Law Times

Page 20 aPril 13, 2015 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com JUSTICE JUDITH SNIDER JOINS JAMS Former Federal Court justice Judith Snider has joined mediation and arbitra- tion service provider JAMS. Snider will join JAMS' Toronto resolu- tion centre as an arbitrator and mediator in matters including administrative, envi- ronmental, intellectual property, business and commercial, and energy and utility matters. Before joining the bench, Snider was general counsel and vice chairwoman of the National Energy Board based in Calgary. She was also a partner at Code Hunter, a boutique litigation firm in Alberta. "Justice Snider is passionate about resolving cases and committed to understanding the parties' issues," said Chris Poole, president and chief executive officer of JAMS. "Her experience on the bench and working with parties to reach reso- lution makes her a terrific addition to our panel in Canada." Snider said that as both a judge and a lawyer, she has learned how "es- sential" alternative dispute resolution is. "I look forward to continue doing this important work and joining the talented team in Toronto," she said. LAWMAKER TARGETS LAW NAMED FOR FORMER PATIENT MONTGOMERY, Ala. — It seems like this law hit a bit too close to home for an Alabama law- maker. The lawmaker, who's also a doctor, is seeking to overturn a state law named for one of his pa- tients whose death 16 years earlier triggered leg- islation requiring insurers to pay for minimum post-pregnancy hospital stays, records show. Rose's law, named after 36-year-old Rose Church, who died of a heart attack 10 days af- ter giving birth in 1998, requires insurers in Alabama to cover post-pregnancy hospital stays of up to 48 hours. Her widower, Gene Church, championed the law, saying she was discharged too quickly and without proper tests. State Sen. Larry Stutts, a Republican first elected in November 2014, was Church's gyne- cologist at the time of her death and faced a law- suit filed by the widower. Stutts introduced his measure on March 18, billing it in a subsequent Facebook posting as a means to eliminate intru- sion into doctor-patient relations and getting rid of "one-size-fits-all Obamacare-style laws." Church views it differently. "This was a personal vendetta. The irony is that 16 years later, no one remembered what happened with my wife or very few people did," said Church. "Now, sadly for him, everybody is going to know." According to Reuters, Church filed a lawsuit against Stutts, the hospital where his wife gave birth, and a second doctor alleging medical malpractice. They settled the matter on confi- dential terms. Church, 54, who now resides in Florida, said he had been unaware of the doctor's recent elec- tion until his daughter, now 16, told him of the attempt to undo Rose's law. Several state lawmakers, after learning in recent days of Stutts' connection to the origi- nal law — first reported by the news web site Alabama Political Reporter — have called Church and said they wouldn't support its re- peal, said Church, adding the odds of overturn- ing it are remote. The measure, Senate bill 289, which has six co-sponsors, would also end a requirement that doctors inform women when finding dense breast tissue, which is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, during a mam- mogram. DIVORCE PAPERS SERVED BY FACEBOOK NEW YORK — Islam allows people to divorce by saying an Arabic phrase three times, and now a New York judge has said a woman can do something similar on Facebook. According to the New York Daily News, the Manhattan Supreme Court has issued a novel decision allowing the woman, Ellanora Bai- doo, to serve her husband with divorce papers through a message on Facebook. The ruling follows a fruitless search to track the husband, Victor Sena Blood-Dzraku, down. "We tried everything, including hiring a private detective, and nothing," the Daily News reported Baidoo's lawyer, Andrew Spinnell, as saying. According to the paper, Justice Matthew Cooper said Baidoo's lawyer is to use Facebook's private messaging service to serve Blood-Dzr- aku "once a week for three consecutive weeks or until acknowledged" by the husband. The pair married in 2009, but the relation- ship quickly fell apart, the Daily News reported. While they never lived together, Blood-Dzraku didn't want a divorce. According to the paper, he has told Baidoo he has no fixed address and she has been unable to serve him. "I think it's new law and it's necessary," the Daily News quoted Spinnell as saying. But whether Blood-Dzraku will answer the messages is another matter, of course. "So far, he hasn't responded," Spinnell told the paper after the first Facebook message went out. LT The title insurer that puts you front row, centre Putting the legal community front and centre has made us the #1 choice with Canadian lawyers for over a decade. Stewart Title does not support programs that reduce or eliminate the lawyer's role in real estate transactions. For more information call (888) 667-5151 or visit www.stewart.ca. Untitled-2 1 7/19/11 12:31:45 PM u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story DUNCAN FRASER JOINS WORTZMANS Lawyer Duncan Fraser has joined Susan Wortzman PC as vice president and senior legal counsel. Fraser hails from the Depart- ment of Justice, where he was director and general counsel of electronic litigation and litigation support services with the litiga- tion branch. "Under his direction, the federal Department of Justice became one of the public sector leaders in e-discovery," Wotzmans said in an announcement last week. "Duncan was responsible for developing and providing comprehensive e-discovery strat- egy and litigation technology and services to over 2,000 Justice law- yers and paralegals," the firm add- ed, calling Fraser's arrival a "key piece" of its strategy. "Duncan's legal experience and expertise in the public sector fit seamlessly into the legal services that Wortzmans provides." DISBARMENT STAYED PENDING APPEAL An appeal panel has stayed a Law Society Tribunal decision to dis- bar a Nepean, Ont., lawyer pend- ing his appeal. The tribunal had revoked Lu- igi Savone's licence to practise law after finding he had assisted in fraudulent real estate transactions in which purchasers obtained mortgage proceeds under false pretenses over a period spanning from February 2000 until Oc- tober 2003. Savone is seeking to appeal that decision on the basis that there was an inordinate de- lay causing significant prejudice to him. Recently, the appeal divi- sion found he had "demonstrated that he would suffer irreparable harm if a stay pending appeal were not granted." "The law society did not cross-examine Mr. Savone on his evidence in this regard. Revocation would shut down his practice and, in the particular cir- cumstances, poses considerable challenges to a later resumption of practice," wrote Mark Sandler on the panel's behalf. He added: "After all, Mr. Sa- vone contends, inter alia, that the entire proceedings should have been stayed and that the findings should all be set aside, based on lack of access to relevant documents. These are two of the grounds of appeal that I cannot dismiss as frivolous." POLL RESULTS The results of the latest Law Times online poll are in. According to the poll, 88 per cent of participants agree that class actions have gotten out of control in Canada. Recently, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce made a joint statement with the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform saying "a tide" of class ac- tion lawsuits is a cause for concern in the world of Canadian business and lamented what it called "a laxi- ty" in getting class actions certified. The majority of poll participants agreed class actions are costing businesses too much as judges are too willing to certify matters. LT Justice Judith Snider "The courts may prohibit random testing by drug-sniffing dogs but it'll be some time before they get around to wine-tasting wallabies."

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