Family Law micro-credential online course offered from USask Law

Reposted from the USask website:

The first micro-credential course offered by the University of Saskatchewan College of Law (USask Law) is aimed at family law practitioners.

The course is entitled Family Justice 1: Conflict Engagement, Conflict Resolution and Communication, instructed by Charmaine Panko, KC, collaborative lawyer and mediator.

The course is designed to equip family law practitioners and family service providers with essential skills in conflict engagement, resolution and effective communication. 

It will be a blend of asynchronous online learning and interactive weekly synchronous sessions, culminating in a hybrid final session, meaning students will be able to attend online or in-person.

It begins Thursday, Sept. 12 and will continue weekly until October 10, for a total of 7.5 class hours. Visit the registration page.

Participants will delve into family conflict dynamics, apply negotiation and mediation techniques, and develop comprehensive resolution plans, all while enhancing their ability to communicate complex legal information clearly and empathetically.

The course is particularly timely, addressing the new requirements in Saskatchewan’s family court system that mandate family dispute resolution processes and meeting a critical need in the legal community to equip practitioners and ensure they are well-prepared to facilitate family law and justice in a meaningful way.

Course format prioritizes flexibility   

Course delivery format aims to accommodate diverse student needs and preferences.

Each week, students will engage with online modules that include readings, interactive activities, and discussion forums to foster engagement and deeper understanding.

The weekly live online sessions facilitate micro-skills practice, Q&A, and socialized learning.

Students will receive ongoing assessments through quizzes, assignments, and peer to peer constructive feedback to ensure they are grasping the material.

Free webinar on vLex and Vincent AI

There has been a lot of talk about AI programs in the news lately, and it may surprise some law society members to know that they have access to one of these powerful tools with vLex and the ‘Vincent’ AI.

The library will be hosting three online training sessions for vLex with instruction on how to use the platform and its features . These webinars will also cover vLex’s AI ‘Vincent’, explaining how this powerful tool assists with legal research, analyzes documents and automatically generates headnotes from decisions.

Sign up below and scroll down for more information.

Session 1 Vincent/AI Webinar: Tuesday May 30th at 1 pm CT
Register in advance for this webinar

Session 2 Navigating the vLex Platform with a focus on Irwin Law Webinar: Tuesday June 13th at 1 pm CT
Register in advance for this webinar

Session 3 vLex Platform Walkthrough Webinar (Vincent AI, Navigating the Platform, Irwin Law): Tuesday June 27th at 1 pm CT
Register in advance for this webinar

What is Vincent?

By combining human search behaviour with machine speed, Vincent enables you to go beyond traditional research methods. With its easy-to-use technology, this cross-jurisdictional assistant helps you to:

  • Quickly interact with global legal information
  • Save valuable research time
  • Extract key legal issues from cases
  • Access automatically generated headnotes on
  • millions of cases
  • Improve the quality of your work by ensuring no
  • important documents are missed due to human error.

Importantly, Vincent recognizes legal documents from over 30 countries, in both English and Spanish. As well as finding all in-text references, Vincent also finds documents that are semantically similar, on the same points of law, and also in other jurisdictions, to help lawyers build better arguments using on-point cases and persuasive authorities.

Vincent AI Case Analysis

vLex has enhanced Vincent AI’s capabilities to include a new feature called Case Analysis. Vincent, using large-scale language models, can now read cases, extract key information, and automatically produce summarized headnotes – helping legal professionals understand the important issues addressed in a judgment at a glance.

Irwin Law E-Library

The Irwin Law e-book collection brings an innovative approach to legal publishing that does more than outline the current state of the law. Containing over 300 e-books, this collection analyses the complex issues of the day in a succinct and readable style, and in a manner that is probing and thoughtful. With a focus on Canadian law as well as some international topics, the Irwin law collection covers a wide range of practice areas.

Free Webinars on Mental Health Law

This month LexisNexis is hosting two free webinars on mental health and law. Check the descriptions below for more information and registration.

Each Webinar Includes:

  • CPD Credits: 1 hour (Substantive)
    • For Ontario, 1 hour can be applied towards the 9 Substantive Hours of Continuing Professional Development as required by the Law Society of Ontario
    • For other provinces, consider including this 1 hour course as a CPD learning activity in your mandatory annual Continuing Professional Development Plan as required by the Law Society
  • A chance to interact through online question and answer periods
  • A recording of the live event

Mental Health and the Crossroads of Indigenous Persons, Bail & Sentencing January 17, 2023 12:00 PM

Contributing authors of “Law and Mental Health in Canada: Cases and Materials” discuss the intersection of mental health and Indigenous persons who become charged with a criminal charge or come before the Consent and Capacity Board. They also explore the ways mental health can impact decisions at the bail and sentencing stages in criminal proceedings.

Key Learning Objectives
• To identify and address issues specific to Indigenous persons living with mental health disorders in both the criminal and civil mental health fields.
• To identify and address issues specific to bail and sentencing for accused persons presenting with mental health disorders.
• To participate in a Question & Answer period with the opportunity to ask live questions.


Administrative Tribunal Litigation and Mental Health January 25, 2023 12:00 PM

The co-authors and General Editors of “Law and Mental Health in Canada: Cases and Materials” discuss the pros and cons of mental health law litigation before civil mental health review panels and Criminal Code Review Boards across Canada, including particular challenges for both litigants and tribunals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics covered include the nature of these hearings, the expertise of panels, rules of evidence and the tribunals, best practices in appearing as counsel for parties in such proceedings, cultural competency and tips for avoiding the appearance of institutional bias and providing full and fair hearings.

Key Learning Objectives
• To identify and address issues specific to administrative law litigation where mental health is an issue as distinct from traditionally adversarial trial proceedings in Court and how to ensure full and fair, bias-free hearings both from the perspective of litigants and the tribunal.
• To participate in a Question & Answer period with the opportunity to ask live questions

ICYMI: Practice Area Fundamentals

Did you know that the Law Society’s Education Centre updated and added new content to their Practice Area Fundamentals documents last September? Whether you are brushing up on current law and practice in Manitoba or new to a practice area, the Practice Area Fundamentals are a valuable free resource for our Members.

Developed with volunteer lawyers with relevant practice experience, Practice Area Fundamentals update the old Bar Admission (aka CPLED) materials in several practice areas.

Alongside the chapter on Criminal Law, the Education Centre added new chapters in:

Check out the Practice Area Fundamentals section at the Law Society of Manitoba Education Centre.

Jessop Competition Call for Volunteer Judges

Volunteers are needed to serve as judges for the oral rounds at the 2022 Jessup Canadian Qualifying Tournament in Winnipeg, Manitoba from February 10-12, 2022. This is a great opportunity to interact with current law students and colleagues from across Canada. All volunteers are welcome to attend the Judges’ Reception as well as the Gala Award Dinner.

In many jurisdictions, serving as a moot court judge counts towards Continuing Legal Education / Continued Professional Development credit.

Pre-Competition
Judges will receive background materials including:

  • The legal problem;
  • A comprehensive Bench Memo that details the problem and provides a general overview of the public international law principles teams are expected to address;
  • Copies of the teams’ written arguments are also available for judges to review prior to adjudication of the round.

Competition
Oral round judges will sit in panels of three and score the performance of competing schools.

Judges have the opportunity and are encouraged to provide feedback to students following the round.

Organizers attempt to balance the panel based on the judges’ practice area and experience in international law; familiarity in public international law is an asset but not a requirement to judge.

Rounds typically last 2.5 hours, and depending on one’s familiarity with the legal issues, can require the same amount of time for preparation.

Please click here to sign up to serve as an Oral Round Judge or contact Dana Hagg at dhagg@hmclawyers.com

Deadline for judge sign-up: Friday, December 10, 2021

Optimize Your Research Skills with vLex and Irwin Law

Legal Research with vLex and Irwin Law Webinar

Tuesday, September 28, 2021
12:00 p.m.—1:00 p.m.

Irwin Law’s comprehensive Essentials of Canadian Law series is moving from desLibris onto the vLex platform.

Learn how to incorporate these texts, vLex and the AI assistant Vincent into your legal research with this free webinar.

Eligible for 1 hour of CPD

Email library@lawsociety.mb.ca to register.

You will need to have Zoom installed on your device. Zoom link will be sent the day before the webinar.

Please note: The library will be closing early on Friday, December 13th at 11:00AM for a special event.  Regular library service will resume Monday, December 16th at 8:30AM.

The Great Library will be closed from December 25, 2024 to January 1, 2025 for the winter holidays. Regular office hours will resume on Thursday, January 2, 2025.