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Don’t Let Recent AI Lawsuits Fool You, Users Are Still Greatly Disadvantaged in a Digital-First Ecosystem The recent barrage of copyright lawsuits involving AI companies has revealed the staggering scale of copying undertaken to train large language models (LLMs). In the recently decided Bartz v. Anthropic case, for example, Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California notes that the AI firm downloaded millions of books in order to “amass a central library of ‘all the books in the world’” that it could use to develop its AI models and services. As with the Anthropic case, the majority of these high-profile AI copyright lawsuits are being brought forward by authors . . . [more] The post Don’t Let Recent AI Lawsuits Fool You, Users Are Still Greatly Disadvantaged in a Digital-First Ecosystem appeared first on Slaw.

19.11.2025 19:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The Law Firm Pyramid Rollover Artificial intelligence, pricing, and transience of the legal service sector’s workforce will cause the traditional law firm pyramid structure to rollover like an upending iceberg. The result? By 2030, global legal services will operate much differently than they do now. Twin juggernauts – AI and Pricing – compounded by continuing transience of the legal service sector’s workforce will take a major toll on law firms unprepared for their impact. This reckoning will upend the traditional pyramid structure with the result being that by 2030, the global legal services sector will operate much differently than it does now. The countdown clock . . . [more] The post The Law Firm Pyramid Rollover appeared first on Slaw.

19.11.2025 19:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Monday’s Mix Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible. This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Family Health Law Blog 2. Condo Adviser 3. Double Aspect 4. Le Blogue du CRL 5. Blogue SOQUIJ Family Health Law Blog Did You Receive a Letter from Service Canada About the Canada Disability Benefit? Here’s What It Means If you’ve recently received a letter from Service . . . [more] The post Monday’s Mix appeared first on Slaw.

19.11.2025 19:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Summaries Sunday: Supreme Advocacy One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from August 28 – November 12, 2025 inclusive. Appeals Criminal Law: Arrest R. v. Wilson, 2023 SKCA 106; 2025 SCC 32 (40990) The Crown says Parliament deliberately omitted an explicit immunity from arrest from the text of s. 4.1(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act . . . [more] The post Summaries Sunday: Supreme Advocacy appeared first on Slaw.

16.11.2025 19:37 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec. PÉNAL (DROIT) : La juge de première instance aurait dû, avant de conclure la lecture de son jugement sur la peine, s’abstenir de faire part de l’indignation personnelle qui l’habitait envers l’accusé et de souligner le courage et la force des victimes; toutefois, l’accusé n’a pas démontré une crainte raisonnable . . . [more] The post Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ appeared first on Slaw.

16.11.2025 19:37 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Cost Savings, AI and the Public Sector AI Generated Government? It’s interesting that both of these articles came through on my feed in the same day: Ahmed Otmani Amaouim, “Canada’s new Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation: What it means for Canadian innovators” (MNP, last accessed September 12, 2025), online: https://www.mnp.ca/en/insights/directory/what-it-means-for-canadian-innovators. and then Patrick Butler, “N.L.’s 10-year education action plan cites sources that don’t exist” (CBC, September 12, 2025), online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/education-accord-nl-sources-dont-exist-1.7631364. Falsified Education Policy? Let’s just call it – it was Newfoundland and Labrador’s **Education Accord** (10 year policy document) (that cost $755,000 dollars, no less) which contained falsified sources: Yumna Iftikhar, “PCs ‘not . . . [more] The post Cost Savings, AI and the Public Sector appeared first on Slaw.

14.11.2025 19:36 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Making Meaningful Participation Real in the BC Family Justice System It was very encouraging to hear about the new Early Intervention Program launched by the Society for Children & Youth of BC (SCYBC). This is great news of support for the growing movement to ensure that children and youth are able to meaningfully participate in the BC family justice system. We need your help to get the word out to the legal profession, youth serving agencies, the judiciary and your personal networks. For too long, many kids whose parents are separating have not been offered the opportunity to express their views on issues that significantly impact their lives – such . . . [more] The post Making Meaningful Participation Real in the BC Family Justice System appeared first on Slaw.

14.11.2025 19:36 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Experiment Continued: Opportunities to Enhance an Existing Project With Gen AI In my previous post, Is it All About the Prompts? Experimenting with Gen AI to Develop Public Legal Information, I experimented with the free version of ChatGPT-5 to determine if the steps in my usual process for creating public legal information content could be streamlined or eliminated altogether. These steps include: * Research: Research is conducted on the topic to create a draft framework. If a legal process is being described, the steps are outlined with any requirements to complete each step identified. I rely upon existing credible websites or resources that can include applicable legislation. Internal documents may . . . [more] The post Experiment Continued: Opportunities to Enhance an Existing Project With Gen AI appeared first on Slaw.

14.11.2025 09:28 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Monday’s Mix Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible. This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Le Blogue du CRL 2. Barry Sookman 3. The Lean Law Firm 4. Legal Post Blog 5. OsgoodePD Blog Le Blogue du CRL Répit-Ressource de l’Est de Montréal c. Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail, 2025 QCCA 1306 TRAVAIL . . . [more] The post Monday’s Mix appeared first on Slaw.

10.11.2025 12:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

How Profs and Students Are Using AI in Law Schools Around the World Law schools everywhere are confronting the same issue: how to use AI to help rather than hinder student learning. In an earlier column, I speculated on ways we might help law students foster good over bad uses of AI. A paper published this summer by Dutch law professor Thibault Schrepel surveys the growing literature on experiments with AI in legal education. His overview provides a more concrete sense of what better uses of AI might entail. These applications all have potential pitfalls, but these too can be harnessed as part of the learning process. To begin with the most . . . [more] The post How Profs and Students Are Using AI in Law Schools Around the World appeared first on Slaw.

10.11.2025 12:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec. PÉNAL (DROIT) : Une peine de 60 mois d’emprisonnement est imposée à un jeune qui s’est enfui des policiers et a jeté une arme à feu chargée dans la cour arrière d’une maison 1 an après avoir été filmé avec une autre arme à feu prohibée dans le vidéoclip d’une . . . [more] The post Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ appeared first on Slaw.

09.11.2025 12:05 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted. Leave to Appeal Granted Constitutional Law: Names/Pronouns; Notwithstanding Clause Government of Saskatchewan as represented by the Minister of Education v. UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, 2025 SKCA 74 (41979) Constitutionality of legislation re names/pronouns; and use of notwithstanding clause. Appeal Criminal . . . [more] The post Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners appeared first on Slaw.

09.11.2025 12:00 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Added-Value Legal Information Publishing: What Seems Artificial and What Seems Intelligent In pondering upon what interesting and timely topic about which to write, relating to legal information publishing, it occurred to me that what might be appreciated would be to write and repeat the word “artificial” approximately 333 times, followed by the word “intelligence”, the same number of times and finally the same again for the acronym “AI”. I wondered if readers might have found the approximately 1000-word totality of such efforts, or just the repetition of “blah”, to be as captivating as much of the other agenda-driven drivel produced on the topic, including that offered by the . . . [more] The post Added-Value Legal Information Publishing: What Seems Artificial and What Seems Intelligent appeared first on Slaw.

07.11.2025 12:04 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Thursday Thinkpiece: Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution Periodically on Thursdays, we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form. Challenging Exile Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution Author: Eric M. Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross Publisher: UBC Press Publication Date: July 1, 2025 ISBN: 978-1-990735-75-2 (pbk) E-book and audiobook also available Release date: Oct. 15, 2025 ISBN:9780774872843 328 pages, 6 x 9 71 b&w photos, 4 maps, 4 b&w illus. Paperback | . . . [more] The post Thursday Thinkpiece: Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution appeared first on Slaw.

06.11.2025 12:03 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII? – October 2025 Each month, we tell you which three English-language cases and French-language cases have been the most viewed* on CanLII in the previous month and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about. For this past month, the three most-consulted English-language decisions were: 1. R v Yalahow, 2024 ABKB 328 [1] Abdullahi Hassan Yalahow and Christopher William Wilson were charged with Second Degree Murder contrary to sec. 235(1) of the Criminal Code. Yalahow was also charged with intentionally discharging a firearm at a place knowing that other persons were present contrary to sec. 244.2(1)(a) as well . . . [more] The post Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII? – October 2025 appeared first on Slaw.

05.11.2025 15:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Legal Marketing Is a Team Sport Last weekend in a Montreal hotel lobby, I spotted a cluster of matching suitcases with identical jackets draped over them, each one with “Canada” in bold letters across the back. I turned to my family and asked, “Do you think they’re part of Team Canada, travelling together, prepping for the winter Olympics, ready to crush the competition?”. My family wasn’t nearly as curious, but they could see the pure joy and excitement all over my face. That moment made me think about the best legal marketing teams I know, because they operate the same way. They win when they’re focused, . . . [more] The post Legal Marketing Is a Team Sport appeared first on Slaw.

05.11.2025 12:03 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Ensuring Consistency: The Role of Consultation and Adjudicative Independence “Expedition, economy and concision are sound practices in administrative adjudication.” Justice David Stratas, Canadian National Railway Company v. Canada (Transportation Agency), 2025 FCA 184, para. 47 In this recent decision of the Federal Court of Appeal about railway interswitching rates, the court observed that the Canadian Transportation Agency had never “conducted a full and rigorous statutory interpretation analysis, i.e., explicitly examining the elements of text, context and purpose” of those rates. Justice Stratas stated that “[c]utting corners and conclusory statements, without more, are not how the Agency should roll … only explicit and rigorous analysis will do…” He . . . [more] The post Ensuring Consistency: The Role of Consultation and Adjudicative Independence appeared first on Slaw.

04.11.2025 12:02 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The Legal Design Summit 2025 & BrainFactory – a “Re-Up” After ten hours of flying, an eight-hour layover, a seven-hour timezone change, and one missed flight, I finally made it to my second Legal Design Summit in Helsinki. In 2023, I reluctantly left Helsinki after buzzing with excitement about the like-minded community I had just met and the interesting work being done across the globe to improve access to justice using legal design techniques. The momentum of the event had been fueling my professional interests and writing over the last two years, but it was time for a “re-up”. After its 2024 hiatus, the Legal Design Summit was back this . . . [more] The post The Legal Design Summit 2025 & BrainFactory – a “Re-Up” appeared first on Slaw.

03.11.2025 12:01 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Monday’s Mix Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible. This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Barry Sookman 2. Condo Adviser 3. ABlawg.ca 4. Labour Pains 5. The Lean Law Firm Barry Sookman Contracts, Personal Jurisdiction and Electronic Agreements Most contracts contain clauses that govern both choice of law and venue for resolving disputes. However, there are occasions where questions arise as to . . . [more] The post Monday’s Mix appeared first on Slaw.

03.11.2025 12:01 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted. Appeal Criminal Law: Mandatory Minimums Quebec (Attorney General) v. Senneville, 2025 SCC 33 (40882) Mandatory minimum for child sexual exploitation abuse material unconstitutional. . . . [more] The post Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners appeared first on Slaw.

02.11.2025 12:02 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Reflection in Legal Education: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Teach It In early 2025, I participated in the Society for Experiential Education’s Experiential Education Academy. One of the sessions I attended focused on reflection, one of the eight principles of good practice in experiential learning. While we discussed the benefits of reflection, what struck me most was a comment made during the session: students needing to be taught how to reflect. That’s right, reflection is not an innate ability. It is a skill we must learn. That knowledge clarified many of my past experiences in legal education. Student don’t often like to reflect. Of course, they don’t, they don’t understand its . . . [more] The post Reflection in Legal Education: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Teach It appeared first on Slaw.

30.10.2025 11:03 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The Wellness Lawyer: “In the Interest of Justice” There is a story about a business owner, we will call him Joe, who hired two people to help him unload large barrels of wine. The wine was very expensive and he specifically instructed the workers to be very careful. Unfortunately, as happens in life, one of the workers slipped as he was unloading the barrel and it cracked, spilling all the contents on the ground. Joe was very angry. He told the workers that he will sue them for damages if they don’t pay him for the now unusable wine. The workers were very poor and they begged Joe . . . [more] The post The Wellness Lawyer: “In the Interest of Justice” appeared first on Slaw.

29.10.2025 11:03 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Does This Case Really Exist? I’m frequently asked to track down cases that lawyers can’t find. Most of the time the problem is an incorrect citation, but sometimes the problem is that the (usually older) case isn’t available in any online databases or print reporters. I’m now running into a new challenge: does the case exist or is it an AI hallucination? I generally start with the assumption that the problem is an incorrect citation. In this situation, the most common issues are the misspelling of a party name or missing or incorrect numbers. I use multiple resources (e.g. CanLII, Lexis+, Westlaw Canada) and search . . . [more] The post Does This Case Really Exist? appeared first on Slaw.

28.10.2025 11:04 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Deceptive Dynamics of Generative AI: Beyond the “First-Year Associate” Framing Guidance for lawyers on generative AI use consistently urges careful verification of outputs. One popular framing advises treating AI as a “first-year associate”—smart and keen, but inexperienced and needing supervision. In this column, I take the position that, while this framing helpfully encourages caution, it obscures how generative AI can be deceptive in ways that make it fundamentally dissimilar to an inexperienced first-year associate. How is AI deceptive? In short, generative AI can fail in unpredictable ways and sometimes in ways that mimic reliability, making errors harder to detect than those flowing from simple inexperience. Before elaborating, three important caveats . . . [more] The post Deceptive Dynamics of Generative AI: Beyond the “First-Year Associate” Framing appeared first on Slaw.

28.10.2025 11:04 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Monday’s Mix Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible. This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. À bon droit 2. Meurrens on Immigration 3. Sport Law Blog 4. BC Injury Law Blog 5. Litige municipal au Québec À bon droit La solution à la difficulté pour le promettant-vendeur d’intenter une action en passation de titre serait-elle l’injonction interlocutoire? Nous avons traité ce matin . . . [more] The post Monday’s Mix appeared first on Slaw.

27.10.2025 11:02 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec. PÉNAL (DROIT) : Dans l’affaire d’un accusé qui a tiré 3 balles dans le dos de la victime, lors d’un guet-apens résultant d’un meurtre commandé, la peine globale de 10 ans, consécutive à celle de 10 ans qui avait été infligée à l’appelant pour un homicide involontaire survenu quelques mois . . . [more] The post Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ appeared first on Slaw.

26.10.2025 11:05 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted. Leaves to Appeal Civil Litigation: Anti-SLAPP Prescott, et al. v. Benchwood Builders Inc, et al., 2025 ONCA 171 (41794) Anti-SLAPP issues. Criminal Law: Firearms; Sentencing R. v. Burke-Whittaker, 2025 ONCA 142 (41786) Sentencing issues re firearm offence. Reasons on Appeal Criminal Law: Arrest . . . [more] The post Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners appeared first on Slaw.

26.10.2025 11:05 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Book Review: The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law. The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life. By Lowry Pressly. Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard University Press, 2024. ix, 228 p. Includes illustrations, notes, and index. ISBN 9780674260528 (hardcover) $47.00; ISBN 9780674298262 (eBook) $44.65. Reviewed by Laura Reid Student Learning & Engagement Librarian University of Calgary Many of us are . . . [more] The post Book Review: The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life appeared first on Slaw.

23.10.2025 11:01 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Not All Who Wear Capes Are Heroes – a Consideration of the Vigilante Approach to Addressing Individual Condominium Issues Described as everything from an ecosystem to a fourth level of government, a condo community can be representative of society on a much larger scale. This is a brief examination of what happens when an individual facing an issue takes matters into their own hands… There is this memorable story from the early 2000s about a condo President, so eager to ensure that enjoyment of the community’s playground was limited to only the building’s residents that he took it upon himself to approach children playing on the equipment to ask them where they lived… until the police showed up! Hero . . . [more] The post Not All Who Wear Capes Are Heroes – a Consideration of the Vigilante Approach to Addressing Individual Condominium Issues appeared first on Slaw.

22.10.2025 11:01 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Monday’s Mix Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible. This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Lash Condo Law 2. David Whelan 3. RT Blog 4. Canadian Combat Sports Law Blog 5. Canadian Privacy Law Blog Lash Condo Law Formatting Matters: CAT Decision Highlights Record-Keeping Standards In Bernard v. Carleton Condominium Corporation No. 111, the unit owner, Elizabeth Bernard, requested a copy of . . . [more] The post Monday’s Mix appeared first on Slaw.

21.10.2025 18:22 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

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