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PAGE 14 FOCUS January 26, 2009 • Law Times FIRM UP! 10% 15% 1 Year $65.00 + gst or call 1-888-743-3551 Special rates for students and international subscribers. LT - 1/4 x 3.indd 1 1/22/09 12:16:36 PM MORTGAGE DISCHARGE NOTIFICATION From obtaining certified cheques to waiting for the notification of the mortgage discharge, time spent on administration can slow down your real estate practice – no matter how fast you run. Using the Closure® service, you can securely manage the transfer of real estate closing funds online reducing the need for certified cheques, bank drafts, direct deposits and couriers. Send proceeds to other registered Closure users, such as lenders to pay out a mortgage, the vendor's lawyer, and builders and developers – all from your computer. Now you can submit your documents for registration using the Teraview® software, manage the transfer of the closing funds and track and communicate the mortgage discharge to fulfill your undertakings in less time and with less effort! Untitled-1 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 1/20/09 2:28:20 PM Digital Editons FREE with each paid subscription Receive the Purchase 5 or more subscriptions for your law firm to Law Times or Canadian Lawyer and save Purchase 20 or more and save 1 year $135.00 + gst, go online at www.lawtimesnews.com 2 Year $105.00 + gst go online at www.canadianlawyermag.com BONUS Privacy commissioner reviewing feedback Continued from page 9 Privacy Commissioner of Canada says it is reviewing feedback it has received on the draft guidelines on surveillance with a goal of fi nalizing them by the end of March. But Joynt says that if authori- ties go ahead with the pixilation requirement, organizations such as the Canadian Association of Private Investigators will recom- mend fi rms challenge it in court. "Our advice to any private in- vestigation companies or lawyers that are subject to these kinds of complaints . . . [is to] fi ght it because the only venue where you're going to [be] heard at all is in a court." The principle is an important one, he adds, because the in- dustry needs to protect its ability to investigate. "What has to be recognized both by the public and the privacy folks is that what we do serves a purpose. People have a right to defend them- selves against people that have defrauded them, lied to them, or cheated them." LT New standard set Continued from page 13 to protect themselves from claims of negligent investiga- tion. Th e answer, Debenham argues, lies in brushing up on and applying the standards of the various professional bodies private investigators belong to in order to prove in court that their actions were reasonable. "Ev- ery fi eld has gone through this where they think the published standard is just for the purpose of internally disciplining mem- bers. It's no longer that. It forms the basis of a lawsuit." So far, Debenham says the in- vestigators he deals with have held out hope the precedents set in the two court cases won't stand. But he notes that since the 1999 On- tario Court of Appeal decision in ADGA Systems International Ltd. v. Valcom Ltd., the trend has been towards holding the person directly responsible for harm, rather than just companies and employers, li- able. "Ever since the ADGA deci- sion, there's been more and more inclination to sue the actual person who caused the harm. Th at means that investigators — to the extent that they initiated the problem — are going to be sued personally a lot more in the future." For his part, Debenham doesn't think that's a bad thing. Noting that accountants and auditors were out- raged when they fi rst learned they could face lawsuits from someone other than their client, he says the two cases are merely an extension LT