Law Times

PAGE 20 u BIZARRE BRIEFS By Viola James PIT BULL GETS LEGAL REPRESENTATION SAVANNAH, Ga. — Will a dog appointed a lawyer by the court pay his counsel in licks and guard services? What would former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant think about legal representation for pit bulls? Those are some of the questions aſter a judge in Georgia appointed a lawyer to defend a pit bull that could be euthanized for attacking a neighbour' named Kno, to Effingham County, north of Savannah, last summer aſter it was accused of severely injuring the child, assistant county at- torney Elizabeth Pavlis told Reuters. Lawyer Claude Kicklighter, appointed by Superior Court Judge William Woodrum Jr. to represent the dog, said he was still learning de- tails of the case. " All I can tell you is that the judge appointed me," he said. "I really don't know what the issues are." Pavlis said a hearing was scheduled this The dog's owner surrendered the animal, s five-year-old child. smokers of the hubble-bubble water pipe to in- dulge their fondness for sweet flavoured tobacco in Jeddah' According to Reuters, time has run out for force a public ban on the habit. A law against smoking the pipes, known in s cafés as the Saudi city prepares to en- Arabic as shisha, in public places has been in place for years in some other Saudi cities, but it is only now being implemented in Jeddah, which is known as more socially liberal than the capital Riyadh. "It' per cent of our customers come to smoke shisha. Now they complain as soon as they walk through the door when we say we won't have shisha," said Ghassan Mohammed Mansour, manager of Jed- dah' s a big problem for our café. More than 80 ported that more than 35 businesspeople with investments in restaurants and cafés had com- plained to the city' s upscale Caffe Aroma, in a phone interview. English-language daily the Saudi Gazette re- month to determine whether the dog should be euthanized. Kicklighter is doing the legal work at no charge to the county. Bruce Wagman, a San Francisco attorney spe- cializing in animal cases, said it was unusual for judges to appoint attorneys to represent animals. According to Reuters, Wagman knew of only two similar cases. One involved dogs owned by NFL quarterback Michael Vick, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to charges that he participated in an interstate dog fighting enterprise. Vick spent 19 months in federal prison and is now playing for the Philadelphia Eagles foot- ball team. Pavlis said Woodrum was not re- quired to appoint an attorney for the dog and did it "just to cover his bases, I would say. " SHISHA BAN RATTLES SAUDI CAFES JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — It appears the waſt of apple-flavoured tobacco wasn't sweet enough to stop health officials from implementing a ban on smoking shisha in public. the ban, demanding it protect their interests. According to Reuters, the pipes have been s chamber of commerce about banned on health grounds, alongside other forms of smoking, with the Health Ministry campaigning for tougher measures against the habit for years. Shisha smoking is popular in Saudi Arabia, but it is frowned upon by clerics of the austere Wahhabi school of Islam that dominates the world' Riyadh is located and which is the heartland of Wahhabi belief, shisha smoking has long been banned in urban areas. But Mansour said the ban would be felt In Nejd, the central part of Saudi Arabia where s top oil exporter. hardest by women who would find it difficult to frequent licensed shisha cafés outside the city limits in a country where only men are al- lowed to drive. Businesses that flout the ban face increasingly heſty fines and ultimately closure if they are caught offering the pipes to customers. " LT good food, so we will try to bring in new custom- ers by advertising our food, but still we lose, Mansour. At this moment, we have good menus and " said OctOber 22, 2012 • Law times u The INSIDE STORY TORONTO LAWYER JOINS DIVERSITY PROGRAM Baker & McKenzie LLP partner Donna Walwyn is the first Canadian participant in the Leadership Council on Legal Diver- sity' the prestigious LCLD program," said Kevin Coon, managing part- ner of Baker & McKenzie' "Donna is a highly skilled and talented pensions and employee benefits lawyer and a person of great character." s Toronto office. For Walwyn, the opportunity is an honour. "I am truly honoured to be the first Canadian selected for the LCLD fellows program," she said. JOT STATS ACROSS ONTARIO As Law Times once again took a look at the Justice on Target project last week, particularly in regards to several Toronto-area courthouses reviewed during an earlier evaluation, the province also released statistics on how it fared at individual courthouses across Ontario. While the project has fallen shown positive results with days to dispositiondown to 171 from 240. Some cities, however, saw top general counsel and managing partners, launched the fellows program as a structured mentoring effort aimed at identifying high-po- tential lawyers from diverse backgrounds. The goal is to encourage a diverse generation of promising lawyers with strong leadership and relationship skills and a commitment to diversity at their firms and within the profession. "We are proud to have Donna represent our office and our firm in The council, a U.S. organization involving s fellows program. Donna Walwyn short of its ambitious targets over- all, in some towns and cities there have been striking improvements in criminal court efficiency. In Os- hawa, Ont., for example, the aver- age days to disposition is down to 169 from 231 in 2007. The average number of appearances, mean- while, has fallen to 8.5 from 10.9 five years ago. That' retsen credits simple things for the improvements at courthouses like the one in Oshawa. "The sig- nage is a lot better, the latest statistics released by the Ministry of the Attorney Gen- eral about the project launched with the aim of reducing both days to disposition and appearances by 30 per cent by 2012. Attorney General John Ger- s according to efforts to provide more informa- tion to the accused from the out- set, particularly when it comes to disclosure, have been making a difference in terms of ensur- ing court appearances are more meaningful. As well, technological improvements have played a role. Other courthouses that have " he says, noting seen significant success include Kingston, Ont., where the aver- age days to disposition was 125 this year. That' "It was a tough decision between the defined-contribution and the defined-benefit pensions! What led you to opt for the defined-detriment plan?" A DAILY BLOGOF CANADIAN LEGAL NEWS [WWW.CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/LEGALFEEDS ] LegalFeeds-BB-LT-Apr23-12.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com in 2007. Appearances have fallen as well to 6.9 from 9.7. The court- house in Barrie, Ont., has also s down from 177 worsening numbers. In Ottawa, days to disposition increased slightly to 208 from 207 and ap- pearances rose to 9.3 from 9.2. But that situation pales in comparison to Hamilton, Ont., where days to disposition skyrocketed to 237 from 157 five years ago and ap- pearances rose to 9.3 from 8.5. FMC LAUNCHES MICROSITE ON PRIVATE BUSINESS Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP has launched a new microsite aimed at private business owners. The new site, canadianpri- vateenterprise.com, will provide insights and news on matters such as intellectual property and tax and estate planning. Lawyers Anna Balinsky, Laurence Gering- er, and Ted Shoub will write and edit content on the site. POLL RESULTS The results of the latest Law Times online poll are in. According to the poll, many who its legal aid program will rep- resent in domestic violence cases. Recently, the law school found it- self in hot water following reports its Community Legal Aid pro- gram would no longer represent accused men in such cases but would continue to provide servic- es to accused women. The school has since said it would represent neither gender in such cases. Readers, however, are skepti- Law Times readers aren't on board with Windsor Law' s policy on cal. According to the poll, 73 per cent of respondents answered no to the question of whether the school had the right policy. LT CANADIAN LAWYER & LAW TIMES POWERED BY 12-04-16 11:56 AM

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