New Service – Current Awareness

In library jargon, current awareness is the process of keeping clients up to date on new issues in their area of interest. In the legal profession, that function is served by publishers of newsletters, bulletins, and newspapers.

Through our subscriptions, we can provide you with topical commentary in many areas of law. Rather than list them all, I’ll start off with a general one: LawSource Case Notes.  This issue’s contents include digests on Civil Practice and Procedure, Construction Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Evidence, Family Law, Immigration and Citizenship, Insurance, Pensions, Public Law, Real Property, Remedies, and Tax.

If you would like to receive LawSource Case Notes, please email us at library@lawsociety.mb.ca so we can set up a distribution list.

Here’s your first issue for review: LawSource Case Notes 2018-22

SCC to Release Appeals re Trinity Western University-Updated

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

 

CPD in the Library!

On Wednesday, June 20th our trainer, Frank Merryweather from LexisNexis will be here offering sessions to show users how to navigate and search the new Lexis Advance Quicklaw platform.

The sessions offered will be 30 minutes long, and each session qualifies for 30 minutes of your CPD requirements.

The schedule is as follows:

9:00 – 9:30        Criminal Law
10:00 – 10:30   Corporate/Commercial Law
11:00 – 11:30     Personal Injury Law
1:00 – 1:30          Family Law
2:00 – 2:30         Labour and Employment Law
3:00 – 3:30         Criminal Law

CPD in the Library – Registration Form

 

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact the library and we will be happy to help!

 

 

Using the McGill Guide with HeinOnline

The  Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, otherwise known as the McGill Guide, is the standard reference guide for citing legal works, whether they be decisions, legislation, journals, books or urls.

 

 

HeinOnline.org is a database of legal information, including journals and legislation. Now the two come together, with HeinOnline offering citations set to the McGill Guide standard. No more excuses for poor formatting of secondary sources.

HeinOnline is available free of  charge to members of the Law Society of Manitoba, behind the Members Portal. If you need help accessing or using it, please contact us. We’re happy to walk you through the process.

Check out HeinOnline’s post for full details.

Will Week 2018

A book display with seven books, on three levels of a bookcase. On the middle shelf is a sign that says "Featured books: Will Week Apr 23-27". Book titles are in the blog post.

From April 23rd to the 27th, various events involving writing wills, health care directives, understanding the power and role of “Power of Attorney”, and more will be happening around Winnipeg! If you’d like to find out more information about Will Week and the events happening, please see this page at The Winnipeg Foundation.

Here at the library, we’re hosting a display featuring our most up-to-date and informative texts on the subject of writing wills, which we hope will be a huge benefit to our members who may encounter some interesting questions from clients in the coming weeks on this subject!

These texts are as follows:

  • Capacity and Undue Influence by John E. S. Poyser
  • Waters’ Law of Trusts in Canada, 4th ed., edited by D. W. M. Waters
  • Oosterhoff on Wills, 8th ed., by Albert H. Oosterhoff
  • Drafting Wills in Canada: A Lawyer’s Practical Guide, 2nd ed., Robyn Solnik et al
  • The Law of Dependants’ Relief in Canada by Cameron Harvey
  • Manitoba CPLED Program 2016-2017: Wills and Estates
  • Feeney’s Canadian Law of Wills, 4th ed., (looseleaf) by James MacKenzie

If you would like to take out any of these texts, please feel free to contact our staff.

But Wait, There’s More (on CanLII)!

You asked, they listened! Last month, CanLII announced that several law reviews would be added to the platform.  Then, a few weeks ago, a couple of newsletters were added.  Today, they announced even more commentary:

Last month we were delighted to announce that law journal articles and newsletters are now available in CanLII’s Commentary section, and now we get to tell you that we have added more books and reports.

Providing authoritative legal resources for the profession and the public while using CanLII’s intuitive search platform is fantastic. Kudos to CanLII and the Federation of  Law Societies of Canada for the successful completion of this project.

Check the CanLII blog for the full announcement.

The library will be closed on Good Friday, March 29.
The courthouse will be closed on Monday, April 1 but the library will be open for remote requests.