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PAGE 20 WillBuilder Tel: 416.322.6111 Toll-free: 1.866.367.7648 doprocess com ntitled-2 1 The Reinventing the Will www 2/2/09 10:53:45 AM Inside Story COMMITTEE FORWARDS 'DEAD TIME' LEGISLATION The Justice and Human Rights committee has sent the Harper government's "dead time" bill back to the House of Com- mons, making no amendments to the controversial legislation. Bill C-25 proposes to end judicial discretion to give extra credit for time served before sen- tencing. It would mean that the maximum credit for time served before sentencing would be one day for each day in remand cus- tody before trial and sentencing, which would kill the widespread judicial practice of counting time served in pre-trial detention as double time. Lawyers and experts have ar- gued the bill will worsen prison conditions and lead to a Charter challenge over cruel and unusual punishment and the right to a speedy trial. HELMETS ON KIDS The Ontario Trial Lawyers Association has continued its Helmets on Kids initiative, an- nouncing it will distribute nearly 300 lids to public school kids in Ottawa. "Helmet use is key to injury prevention. In a city like Ot- tawa, with all the opportunities for outdoor activity, we wanted to help ensure that children are wearing their helmets when par- ticipating in activities such as cycling, rollerblading, and skate- boarding," said Laurie Tucker, an Ottawa personal injury lawyer and organizer of the program. It's the second year lawyers and law firms in Ottawa have joined the initiative. Several other local organizations are also on board. Lawyer and law clerk mem- bers of the OTLA will hand out the helmets to students at four schools on June 5 and 8 as part of the program. There they will advise students about helmet safety and proper fitting. LSUC TREASURER MILLAR ACCLAIMED WeirFoulds LLP partner Derry Millar will continue to sit at the head of the Law Society of Up- per Canada's Convocation table after being acclaimed treasurer for a second yearlong term. "Leading the law society is a tremendous privilege," said Mil- lar in a release. "I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to work with so many dedicated in- dividuals, within Convocation, the law society, and the legal and paralegal communities at large. I look forward to the continua- tion of our work." LAWYER DISBARRED The law society revoked Robert Kendrick MacFarlane's licence to practise and ordered him to pay over $52,000 to the com- pensation fund following a pro- fessional misconduct finding. MacFarlane, a Mississauga lawyer called to the bar in 1984, was cited for: • failing to co-operate with the law society's spot auditor's at- tempts to schedule and con- duct an audit of his practice; • for two specified periods, fail- ing to respond to the law so- ciety's communications; • failing to maintain books and records for his practice, or, in the alternative, failing to co- operate with the law society's requests for his books and re- cords; and • misappropriating the sum of approximately $48,000 be- longing to his client. He was also ordered to pay the law society $5,000 in costs. LAWYERS AMONG YORK HONOUREES A few members of the legal es- tablishment will get a salute later this month at York University's spring convocation ceremonies. Last week the school an- nounced a list of recipients of hon- ourary degrees, and three lawyers and judges are on it: Labour law and constitutional scholar Paul Weiler; retired Ontario Court of Justice judge and legal scholar Vibert Lampkin; and Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Paul Rouleau, who is also an advocate for the legal right of francophones in Ontario to receive education in French. LT For more Inside Story, please visit www.lawtimesnews.com PROSECUTORS GONE WILD MIAMI, Fla. — Veteran Mi- ami-Dade prosecutor David Ranck sure was cheesed off with his pizza delivery person. He's facing battery charges after allegedly punching a pizza delivery woman during a de- livery that seems to have gone horribly wrong. According to police reports, Ranck and the pizza gal got into a brouhaha when she couldn't get into the lawyer's chi chi gated commu- nity. After a bit of bickering that understandably woke the neighbours, the woman told Ranck to get himself down- stairs if he wanted his pizza. Ranck went down, but ac- cording to police, punched the woman in the arm and, to add insult to injury, flipped her snazzy visor off as well. Police didn't know why he was in such a snit. The lawyer claimed she had tapped him with a car, sparking the row. Ranck was charged but released. The Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Of- fice has suspended Ranck without pay. POETIC JUSTICE LONDON, England — Not only did Joby Sanders get nabbed selling fake smokes, he was also the butt of jokes from the cops. Police had seized £255,000 (Cdn$460,000) of counterfeit cigarettes from Sanders, 37, ™ June 8, 2009 • Law Times Bizarre Louisiana and Mississippi. According to the Jefferson Briefs By Viola James under a Proceeds of Crime order. He was jailed in 2007 over the scheme. Sanders had sent cops a poem from his cell, telling them how he smuggled the fake fags from Poland, ac- cording to The Sun. He moaned: "I promised myself I would neva fail, "But look at me now I'm stuck in jail!" What were the fuzz to do but respond in kind and send along some gems of their own? Detective Inspector Gra- ham Wragg wrote Sanders a note, pointing out he was serving more than three years in prison. He added: "It's not only that which gives Joby the blues "It's the 255k that he's been forced to lose." "So bad as it is having to do all that time "It's a bloomin' sight worse 'cos of Proceeds of Crime." BY, OR IS IT BUY, THE BOOK NEW ORLEANS, La. — Lots of students sell their used books or textbooks to try and get their hands on a little extra cash. But the folks at Chimes Textbook Exchange seemed to be seeing a lot of Tanya Vatter and Vanessa Tabora. The two were in the store selling books almost every day between Janu- ary and March. Turns out the two bookworms were actually stealing books from a slew of Barnes & Nobles bookstores in Parish Sheriff's Office, the two stole more than 4,000 books worth $325,000. Where the dynamic duo went wrong was taking them all to Chimes to (re)sell them. The store pays 30 to 50 per cent of the cover price for used books. "It's really fortunate that they tried to sell those books to us. If they sold them all over the place, we would have never known and they never would have been caught," Chimes Manager Devin Villegas. THE NEVER-ENDING STUPID CRIMINALS FILE SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — More tips for criminals from stand-up citizen Viola James: If you're going to commit a crime, and you lose your cell phone at some point in the proceedings, don't call it while trying to find it. Anthony Ramirez, 23, a triple-slaying suspect left his cell phone behind during a burglary. He'd skedaddled out a window when his crime-in- progress was interrupted by the home's resident. When he called back, guess what, the cops were on the line! Ring, ring. One assumes officer Uri Nieves said a nice hello when he answered. "Hey, did you find my phone?" said the voice on the other end. Nieves acted as if he was just some guy who picked it up off the street, and got "Tony's" info. He agreed to return the phone for a small reward. Ramirez never got his phone back but, after further shenani- gans as there will be with stupid criminals, he did get a free trip to the crowbar motel. LT "Hi Lisa? Chas here. How're things?. . . Fine!. . . Fine!. . . You too?. . . And the kids?. . . Great! Listen Lisa, could you help me out here? Throw me a bone, given your area of expertise? D'you know if the recent amendments to Section 48, c5-Bill 12, Access to Adoption Records Act, apply on the planet Bloopus in the Andromeda Galaxy?" www.lawtimesnews.com