The Law Society of Manitoba’s newsletter, Communiqué, has just been released. It contains lots of important information, including our new address (for the law society itself, the library isn’t moving).
Tana Christianson, Director, Insurance writes about an iTunes gift card scam, there’s a notice of a judicial vacancy in the Northwest Territories, the discipline case digest directs you to two new decisions, and much more.
Lots to unpack in the latest Labour and Employment eLaw update:
And much more.
This Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada will release its decision on Trinity Western University et al v. Law Society of Upper Canada and Law Society of British Columbia v. Trinity Western University et al. These appeals, heard at the same time, concern the denial of accreditation by the law societies of a proposed new law school at Trinity Western. At issue is a community covenant students would be required to sign, based on Evangelical Christian principles of Biblical teachings and morality.
Each appeal was allowed numerous interveners to join (TWU v. LSUC, LSBC v. TWU).
Much has been written about the arguments so far, and there will be more analysis to come. This post will be updated on Friday with a link to the decision.
CanLII Connects re TWU v. LSUC, LSBC v. TWU
theCourt.ca re TWU
Decisions:
Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada, 2018 SCC 33
Law Society of British Columbia v. Trinity Western University, 2018 SCC 32
The Manitoba government has just released a report titled Modernizing Our Family Law System, by Manitoba’s Family Law Reform Committee. The 10 page report, followed by 4 pages of appendices, is written in plain English, befitting the audience it is intended for. The Committee suggests a three year pilot project.
Our model would by legislation, require all matters proceeding
under the Family Maintenance Act to be commenced by
an application form which would be simple enough that an
individual could complete it with or without the assistance
of a lawyer.
...
While restricting this pilot project to Family Maintenance Act
matters will significantly limit the scope of this initiative, we
believe there will be a large volume of matters, sufficient to
test the effectiveness of this approach during the pilot phase.
The Committee was formed in the fall of 2017, and completed their report in record time, as mandated by Justice Minister Stefanson.
As many studies have noted, the adversarial court system does not work well for family law matters. Families must continue to work together after divorce and custody issues are taken care of. We will be watching for the government to introduce legislation to enable this project, and keep you informed when it has been released.
News Release: Family Law Modernization Report Recommends Innovative Pilot Project to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families
Both ‘opportunity’ and loss for lawyers in revamp of Manitoba family law
The Court just released its decision on Groia v. The Law Society of Upper Canada, 2018 SCC 27, clarifying the test for when a lawyer’s conduct in the courtroom becomes professional misconduct.
In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Moldaver, the Court laid out the framework under which lawyers can provide a vigorous defence of their clients. While the Court agreed the law society’s appeal panel adopted the correct test for a finding of professional misconduct, they disagreed with the application.
Since this decision was just released on June 1st, there will be more commentary to come. Keep checking CanLII Connects for more news.
Additional Commentary:
The Lawyers Daily: SCC rules Groia not guilty, sets test for when lawyers’ incivility in court becomes professional misconduct
Slaw: “A Trial is not a Tea Party,” is What They will Say by Omar Ha-Redeye
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