Network, part of the Canadian Library Association, has compiled a list of information management related priorities developed by individual federal government departments and agencies.

They are contained in the 2014-15 Reports on Plans and Priorities (RPPs) tabled last week in the House of Commons by Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board. These RPPs set out departmental/agency priorities, provide performance measurement indicators, and explain expected results. They are an essential element in the government's budget planning cycle.

The Supreme Court of Canada's full Report and Plans and Priorities for 2014-15 is available on the Court's website.

CALL Funding Available to Attend 2014 New Law Librarians' Institute

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) organizes the New Law Librarians' Institute every year or so.

This is an intensive, week-long program aimed at developing librarians' skills in the key competencies of law librarianship. The program features expert instruction from leading law librarians and law professors, small class size, a mix of lectures and practical sessions, hands on sessions, and valuable take-home materials.

The next one will be at the University of Ottawa June 8 to 12, 2014 (details about programming to follow later in March).

CALL members who have been in good standing for a minimum of twelve months are invited to apply for funding from the CALL Education Reserve Fund to support their attendance at the Institute. Members who wish to apply should do so on or before April 1, 2014.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Mentoring Program Applications Now Open

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries Mentoring Program is open for 2014.

This is a unique opportunity for CALL members to grow professionally and network within the profession:

"The CALL Mentorship Program is an initiative intended to connect law library professionals pursuing new professional development with more experienced professionals. Mentees can come from any background in legal librarianship, or even straight from a library program at the university or college level. There is no maximum number of years in the profession for mentees - if you feel that you would like to grow as a professional in your job or your new tasks, and would benefit from the guidance and support of another professional, then being a mentee could be for you. Similarly, mentors can come from any of the areas of legal librarianship, with no set minimum number of years in the profession. As a guideline, however, we suggest five years experience. Mentors have the opportunity to help in the professional growth of a colleague, and by extension, the strength of legal librarianship as a profession. Mentors may also find the partnership enables their own professional growth, and heightens engagement in the profession and the CALL community."

The application form for both mentees and mentors is on the CALL website.

Applications must be sent in by April 4, 2014.

February 2014 Issue of Connected Bulletin on Courts and Social Media

The February 2014 issue of Connected is available online. The bulletin covers news about the impact of new social media on courts.

Most of the items are about the United States, but there is occasional coverage of other jurisdictions in some issues.

The bulletin is published by the Virginia-based National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the Conference of Court Public Information Officers.

March 2014 Issue of In Session: Canadian Association of Law Libraries' e-Newsletter

The March 2014 issue of In Session is available online.

It is the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) and contains news from CALL committees and special interest groups, member updates and events.

Supreme Court of Canada Statistics 2003-2013

The Supreme Court of Canada has published statistics on its activities for the period 2003-2013.

The numbers outline the Court's workload during that period, broken down into 5 categories:

• Cases Filed
• Applications for Leave Submitted: the number of leave applications submitted to panels of the Court for decision, and their breakdown by region of origin and type of law
• Appeals Heard: the number of appeals heard by origin and type of law, appeals as of right/by leave
• Appeal Judgments: information about the disposition of appeals heard (allowed, dismissed) and how many were unanimous
• Average Time Lapses: average time lines in the life of a case at the Court (including  time between the filing of a complete application for leave to appeal and the Court’s decision on whether leave should be granted or denied; how soon appeals were heard after leave was granted or the notice of appeal as of right was filed; how soon judgments were rendered after the appeal hearing)

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of February 16-28, 2014 is now available on the Court website.

 The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library lends materials from all but the most recent New Library Titles list in accordance with its Interlibrary Loan Policy."

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

English Law Commission Report on Matrimonial Property

The English Law Commission has released its final report on Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements that examined the financial aspects of divorce and the dissolution of "civil partnerships":

"This report recommends that the Family Justice Council produce authoritative guidance on financial needs. The guidance would explain that, when determining a settlement, a judge aims to enable both parties to make a transition to independence. This would enable couples to reach an agreement that recognises their financial responsibilities to each other, and reflects what the law says on how this should be done. Guidance would also help to reinforce consistency to how the law is applied in the courts, increasing public confidence in this area of the law."

"Some jurisdictions have gone beyond explanation and verbal clarification, producing formulae that generate guideline amounts for payment from one former spouse to another. This report recommends that work be done with a view to assessing whether such an aid to reaching financial settlements could be devised."

The report also recommends legislation that would make pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements enforceable.

March 2014 Issue of Journal du Barreau

The March 2014 issue of the Journal du Barreau is available on the website of the Quebec Bar Association.

Among the highlights are articles on the reform of the Quebec Code of Civil Procedure and the role of lawyers who work for non-profit organizations.