The Open Society Justice Initiative is part of the Open Society Foundations. Established in 2003, the Foundation provides expert legal support through strategic human rights litigation and other legal work.
This database is updated continuously with over 300 current titles. With reports, handbooks, briefing papers, legal and policy submissions, and fact sheets exploring and advocating on issues of human rights and justice.
For more information check the blog post, or for full details see the LibGuide.
PathFinder: A Suite of Multidisciplinary Browse and Search Tools
HeinOnline has just added another research tool to make finding by subjects easier and more intuitive.
Subjects are now grouped in a hierarchy of categories letting users easily browse for what they are looking for. Learn more about how to use this new feature here, or take a look at the video below.
Due to changes with Canada Post no longer obtaining signatures on registered mail “the Registrar will accept requisitions to note default on a statement of claim where the other requirements to note default are met but the statement of claim was served outside of six months after it was issued and the plaintiff files satisfactory affidavit evidence.”
In an effort to further the “cautious approach in the transition to further normalization of Court of Queen’s Bench hearings … the court will be further enhancing its in-person judicial service commencing with the fall term on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, until further notice.”
A list of full protocols is provided in the notice.
See here for previous Notices and Practice Directions.
The Manitoba Government has proclaimed the following two acts to be in force. Two news releases highlight the new changes to access to locked-in pensions, and compensation for juries.
While Rangefindr is extremely helpful for all kinds of criminal sentencing research, it is particularly useful when trying to locate cases that do not lend themselves to keyword searching. For instance, imagine trying to find cases where a lawyer or a police officer is the accused person. It would be very difficult to construct a keyword search to locate only those cases, without bringing up irrelevant results that also involved lawyers or police officers in other capacities. Using Rangefindr, such cases can be identified with just a few clicks.
Instead of using Google-style keyword searching, Rangefindr is a filtering service. To find cases where lawyers were sentenced, one can simply click on the “Accused” category at the top left-hand side of the Rangefindr query page.
Scrolling down through the alphabetical list of filters (also called “tags”), clicking “Lawyer” reveals 63 cases in the Rangefindr database. As soon as the filter is applied, the dispositions in the 63 cases are displayed on the right-hand side of the screen. Apparently the 63 cases involved 4 absolute discharges, 3 conditional discharges, 10 conditional sentences, 2 intermittent sentences, 2 fines, 2 periods of probation and 40 imprisonments.
By clicking “Show Durations”, the display on the right toggles to show a breakdown of the 40 prison sentences. Clicking “View Cases” brings up the results page, which defaults to showing all 63 cases in reverse chronological order.
The cases can also be sorted by “Highest Punishment”, “Lowest Punishment”, “Judge” and “Level of Court”.
Clicking “Tags Associated with this Case” expands the brief case summary to show all of the filters that are associated with the case.
Jurisdictional filters can be added by clicking “Edit Search” and choosing the desired jurisdiction(s) under the “Jurisdiction” category on the left-hand side of the screen. Apparently there are 8 such cases from Manitoba in Rangefindr’s database.
Rangefindr provides links to all of the case results in CanLII (which is where it draws its data from). These links can be accessed for individual cases by clicking on “Download This Case” in the top-right corner.
Though the Rangefindr database is limited in scope (it generally includes appellate cases since 2000 and trial decisions from 2010 onward), it can help researchers quickly identify pertinent cases, particularly when they involve unique factual elements. In case you are wondering, Rangefindr’s filters are applied by human editors who go through a rigorous training process.
The Manitoba Law Library would like to acknowledge with gratitude that we are situated on Treaty One Territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree and Dakota peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.
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