Law Times

Page 16 May 2, 2016 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com SOCIAL IMPACT GROUP ANNOUNCED Miller Thomson LLP has announced its Charities and Not-For-Profit group will now be known as the Social Impact Group. The group will "continue to provide unique value-added services that help organizations succeed through changing eco- nomic, political and technologi- cal realities," according to a firm news release. "Clients are looking for sus- tainable new ways to deliver social change," said Susan Manwar- ing, national chairwoman of Miller Thomson's Social Impact Group. "Increasingly, our legal team is being called upon to help organizations design innovative structures, identify and unlock creative sources of rev- enue, lay the groundwork for social investments, and navigate a changing landscape of regulatory and financial risk." For more information, visit www.millerthomson.com/socialimpact. BLAKES RECOGNIZED BTI Consulting has named the best law firms at creating and us- ing alternative fee arrangements, and Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP has made the cut. There were 22 law firms selected. "These are the firms — out of the 650 core law firms serving large and Fortune 1000 clients — corporate counsel find are best at making AFAs the successful cost control tool they were intended to be — bringing improved client focus, predictability in budgets, a more streamlined approach to the work, and double-digit savings," said the "BTI State of Alternative Fee Arrangements" report. The rankings are based on "in- depth telephone interviews with leading legal decision-makers," with 322 interviews conducted. The survey can be accessed at http://w w w.bticonsulting.com/ themadclientist/2016/4/27/the-22- law-firms-best-at-afas. BLG EXPANDS PRESENCE IN CHINA Borden Ladner Gervais LLP has announced that its Beijing office has moved to the business incubation centre of the Canada China Business Council and the hire of Elaine Chen as business development manager. "Chinese clients have sought BLG's expertise in merger and acquisition transactions as they relate to mining and energy proj- ects, public company takeovers, acquisitions of private companies, minority investments in public companies, and joint ventures. Included in these activities is ad- vice on all related due diligence, environmental, aboriginal, tax, foreign investment approval, em- ployment, intellectual property, as well as other legal matters required when doing business in Canada," according to a firm news release. LAW TIMES POLL This week, readers were asked for their opinions about police vehicle stops. In the recent decision R. v. Harflett, a judge overturned a drug trafficking conviction, say- ing a vehicle search breached the Charter. Readers were asked if they believed most vehicle searches re- spected the Charter. About 29 per cent indicated they feel that, for the most part, vehicle searches are conducted with care and caution, and with a strong legal basis. However, 71 per cent indi- cated they do not think for the most part vehicle searches are conducted with care and caution and the results of this negatively impact the Canadian courts sys- tem. LT u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story 40 issuesH`LHYJV]LYPUN6U[HYPV»ZSLNHSSHUKZJHWL FREEKPNP[HSLKP[PVUHUK\USPTP[LKVUSPULHJJLZZ[VWHZ[PZZ\LZ FREECanadian Legal NewswireH^LLRS`LUL^ZSL[[LYMYVT[OLLKP[VYZVMLaw TimesHUKCanadian Lawyer Juror ruling prompts call to look at Criminal Code BY TALI FOLKINS Law Times ith the Ontario Court of Appeal having ruled on jurors' use of extrinsic informa- tion in a recent case, the president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association says it may be necessary to amend the Criminal Code in order to get a better handle on the issue. "You can't say if jurors are or are not doing this at any level that is ap- preciable because you only find out in the rare case where a juror hap- pens to mention something," says Anthony Moustacalis. "Maybe jurors really do obey the judge's instructions. In my experi- ence, it seems that they generally do. But do I really know? The an- swer is no. Maybe they're Googling stuff all the time." The only way to know for sure and assess the necessity of any changes to the jury system, accord- ing to Moustacalis, is to amend the Criminal Code to allow research- ers to interview jury members anonymously about their experi- ences. "The fact of the matter is that people are people and they might not always remember the limits of what they're allowed to do or they might stray," he says. The comments follow the ap- peal court's ruling in R. v. Farinacci, a case that demonstrated the ease with which jurors can now find information about the defendant outside of the evidence presented during the trial. In their ruling on June 3, a panel of three judges re- fused to overturn the convictions of two brothers for possession of the proceeds of crime and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. The brothers, Lucas Farinacci and Leonard Fari- nacci Jr., had argued their right to a fair trial had been compromised because jurors in the case, with the help of Google and other sources, had come across information about them that hadn't come up in court. The appeal came about as a result of a chance event at a coffee shop. Prior to sentencing but after the brothers' conviction, someone at the coffee shop overheard one of the ju- rors, in a conversation with a friend, mention that another me mber of Zero-tolerance conundrum Lawyers say pendulum has swung too far against accused in domestic violence cases BY TALI FOLKINS Law Times he justice system has taken the idea of zero toler- ance in domestic assault to such an extreme that it's unfair to defendants and no longer works in the best interests of Ontario families, says a 40- year veteran of criminal law. It's an opinion, however, vociferously opposed by at least one lawyer who helps victims of domestic violence. Leo Adler, of Adler Bytensky Prutschi Shikhman, says the issue of domestic assault has become "political football" over the last 25 to 30 years with largely undesirable results. While Adler emphasizes he doesn't want to diminish the tragedy of family violence, he says the situation has now reached a point where police called to family violence situa- tions are unduly afraid to release the defendant even in cases that don't appear serious. "Nobody wants to be the person who says, 'O.K., I'm going to release you,' because you might be the one in a million or whatever the statistic is who might end up killing your spouse," says Adler. "In a lot of these cases, there's no sign of violence, there's no sign of anything having occurred. You simply have the word of the complainant. And the person gets arrested and I can tell you that again in the majority of cases, the police don't even bother to try to take a statement from the accused, usually the male. . . . They don't ask because it doesn't make a difference because they're going to arrest you no matter what." Bail hearings in domestic violence cases, he says, are "a l- ways run on the presumption of guilt" and, if the court does grant bail, it's generally under strict conditions with the de- fendant required to live with a surety. The result, according to Adler, is often a divided family with the added financial strain OBA LAUDED Association honoured for mental-health efforts P4 CAMPAIGN SPENDING Bencher candidate calls for expense limits P6 FOCUS ON Legal Innovation 'In a lot of these cases, there's no sign of violence, there's no sign of anything having occurred,' says Leo Adler. Photo: Robin Kuniski See Silence, page 2 See Bail, page 2 There's no way to know if jurors are doing their own research on cases, says Anthony Moustacalis. PM #40762529 & $#&!& t7PM/P Follow LAW TIMES on www.twitter.com/lawtimes L AW TIMES T W Juror ruling prompts call to look at Criminal Code BY TALI FOLKINS Law Times ith the Ontario Court of Appeal having ruled on jurors' use of extrinsic informa- tion in a recent case, the president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association says it may be necessary to amend the Criminal Code in order to get a better handle on the issue. "You can't say if jurors are or are not doing this at any level that is ap- preciable because you only find out in the rare case where a juror hap- pens to mention something," says Anthony Moustacalis. "Maybe jurors really do obey the judge's instructions. In my experi- ence, it seems that they generally do. But do I really know? The an- swer is no. Maybe they're Googling stuff all the time." The only way to know for sure and assess the necessity of any changes to the jury system, accord- ing to Moustacalis, is to amend the Criminal Code to allow research- ers to interview jury members anonymously about their experi- ences. "The fact of the matter is that people are people and they might not always remember the limits of what they're allowed to do or they might stray," he says. The comments follow the ap- peal court's ruling in R. v. Farinacci, a case that demonstrated the ease with which jurors can now find information about the defendant outside of the evidence presented during the trial. In their ruling on June 3, a panel of three judges re- fused to overturn the convictions of two brothers for possession of the proceeds of crime and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. The brothers, Lucas Farinacci and Leonard Fari- nacci Jr., had argued their right to a fair trial had been compromised because jurors in the case, with the help of Google and other sources, had come across information about them that hadn't come up in court. The appeal came about as a result of a chance event at a coffee shop. Prior to sentencing but after the brothers' conviction, someone at the coffee shop overheard one of the ju- rors, in a conversation with a friend, mention that another me mber of Zero-tolerance conundrum Lawyers say pendulum has swung too far against accused in domestic violence cases BY TALI FOLKINS Law Times he justice system has taken the idea of zero toler- ance in domestic assault to such an extreme that it's unfair to defendants and no longer works in the best interests of Ontario families, says a 40- year veteran of criminal law. It's an opinion, however, vociferously opposed by at least one lawyer who helps victims of domestic violence. Leo Adler, of Adler Bytensky Prutschi Shikhman, says the issue of domestic assault has become "political football" over the last 25 to 30 years with largely undesirable results. While Adler emphasizes he doesn't want to diminish the tragedy of family violence, he says the situation has now reached a point where police called to family violence situa- tions are unduly afraid to release the defendant even in cases that don't appear serious. "Nobody wants to be the person who says, 'O.K., I'm going to release you,' because you might be the one in a million or whatever the statistic is who might end up killing your spouse," says Adler. "In a lot of these cases, there's no sign of violence, there's no sign of anything having occurred. You simply have the word of the complainant. And the person gets arrested and I can tell you that again in the majority of cases, the police don't even bother to try to take a statement from the accused, usually the male. . . . They don't ask because it doesn't make a difference because they're going to arrest you no matter what." Bail hearings in domestic violence cases, he says, are "a l- ways run on the presumption of guilt" and, if the court does grant bail, it's generally under strict conditions with the de- fendant required to live with a surety. The result, according to Adler, is often a divided family with the added financial strain OBA LAUDED Association honoured for mental-health efforts P4 CAMPAIGN SPENDING Bencher candidate calls for expense limits P6 FOCUS ON Legal Innovation P8 'In a lot of these cases, there's no sign of violence, there's no sign of anything having occurred,' says Leo Adler. Photo: Robin Kuniski See Silence, page 2 See Bail, page 2 There's no way to know if jurors are doing their own research on cases, says Anthony Moustacalis. PM #40762529 & $#&!&jmmm$cYa[bbWh$Yec t7PM/P +VOF Follow LAW TIMES on www.twitter.com/lawtimes L AW TIMES T W Subscribe to Law Times today for $199* and receive: *HUSH^`LYSH^[PTLZ'[OVTZVUYL\[LYZJVTc c (JJLZZHMYLLWYL]PL^H[!IP[S`JVTLawTimes-FreePreview 6YKLYVUSPULH[!^^^SH^[PTLZUL^ZJVTZ\IZJYPIL *Plus applicable taxes How the legal community in Ontario gets its news 'lawtimes Untitled-4 1 2016-04-27 3:52 PM "Yes, but think of its effect on the multi-jurisdictional class action bar!" THAT'S, UM, COMMITMENT KYZYL, Republic of Tuva, Russia — The Daily Mail reports that a lawyer in Russia ate an incriminating document to help out a client. The media outlet reports the lawyer was in a judge's office for a case that related to a client accused of having an accident while driving impaired. CCTV cameras caught the lawyer eating the document, according to a video posted on the media outlet's web site. The document reportedly contained breathalyzer results of the client, said The Daily Mail. The Daily Mail reports that when the judge's secretary came back, the lawyer told her the docu- ment was gone. The woman then called for the guard, and the CCTV footage was used to piece together what had happened. The lawyer faces two years in prison or a fine, said The Daily Mail. WHAT ESCAPE PLAN? WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Associated Press reports a man fleeing a robbery ended up jumping over a fence at the White House late last month, causing a lockdown, before he was arrested. The man was allegedly fleeing from a robbery when he jumped the fence at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where employees for the president are located. The Associated Press reports Secret Service officers detained the man, but not before he in- jured his finger. He was taken to hospital. The incident highlighted efforts that are under- way to improve security along the fence, said the report, after a 2014 incident where a man jumped the fence and made it inside the White House be- fore he was stopped. NOT THE BEST CAREER MOVE LONOKE COUNTY, Ark. — An elemen- tary school teacher is in trouble after she was accused of giving alcohol to minors, reports Arkansas Online. Marcie Duncan, 48, was arrested after police said they found empty alcohol containers and a keg at a party on property owned by the woman. The teacher is now accused of giving alcohol to 30 minors. She has been suspended while an internal in- vestigation is conducted, reports Arkansas On- line. Duncan has worked at the school for eight years. After she was arrested, Arkansas Online re- ported she was charged with 33 counts of contrib- uting to the delinquency of a minor, 33 counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor, and two counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a minor. Police said the arrest took place after officers responded to the party at the property in the early morning hours. "Duncan, who appeared intoxicated while talking to police, said she had 'everything under control' and didn't see a problem because she had been there the entire night making sure everyone was OK," reported Arkansas Online, citing a news release from sheriffs. A sheriff from Lonoke County said several in- toxicated students were passed out at the property or tried to hide in the area. Duncan was released from the Lonoke County jail on a $26,000 bond, said Arkansas Online. LOOK UP, CELLPHONE ZOMBIES! AUGSBURG, Germany — The Local re- ports a German town has installed traffic lights in the pavement in an effort to get peo- ple's attention as they stare at their phones. In Augsburg, there are now ground-level traffic lights to catch people looking at their phones and alert them a tram is coming. The lights have been put in at two tram stops, reports The Local. It f lashes when a tram is coming or when the regular traffic light turns red. The Local reports a spokesman for Augsburg told another media outlet that "we realized that the normal traffic light isn't in the line of sight of many pedestrians these days. "So we decided to have an additional set of lights — the more we have, the more people are likely to notice them." LT Susan Manwaring is the national chair of Miller Thomson's Social Impact Group, formerly known as the Charities and Not- for-Profit Group. YES, I AGREE 29 % 71 % NO, DO NOT AGREE

• Cover