Law Times

Page 20 October 21, 2013 Law Times • u The u Bizarre Briefs InsIde story By Viola James LAW FIRM BUZZES WITH EXCITEMENT TAMPA, Fla. — There's a lot of buzz around Paul Maney's law office. Besides running a full-time family law practice, the lawyer has also taken up beekeeping at his firm. "The city may have no idea why all the crepe myrtles are flourishing so much around my office," WTSP quoted Maney as saying. "But those are my bees pollinating all over them." According to WTSP, Maney may have the only agricultural operation in downtown Tampa. He's not missing out on the business opportunity, however. He's now selling products from the Tampa Urban Honey company at local markets in bottles that cost up to $15. While the operation is unusual, he's not new to the honey business. According to WTSP, he grew up helping his brother keep a hive but only recently decided to take up urban farming. After keeping a hive on the balcony of his condo, he moved it to the roof of his law office. KIDNAPPING FAKED TO GET HUSBAND'S MONEY LAGOS, Nigeria — Couldn't she have just asked her husband for money if she needed it? It seems not. According to Reuters, police say a Nigerian woman faked her own kidnapping to extort a $1,200 ransom from her husband in a region of the west African nation plagued by abductions. Authorities arrested the woman and her accomplice, a motorcycle taxi man who helped her stage it, after tracing the bank account given for her husband's payment of 200,000 naira ($1,200) to the taxi man himself. "They have confessed to the crime and we are corroborating our investigation to be able to charge them in court," said Ebere Amarizu, a police spokesman in Enugu state. Kidnapping for ransom is rife in southern Nigeria, particularly in the oil-producing Delta region, in the ethnic Igbo area to the north of it where Enugu lies, and the commercial hub of Lagos. In some cases, police suspect the victims collude with their abductors. According to Reuters, the multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise pushes up the insurance and security costs for businesses, including the foreign oil majors often targeted in the past. GRAFT CASE TARGETS PINEAPPLE TARTS SINGAPORE — In Canada, we have scandals over chocolate brownies and pricey orange juice. In Singapore, the brouhaha is over pineapple tarts. According to Reuters, a Singapore diplomat is in trouble for allegedly inflating the number of pineapple tarts and bottles of wine carried on official visits in the latest corruption case to hit the squeaky-clean city-state. Lim Cheng Hoe, former chief of protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, allegedly overbilled authorities by the equivalent of about $71,100 by overstating the amount of gifts bought for official purposes between 2008 and 2012. According to Reuters, Lim faces 60 charges and could go to jail for up to three years on each charge if found guilty. Singapore, a wealthy Asian finance and trade centre ranked as the world's fifth least corrupt country by Transparency International, has seen a number of recent cases involving senior officials. Earlier this year, the former head of the civil defence force and a law professor were found guilty of corruptly accepting sexual favours. A former chief of the police antidrug squad faced similar charges but was acquitted. More recently, authorities charged an assistant director of the anticorruption watchdog with misappropriating a large sum. According to Reuters, pineapple tarts are bite-sized snacks popular in many Asian countries. The versions favoured in Singapore and Malaysia are buttery pastries topped with sweet pineapple jam. LT " And this is Elvira, my assistant deputy tweeter." APPEAL DISMISSED IN EVIDENCE RETENTION CASE The Ontario Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal seeking a constitutional declaration that would hold the government liable for missing pieces of evidence after a criminal conviction. The court convicted Amina Chaudhary in 1984. When she later sought help from the Innocence Project at Osgoode Hall Law School, she learned that photographs referenced in the trial 30 years ago are now missing. A lower court rejected her lawyer Alan Alan Young Young's bid for a constitutional declaration last year. It concluded that since the loss of the photographs hadn't harmed Chaudhary, she couldn't ask for such a declaration based on a violation of her rights under s. 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But at the appeal court, Young said Superior Court Justice Michael Dambrot didn't quite understand what he was asking for. Chaudhary wasn't claiming the loss of the images had already harmed her but that there's "a reasonable apprehension of harm" in the future, he said. In a ruling on Oct. 11, the appeal court said Young wasn't challenging a decision made by Dambrot, a fact that left it without a role in the case. "Because the appellant does not challenge the findings made by Dambrot J. but now seeks the declaratory remedy on a basis that is not set out in the record and was not the subject of adjudication by Dambrot J., there is no basis for the court to entertain an appeal," the court said. NEW PARTNER AT DICKINSON WRIGHT Dickinson Wright LLP's Toronto office has another new lawyer. Cross-border restructuring and insolvency lawyer John Leslie has joined Dickinson Wright as a partner, the firm announced. The firm has been expanding its presence in Canada by hiring new lawyers at its Toronto office in recent months. Leslie, who hails from international law firm Miller Canfield Paddock & Stone LLP, represents various stakeholders in major insolvency and restructuring proceedings. "Over the past several years, he has been extensively involved in a number of auto industry-related insolvency cases in the United States and Canada," Dickinson Wright said in a press release.  Dickinson Wright has more than 40 practice areas. Its Toronto office has about 35 lawyers. LAO TO COVER AUDIO RECORDINGS Legal aid lawyers will now receive a modest reimbursement for their digital audio recordings of proceedings at the Superior Court and the Ontario Court of Justice. Legal Aid Ontario says it will pay lawyers $22 for a day's worth of audio recordings. After the first day of proceedings, a lawyer will get half of that amount for the remaining days' digital recordings. Approval in advance isn't necessary when a lawyer seeks reimbursement for a single day's recordings, but counsel do need prior approval if the recording is of a proceeding lasting two days or more. LAW COMMISSION SEEKING PROPOSALS The Law Commission of Ontario is inviting members of the public and the legal profession to speak up about the areas of law they think should change. The law commission says proposals are welcome from lawyers, members of the judiciary, academics, ministers, and members of the public. The response will help it in its reviews and recommendations about Ontario's laws and policies. "We encourage proposals from individuals and groups from across the province," said executive director Patricia Hughes. "Making a proposal is as easy as sending us a two- or threepage description of the issue, why it matters, and why the LCO is the right body to review it. Longer proposals are also welcome." The law commission has already issued reports and recommendations about the law as it relates to people with disabilities, vulnerable workers, the family law system, the division of pensions on marital breakdown, and the Provincial Offences Act. LT The title insurer that puts you front row, centre Putting the legal community front and centre has made us the #1 choice with Canadian lawyers for over a decade. Stewart Title does not support programs that reduce or eliminate the lawyer's role in real estate transactions. For more information call (888) 667-5151 or visit www.stewart.ca. Untitled-2 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 7/19/11 12:31:45 PM

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