Law Times

Page 16 May 11, 2015 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED The federal government has appointed Superior Court Justice Lois Roberts to the Ontario Court of Appeal. Roberts replaces Justice George Strathy, who became chief justice of Ontario last year. Roberts joined the Superior Court bench in 2008. Prior to her appoint- ment, she was a lawyer with Genest Murray LLP and Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP practising commercial litigation as well as employment and hu- man rights law. Replacing Roberts on the Superior Court bench is lawyer Ken- neth Hood, who was counsel at mortgage and real estate law firm Schneider Ruggiero LLP prior to his appointment. As a certified specialist in civil litigation, Hood's practice focused on mortgage and debt enforcement, contractual disputes, shareholder and part- nership matters, professional negligence, and real estate. Hood is also a former director of The Advocates' Society and a past executive member of the Ontario Bar Association's civil liti- gation section. MAN SUES OVER LEG LEFT IN GARBAGE CORAL GABLES, Fla. — It's probably against protocol for a hospital to throw a man's limb in the garbage with the name tag still on it but is it worthy of a lawsuit? A south Florida man who's suing a hospital for emotional distress obviously thinks it is. According to Reuters, John Timiriasieff, 56, had his right leg amputated below the knee in October at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables. "Rather than properly disposing of the plain- tiff 's limb as expected and as required by Florida law, Doctors Hospital threw the Plaintiff 's ampu- tated limb into the garbage, with tags indicating it belonged to the Plaintiff," according to the lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court. A month later, Timiriasieff said homicide de- tectives contacted his family to investigate if he had been the victim of foul play. When the family went back to the hospi- tal to find out what happened, it told them it would "provide no explanation for what had occurred," the lawsuit said. Doctors Hospital Inc., part of the Baptist Health South Florida Inc., said it couldn't dis- cuss the incident in detail because of patient privacy considerations. "However, we can say when Doctors Hospi- tal was notified of this situation, hospital lead- ers took immediate and appropriate measures to address it," it added in an e-mailed statement. "Proper procedures have been reinforced at the hospital to prevent similar situations from hap- pening in the future." Normally, hospitals incinerate amputated limbs, said Clay Roberts, a lawyer for Timiriasieff. Roberts said he wrote to the hospital in Jan- uary but got no response. In the lawsuit, Timiriasieff described the hospital's conduct as "outrageous and beyond the bounds of human decency as to be regard- ed as odious and utterly intolerable in a civi- lized community." The leg ended up at a waste-management facility, according to Reuters. Roberts said his client is upset by the hospital's unwillingness to accept responsibility for the severe emotional distress he endured. "I have heard of people having the wrong limb removed, but hospitals aren't supposed to throw them away," he said. None of the allegations have been proven in court. OFFICER REBUKED FOR SNOOP PHOTO FIGHTS BACK AUSTIN, Texas — Who knew Snoop Dogg was among those some employees have to wor- ry about associating themselves with on social media? According to Reuters, a Texas state trooper who received a reprimand after posing for a pho- tograph with rapper Snoop Dogg has filed a civil suit over the punishment he felt was unjust. The Department of Public Safety told trooper Billy Spears, who was off duty but working in uniform as security at a music festival, that he posed "with a public figure who has a well-known criminal background including numerous drug charges" and said his actions ref lected poorly on the agency, according to the suit. Spears filed the suit against the leader of the department and others for subjecting him to ad- ministrative counselling after the photo with the music star, who was in Austin for the South by Southwest music festival, appeared on social me- dia about a month ago. According to Reuters, Snoop Dogg posted the picture with a caption that read, "Me n my deputy dogg." After the photo went out, the department dispatched an agent to Spears to serve him with a copy of his counselling record, something the lawsuit said was an effort to show its anger. The suit contends Spears' superiors "could not identify any policy, rule, order, or law that he violated, so they just fabricated something." LT CANADIAN LAW LIST 2015 This is more than a phone book. It is your instant connection to Canada's legal network. ȕ aOVQUPEBUFBMQIBCFUJDBMMJTUJOH ȕ DPOUBDUJOGPSNBUJPO ȕ MFHBMBOEHPWFSONFOUDPOUBDUJOGPSNBUJPO )BSECPVOEȕ1VCMJTIFE'FCSVBSZ FBDIZFBS ȕ- ȕ0OTVCTDSJQUJPO ȕ0OFUJNFQVSDIBTF .VMUJQMFDPQZEJTDPVOUTBWBJMBCMF 1MVTTIJQQJOHIBOEMJOHBOE BQQMJDBCMFUBYFT ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY! CBMM1.800.387.5164 PS WJTJUwww.carswell.com Untitled-2 1 2015-03-17 10:21 AM u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story NEW PROGRAM FOR STARTUPS Norton Rose Fulbright Can- ada LLP says it's creating a new custom legal services program aimed at helping accelerate inno- vative ventures. "Many emerging technol- ogy businesses have special legal needs, especially when scaling and dealing with the changing demands that come with expan- sion," said Anthony de Fazekas, a partner at Norton Rose Ful- bright in Toronto. "Our new program removes the associated challenges and risk by connecting companies to a concierge-type service that ensures the right strategic advice is accessed at the right time, at affordable rates. Each member of our team has a strong passion and commitment to helping our technology clients succeed," said de Fazekas. In the past, Norton Rose Ful- bright has partnered with the MaRS Discovery District to launch a legal clinic dedicated to serving technology startups. The new program will offer not only basic services but also strategic legal support "on key topics for high-growth Canadian technol- ogy businesses," the firm said. POLL RESULTS The results for the latest Law Times online poll are in. According to the poll, the ma- jority of respondents don't agree with a motion put forward at this week's Law Society of Upper Canada annual general meeting that seeks to force law firms of a certain size to take articling stu- dents chosen at random. Sixty-five per cent of respon- dents said the proposed scheme is both unfair and unfeasible. The 15 lawyers behind the mo- tion say attempts to address the shortcomings of the articling sys- tem have created new problems and interfere with the law school experience. The motion proposes requiring firms of eight or more lawyers to accept articling stu- dents assigned to them at random. NEW PARTNERS AT DENTONS Dentons Canada LLP has pro- moted four Ontario lawyers to the partnership as the firm welcomes 48 lawyers as partners globally. In Ontario, the firm wel- comed Rob Davis, Scott Mar- tyn, Andy Pushalik, and Kori Williams to the partnership. Davis practises corporate law in Ottawa while the rest of the newly minted partners are at the firm's Toronto office. Pushalik practises labour and employ- ment law, Martyn is a real estate lawyer, and Williams works in the financial services area. "I congratulate our new part- ners on this significant and well- deserved promotion — these highly talented lawyers further strengthen a partnership that is dedicated to meeting, and exceed- ing, our clients' expectations," said Elliott Portnoy, Dentons' global chief executive officer. LT "I'm with the premier on this one. That new carbon cap-and-trade regime will save the planet for my granddaughter, too! She's going to be a lobbyist." Ontario Court of Appeal

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