Law Times

PAGE 16 June 7, 2010 • Law Times Bizarre Manage your corporate practice at high speed. www.doprocess.com ntitled-3 1 The Inside Story OTLA ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT The Ontario Trial Lawyers As- sociation has elected Dale Or- lando as its new president. Orlando has served on the as- sociation's board of directors for seven years and was elected to his new position on May 28 at the association's annual general meet- ing in Toronto. Orlando is a partner with McLeish Orlando LLP in To- ronto with a practice dedicated exclusively to personal injury and wrongful death cases. He has also published numerous articles about personal injury law and is a contributing author of the Oatley- McLeish Guide to Personal Injury Practice in Motor Vehicle Cases. ELECTRONIC REPORTS NOW MANDATORY Ontario lawyers and paralegals must now file their annual reports electronically after the Law Soci- ety of Upper Canada amended its bylaws at Convocation last month. Lawyers previously had the op- tion of filing their annual reports electronically or in paper form. About 25 per cent of them still do so by paper, accounting for 90 per cent of the production costs of the lawyer annual report. When paralegals began sub- mitting in 2009, paper forms were only provided on request, which boosted their electronic fil- ing to 91 per cent. The professional regulation committee said paper reports would still be available but only in exceptional circumstances. CLASS ACTION PAVES WAY FOR NEW FUND The Law Foundation of Ontar- io has launched a $14.6-million access-to-justice fund, which will be used to improve access to jus- tice nationally. The fund was created as a result of cy pres awards in the class action suit Cassano v. Toronto-Dominion Bank. Cy pres awards are funds left over when not all of the mon- ey provided for in a class action settlement or award can be dis- tributed directly to the plaintiffs. The courts can then distribute these funds to charitable causes. It's the first time a cy pres award has gone to the law foundation, which will direct the fund to law- related projects with a connection to one or more of five themes: lin- guistic minorities and people living in rural and remote areas; aborigi- nal people; individuals without le- gal representation; family violence; and consumer rights. "Access to justice is at the core of our mission," said law founda- tion chairman Mark Sandler. "So it is exciting to be able to make substantial additional funding available for projects where the need is so great and the potential impact so high." LSUC TREASURER TALKS CIVILITY Law Society of Upper Canada Treasurer Derry Millar presented his proposals to improve civility to Convocation on May 27. Millar's key recommendations included increasing the avail- ability of mentoring; providing education on civility as part of continuing professional devel- opment; developing an urgent response mechanism to respond to immediate issues; implement- ing an annual session on civility held by the chief justice's advisory committee on professionalism; and increasing information to the public. "It is essential for the adminis- tration of justice and the public's respect for our system of justice that lawyers and paralegals act with civility and professionalism in their dealings with clients, each other, and the courts," Millar said. The proposals came after 11 meetings held across the province attracted more than 900 lawyers, paralegals, students, and judges to discuss the issue. "The objective of the meetings was to provide an open forum to promote dialogue among lawyers and paralegals on the importance of civility," Millar said. "I am grat- ified that a great number of law- yers and paralegals participated in the meetings, demonstrating their ongoing commitment to best practices." LT For more Inside Story, please visit www.lawtimesnews.com. 6/1/10 10:52:32 AM ANOTHER TATTOOED CHILD STORY? FRESNO, Calif. — A recent story in this column told the tale of a man who was sen- tenced to three years in pris- on for tattooing a one-year- old child. As it turns out, this kind of thing is more com- mon than you might think. Travis Gorman, a 22-year- old gang member, is currently on trial in Fresno on charges of aggravated mayhem and wil- ful cruelty to a child after he allegedly tattooed a dog paw the size of a quarter on the hip of a seven-year-old boy. The boy's father, 27-year- old Enrique Gonzalez, is also on trial for the same charges. He's accused of holding the boy down while Gorman ap- plied the tattoo, which is the symbol of the Bulldogs gang. "I love tattoos," said Gor- man, who boasts more than a dozen of them on various parts of his body. "It was not my intention to hurt the boy in any way," he added, claiming he did it as a favour to Gonzalez. Earlier in the trial, the young victim testified he had been tattooed against his will and that he never wanted one. Gorman, however, dis- agrees with this claim. "He was throwing a fit. He wanted a tattoo," he claimed, adding the boy had "pestered" his father for the dog paw so he could "be like his dad." Briefs By Viola James Both men face maximum sentences of life in prison if convicted. ARMED ROBBERS TAKE ICE CREAM AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Hell hath no fury like a teenage girl craving an ice cream treat. A group of five people, be- lieved to include mainly teen- age girls, recently stormed a shop in West Auckland armed with a gun, knife, and hammer. "Pointing to me, say, 'Hur- ry up, give me some money,' and also, one of them got a knife and the other one got a hammer," Yunan Zheng, owner of the store, told New Zealand's Channel 3 News. Two of the five people went directly to the ice cream freezer while the other three attempted to take money from the till. When they couldn't get it open, they ran to the freezer and began shoving the frozen goodies into their bag. Zheng claims they stole approximate- ly 70 treats. Incredibly, this isn't the first time the shop has been robbed. On New Year's Eve, a much more serious incident re- sulted in knife-wielding thugs getting away with hundreds of dollars. Zheng believes the two groups may have shared a few participants. "Those two came last time I think because we remember the voice when they are talk- ing," he said. Here's hoping this doesn't turn into another cold case. ANOTHER CANDIDATE FOR MOM-OF-THE-YEAR VANCOUVER, Wash. — A mother who allegedly left her three-year-old son in the car while she gambled in a casino for more than eight hours just doesn't understand why police arrested her. "Why is this such a big deal?" she reportedly asked police after they waited for her outside the casino, which had to page her twice before she cashed in her chips and left. According to the Seattle Times, the woman had arrived at the casino at 4 a.m. that morning. Her son allegedly remained in the car with no open windows until a security officer heard him crying at around 1:30 p.m. When of- ficers arrived, the boy didn't seem to be harmed by the heat inside the car but he had soiled himself, and his cup of milk had curdled. "She [the mother] said she'd checked on the kid ev- ery couple of hours and he was sleeping," Sgt. Jerry Les- ter said. Lester estimated the tem- perature inside the car to be at least 29 C. After the boy was freed from the car, he was changed into clean clothes and given a peanut butter sandwich and watermelon by casino staff. LT Seen, heard, or been involved in a bizarre brief? Tell Viola James about it at viola.james@ gmail.com. "Hey Tanya! How's retirement going? Listen, pursuant to recent amendments to the Pension Benefits Act enabling employers to reduce overhead, we're moving in. Do you have a big screen TV?" THERE IS A DIFFERENCE RainMaker Group 110 Yonge Street, Suite 1101 Toronto, Ontario M5C 1T4 Untitled-5 1 Tel: 416-863-9543 Fax: 416-863-9757 www.rainmakergroup.ca www.lawtimesnews.com 3/23/10 11:35:15 AM

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