Law Times

STORE & SHRED Exceptional Quality at Reasonable Prices! COPY, SCAN, Call us today to fi nd out how much you can Save. TF: 1.888.781.9083 www.docudavit.com $4.00 • Vol. 21, No. 32 ocdavit_LT_June7_10.indd 1 6/4/10 9:22:44 AM Inside This Issue 3 Legal Pioneer 6 Radical Ideas 9 Focus On Insurance Law Quote of the week "It's crazy. I'd have never believed that we live in a country where, fi ve hours into an interrogation, the guy asking to speak to his lawyer would be denied the right to speak to his lawyer and the courts would condone that as perfectly acceptable police practice." Mark Ertel, Ottawa criminal defence lawyer See Defence, page 4 Covering Ontario's Legal Scene ntitled-3 1 municipalities across Ontario struggle to deal with a backlog of Provincial Off ences Act charges and cancelled court dates that offi cials say will continue for the time being. Th e problem is particularly acute in northern Ontario, where remote locations exacerbate the shortage. In Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., the city has had to cancel three provincial off ences court sittings in recent months, with another six cancellations slated for December and Janu- ary. Th e situation prompted the city council there to write to the province in August ask- ing it to fi ll two vacancies that would bring the community up to its required comple- ment of four justices of the peace. Th e area has been running at half capacity for more than two years after retirements and reas- signments left it short. But only one of the new justices of the peace whose position was announced last week will sit in Sault Ste Marie: Jill Mor- ris, a former social worker who has worked with victims of violence. Denis Desrosiers, the city's court liaison supervisor, welcomes the appointment but says that without a legal background, Morris will take some time to make an impact. Police have to make a four-hour round trip to Sault Ste. Marie to see justices of the peace because they rarely sit in communities closer to home, says Township of the North Shore Mayor Heather Pelky. "In the short term, it does nothing for us. A justice of the peace can't preside in provin- cial off ences for 10 to 12 months, according to continue despite new JPs T Cancelled court dates BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times he province has moved to alleviate a shortage of justices of the peace, making 10 new appointments as to their training. For it really to truly have an impact, it would have to be someone with legal training." Chief Justice Annemarie Bonkalo of the Ontario Court of Justice highlighted the issue at the 2009 Opening of the Courts ceremony. She blamed the shortage on a "complicated system of central and re- gional committees" to vet applicants in- troduced after amendments to the Justices of the Peace Act in 2007. "I have become concerned that the very complexity of the process has slowed the appointments, leaving some of our regions very short of justices of the peace," Bonka- lo, who couldn't be reached for comment last week, said at the time. Barry Randell, director of court services for the City of Toronto and president of the Municipal Court Managers' Association, says the province is always playing catch-up because of the infl exibility of the appoint- ments process, which only allows for one general call for applications each year rather than advertising specifi c vacancies. "We'd like to see appointments in place ahead of known retirements, but it just doesn't seem to be something we can rely on," Randell says. As a result, a number of regions, in- cluding Toronto, Sudbury, York, Durham, and Peterborough are short. Th ree of the province's newest appointments went to See Government, page 5 Bay Street star switches teams BY JULIUS MELNITZER For Law Times LLP's Toronto offi ce, rocked Bay Street with the news that he was leaving one of Canada's largest fi rms to join the 11-lawyer liti- gation boutique Lax O'Sullivan Scott LLP. Indeed, the move may be transformational for the next generation of litigators. "Jonathan is the fi rst real established star of his genera- tion to make this kind of move from a major fi rm to a litigation boutique," says one veteran To- ronto lawyer who's a partner at a national fi rm. "It has certainly E arlier this month, Jonathan Lisus, a 45-year-old part- ner at McCarthy Tétrault gone like wildfi re through the litigation bar." Lisus, who has spent his en- tire career at McCarthys since he articled there in 1990, says he has no regrets about his tenure at one of Canada's most vener- able fi rms. Instead, he says his decision was a highly personal one and notes that McCarthys is a "val- ued client" of Lax O'Sullivan, a fi rm that relies heavily on refer- rals from other lawyers. "Th is move is very much an age-and-stage thing that mor- Nowadays, buyers of legal services at banks and corporations are in their 40s, and the profession is taking a new look at bringing younger people up the hierarchy. "I hold McCarthys in the highest regard, have many friends and mentors there, and believe its litigation platform is absolutely fi rst-rate," he tells Law Times. "Th e move had absolutely nothing to do with frustration or unhappiness." phed with an unexpected oppor- tunity that arose this summer to work with a talented group of counsel intent on transitioning their excellent chambers into the next generation and building on what the founders created." Lisus doesn't deny that an File your 2011 LAWPRO® inner restlessness was at work. "After 20 years in one chair, the question for me was whether I would be in that chair for an- other 20 years," he says. "As you age and grow, your ambitions, aspirations, and what motivates you change." With Lax O'Sullivan name partners Cliff ord Lax, Terry O'Sullivan, and Charles Scott all beyond 60 years of age, Lisus rel- ishes the challenge of transition at the fi rm, which is now renamed Lax O'Sullivan Scott Lisus LLP. "Th e opportunity to build something out from a great plat- form with the next generation and the opportunity to pursue diff er- ent kinds of work, such as plain- tiff 's commercial litigation and See Generational, page 5 insurance application online LT Digital version.indd 1 by Nov. 1 and save $25 per lawyer www.lawpro.ca Lawyers' Professional Indemnity Company Untitled-2 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 10/13/10 10:42:52 AM 6/25/10 12:59:47 PM Billions of dollars invested, not a penny lost. October 18, 2010 5/4/10 2:49:21 PM Click here to subscribe today to LAW TIMES

• Cover
• Legal Pioneer
• Radical Ideas
• Focus On Insurance Law