Law Times

PAGE 16 u BIZARRE BRIEFS By Viola James MAN JAILED FOR RINGING BELL EARLY BEIJING — A man in central China has been sentenced to a year in jail for ringing a bell to end a national college entrance exam too early, forcing the students to hand in their papers nearly five minutes before the exam should have ended, state media said. Xiao Yulong, 54, admitted having rung the bell at the school in the province of Hunan four minutes and 48 seconds early "by mistake" on June 8, meaning 1,050 students had to hand in their exams before they were required to do so, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The incident lead to thousands of students and parents gathering "multiple times" at the school and the local education bureau to demand that the government investigate, it said. A court sentenced Xiao to one year in jail for negligence, Xinhua said. However, the news agency reports he was also given a one-year re- prieve, which means he may serve either very little or no time inside. "Xiao was careless in his work and mistakenly management office to issue special "residency bonds" to foreigners. Holders of at least a quar- ter of a million euros worth of the paper would get preferential immigration treatment. has explored a variety of ways to refinance. The proposed legislation calls for the debt — Reuters COP CHARGED WITH PLAN TO COOK WOMEN NEW YORK — A New York City police officer has been charged with conspiring to kidnap, torture, cook, and eat women whose names he listed in his computer. In a criminal complaint unsealed in Manhat- tan federal court, Gilberto Valle III, 28, of Forest Hills, Queens, was charged with conspiring to cross state lines to kidnap the women and with illegally accessing a federal database. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Investigators uncovered a file on Valle' rang the bell too early, resulting in adverse social impact," the report added, citing a court statement. — Reuters BONDS TO PROVIDE FAST TRACK TO EUROPEAN PASSPORT BUDAPEST — Lawmakers in indebted European Union member Hungary are waving the prospect of a passport at well-heeled foreign investors. Proposed legislation listed on parliament' puter containing the names and pictures of at least 100 women and the addresses and physical descriptions of some of them, according to the complaint. It said he had undertaken surveil- lance of some of the women at their places of employment and their homes. Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman, in denying s com- web site would grant permanent residency and ultimately Hungarian citizenship to outsiders who buy at least 250,000 euros worth of special government bonds. Hungarian passport holders are entitled to live s and work throughout the European Union. The move, backed by the ruling government party, is designed to attract new investors, es- pecially from China. Hungary has billions of euros worth of foreign currency debt maturing in the next few years and Valle bail at a hearing, said: "The allegations in the complaint are profoundly disturbing. I have never seen allegations similar to this in 16 years on the bench." Valle' had vigorously argued to the judge that her client was all talk and deserved to be released on bail. "There is no actual crossing the line from fantasy to reality, your honour." with an unnamed co-conspirator, Valle is quot- ed in the complaint as saying: "I can just show up at her home unannounced. It will not alert her and I can knock her out, wait until dark, and kidnap her right out of her home. In an excerpt of a July online conversation " November 5, 2012 • Law Times u The INSIDE STORY NEW SECURITIES LAW PARTNER AT FMC Elana Hahn has leſt international law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP to be- come a partner at Fraser Milner Cas- grain LLP. Hahn joins FMC as a partner in the firm's securities group at its Toronto of- fice. Previously, she worked at a num- ber of U.S. and British firms in London, England. Her practice covers an array of banking, capital markets, and deriva- tives matters. "We are very happy to welcome Elana Elana Hahn to our securities group," said Mike Kaplan, FMC's managing part- ner in Toronto. "She is an experienced capital markets and finance lawyer and brings a wealth of insight and expertise to her practice, which will make her a great addition to our team." FORMER LAWYER'S SENTENCE REDUCED The Ontario Court of Ap- peal has reduced the fraud sen- tence for a former lawyer from Innisfil, Ont. In cutting the sentence to s court-appointed attorney, Julia Gatto, 16 months less time served of eight months from the origi- nal penalty of 22 months, the appeal court considered fresh evidence that Myles McLellan had agreed to secure $100,400 through a second mortgage in favour of the victim, Sam Klaiman, as restitution. "I am satisfied that if the trial new model for delivering them. As a result, it will be consulting on its suggestions between Nov. 5 and Dec. 10. Registration for the consultations is available on LAO' change, LAO referred to new federal legislation that reforms the refugee determination sys- tem in Canada. "This new leg- islation, coupled with rising costs, requires LAO to reassess some of the basic assumptions about how refugee legal aid ser- vices are provided in Ontario, In justifying the need for s web site. judge had before her the fresh evidence demonstrating that the appellant placed a second mort- gage on his property in favour of Mr. Klaiman' — Reuters LT interest was not subject to other multilayered security interests, she would have imposed a lower custodial sentence, s company, which chael Tulloch wrote with his fel- low appeal court judges agreeing. Justice Anne Mullins had " Justice Mi- earlier convicted McLellan of fraud over $5,000 and two counts of uttering forged docu- ments. The case related to funds deposited in his trust account in February 2006 that were "quickly dispersed for his own financial purposes." The Law Society of Upper Canada disbarred McLellan in 2009. "Ever since the Tax Court said that Revenue Canada's penalties for lawyers involved in deceptive charity schemes amount to criminal sanctions, George has had a few issues." Recruiting? Post your position on GREAT RATES. GREAT REACH. GREAT RESULTS. Contact Sandy Shutt at sandra.shutt@thomsonreuters.com for details. www.lawtimesnews.com JobsInLaw 1-8 pg 5X.indd 1 2/15/11 4:12:27 PM LAO REVIEWING REFUGEE SERVICES Citing continuing funding chal- lenges, Legal Aid Ontario is reviewing its delivery of refugee law services. LAO has already draſted a consultation paper on refugee legal aid services that proposes a LAO said last week. The consultations follow " changes LAO already made to the certificate system this year when it announced plans to reduce the amount of money it spends on refugee and immi- gration certificates by $1 mil- lion in a bid to tackle its deficit. POLL RESULTS The results of the latest Law Times online poll are in. It appears the recommenda- tions from the Law Society of Upper Canada's articling task force aren't very popular with many Law Times readers. Ac- cording to the poll, 74 per cent of respondents said the task force hadn't gotten it right when it recommended a law practice program as an alternative to articling. The poll comes as the legal profession has been vigorously debating the report' mendations. At Convocation on Oct. 25, law society benchers deferred a decision on the pro- posal for a law practice program until Nov. 22. Many benchers cited the need for more time to consider the report. s recom- LT

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