Law Times

Law Times • November 2, 2009 NEWS National standards would apply by 2015 Continued from page 1 law society has the However, say who it will admit to prac- tice, "they certainly can't to law schools, 'You are going to teach legal ethics, you are going to teach certain skills competencies, and you are going to file a report annually which provides us with detailed infor- mation to demon- strate that you're doing that.'" He explains that having to teach a compulsory course on ethics would require hiring a new per- son, as would the creation of an annual report. Otherwise, existing faculty would have to step in. "I think what we have tried to do is to respect both the autonomy of law schools and their consider- able expertise in legal education but I think our primary objective has been our own responsibility as regulators to ensure that we have a set of standards for the academic portion of the preparation that's appropriate," says Hunter. Alice Woolley, a professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law, says she was pleased to see that on the subject of competen- cies, the task force moved toward greater generality. "They put more emphasis on ensuring law schools have the appropriate resources to discharge their mandates, and those are things that had come up from some of the comments they received. I think they've respond- ed really appropriately to that." right to say one exception involves the section on the course in legal ethics, which in its final version contains a detailed list of subject matter it should cover. "This new direc- Bruce Elman tion by the task force is most unfor- tunate. It is incon- sistent with the rest of the final report in imposing rigidity and specific require- ments on academic legal education," she wrote in a blog. Woolley notes, however, that the task force has made a compel- ling argument for accountability in law schools. "Law schools are the gatekeep- ers of the profession in a signifi- cant extent. The trick is to ensure the law schools are accountable while also recognizing that we are academic institutions and we're bound by the mandate of an aca- demic institution, which is open inquiry and critical exploration and asking difficult questions." Bruce Elman, dean of the University of Windsor Faculty of Law, says the report's section on institutional resources, such as the appropriate number of academic staff, is a major step forward. "It recognizes that law schools are not just about their formal curriculum but they are about a whole set of things that we normally expect of a mod- ern Canadian or in fact North American law school," he says. Provincial law societies and the federation will now take time to consider the report's Status updates a source of trouble Continued from page 1 Zvulony suggests people get caught up with social media post- ings due to the fleeting nature of the technology. He points to Facebook status updates, where people might express their dis- dain for someone in their social sphere, as one spot that can eas- ily get them in trouble. "They think that it's so ephemeral and so easy to do . . . and the next thing you know somebody's really upset." Zvulony says most of the cases settle quickly out of court, often with financial incentives. Shukla, meanwhile, believes incriminating information on social media will have a big- ger impact on lower-income people as deep-pocketed liti- gants will be better equipped to challenge such evidence. "I suspect that the face value of the evidence is just so hor- rendous, and . . . these are small- timers, this is not the mafia," he says. "So I don't know that they are going to have the wherewith- al to really challenge the stuff." The challenge for prosecu- tors and litigants, he says, will be to adequately evidence. He points to child pornography cases, where a defendant may claim that evi- dence from a shared computer can't be attributed to them. "You can raise reasonable doubt," says Shukla. Roadblocks may also arise in attempts to gain informa- tion from intermediaries, such as organizations. cable companies or news Shukla says he was involved in a matter involving defamatory informa- tion posted online in which he had to go to a cable company to identify the offender. "Those organizations are deep-pocketed, savvy orga- nizations and make you go through a bunch of hoops before they turn over informa- tion," he says. Graham, meanwhile, says he link such uses Facebook in his criminal law practice mainly to compile information on complainants, victims, and witnesses. He says he has found potentially incriminating photos, includ- ing one person posing in front of a marijuana plant. "I think this stuff certainly seems to be playing a more prominent role, I guess. It's just a sign of the times." 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