Law Times

PAGE 6 u EDITORIAL OBITER By Glenn Kauth A Balancing help for alleged victims and wrongdoers major complaint about Ontario's human rights system is that free legal help from the Human Rights Legal Support Centre while re- spondents must fund their defence themselves. Th e thinking, of course, is that the alleged victims oſt en come from a place of vulnerability in cas- es such as workplace discrimination. Th ey're not likely to have the funds to pay a lawyer whereas an employer probably will. An illustrative case was the matter of Saadi v. Audmax. In that case, it provides alleged victims with certain advantages over the purported wrongdoers. Chief among the complaints is that applicants can receive the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ordered the employer to pay an employee $36,000 for discrimination that, among other things, related to restrictions on heating up allegedly smelly foods in the workplace micro- wave. Th e Divisional Court later tossed the ruling over concerns about the adjudicator' COMMENT November 19, 2012 • Law Times meantime as a result of eff orts to collect the money. Th e employer repre- sented herself while the applicant had help from the legal support centre. So it was good to see lawyer Andrew Pinto take a stab at the issue in his s process, but the employer almost lost her house in the recent review of reforms to the human rights system. In a report released this month, Pinto called on the Ontario Human Rights Commission to start providing summary advice to respondents on human rights issues. To be sure, the recommendation wouldn't be an easy one to imple- ment. As an organization that has traditionally worked more on the side of alleged victims, it would be a shiſt for the commission to start help- ing respondents. As Pinto noted, issues of confl icts of interest could arise should the commission later fi nd itself involved in a matter aſt er providing summary advice. As a result, it would have to implement policies and safeguards to avoid such quagmires. Pinto' resulting in applications being fi led at the tribunal." Th ere's no doubt that respondents already have is nevertheless in everyone's interests that respondents s idea is, however, a useful one. As he noted, "it also receive expert and timely advice with respect to human rights disputes, particularly if proactive advice could prevent human rights disputes from festering, some tools at their disposal to mitigate their expo- sure to inappropriate claims, particularly through the tribunal' as we've seen, problematic cases still get through and sometimes result in unfair awards. Pinto, then, was right to call for a mechanism to provide more balance. — Glenn Kauth s ability to dismiss cases fairly quickly. But T BY JONATHAN HOOPER For Law Times New Zealand licensing process provides model for majority, minority options u SPEAKER'S CORNER here has been much debate on what to do about articling fol- lowing the Law Society of Upper Canada' a two-tier system in which those unable to secure an articling position may undertake a law practice program instead. Th e minority report, meanwhile, pro- Th e majority on the task force favours report on Oct. 25, 2012. s articling task force fi nal approved by the New Zealand Council of Legal Education, the statutory body responsible for the pre -admission educa- tion and training of lawyers in New Zea- land. Th e practical stage involves comple- tion of the professional legal studies course. Once both stages are complete, candidates may apply to the council for a certifi cate of completion that enables candidates to seek admission as a barrister and solicitor. Aſt er obtaining a law degree, New poses abolishing articling in favour of a transitional training program that objec- tively assesses substantive legal knowl- edge as well as business, professional, and ethical issues. Both the majority and minority pro- Zealand law graduates must pass the pro- fessional legal studies course. Th e course takes between four to fi ve months to com- plete and includes formal in-class training as well as online modules. Th e course teaches practical legal, pro- pose the establishment of a post-law school training program that law gradu- ates must undergo before admission. Th e licensing process in New Zealand pro- vides an example for the kind of system envisaged by the minority report but also contains a component that could serve as a model for the law practice program. Th e legal licensing process in New Zea- land includes two stages: one academic, the other practical. Th e academic stage in- volves obtaining a bachelor of laws degree Law Times LT Masthead.indd 1 fessional, and ethical topics such as trust account management, draſt ing pleadings and agreements, client interview and me- diation skills, professional ethics, and risk management. Th e aim of the course is to instruct law graduates in the skills needed to be successful in the pract ice of law. Th e course uses a variety of assess- ment techniques including written ex- aminations, oral arguments with writ- ten submissions, collaborative group assignments, and online tests. In New Zealand, law graduates are able to begin working immediately aſt er graduation as law clerks. Law clerks have a similar working status as articling students in Canada; however, there are no formal supervisory or other requirements they must fulfi l, apart from the professional le- gal studies course, before their admission as a barrister and solicitor. Th e New Zealand legal licensing pro- providers are independent of the New Zealand Law Society. For the minority, the New Zealand the professional legal studies course: the College of Law and the Institute of Profes- sional Legal Studies. Both cess is instructive for the implementa- tion of both the majority and minority proposals. For the majority, the professional legal studies course could function as a model for the proposed law practice program in a number of ways. Th e course is four to fi ve months in length, a similar time frame considered for the simulated experiential component in the law practice program. Th e formal assessment procedures in- process in general provides a model of how legal licensing functions without articling. Also, the professional legal studies course off ers a model for the proposed transitional training pro- gram, which isn't dissimilar to the sim- ulated experiential component of the law practice program. Whichever approach prevails, it would volved in the course are consistent with the approach outlined by the majority in the fi nal report for the law practice program. Th e majority report also proposed having the law practice program admin- istered by third-party providers. In New Zealand, two third-party providers run Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON • M1T 3V4 Tel: 416-298-5141 • Fax: 416-649-7870 • www.lawtimesnews.com Group Publisher ................... Karen Lorimer Editorial Director ................... Gail J. Cohen Editor .............................. Glenn Kauth Staff Writer ................... Michael McKiernan Staff Writer ........................Yamri Taddese Copy Editor ...................... Mallory Hendry CaseLaw Editor ................. Adela Rodriguez Art Director ...................... Alicia Adamson Production Co-ordinator ............. Catherine Giles Electronic Production Specialist ....... Derek Welford Advertising Sales ............... Kimberlee Pascoe Sales Co-ordinator ................... Sandy Shutt ©2012 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without writ- ten permission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the pub- lisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Law Times disclaims any war- ranty as to the accuracy, completeness or cur- rency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of Law Times is printed on newsprint containing 25-30 per cent post- consumer recycled materials. Please recycle this newspaper. any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40762529 • ISSN 0847-5083 Law Times is published 40 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd., 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON, M1T 3V4 • 416-298-5141 clb.lteditor@thomsonreuters.com CIRCULATIONS & SUBSCRIPTIONS $175.00 + HST per year in Canada (HST Reg. #R121351134) and $265.00 for foreign addresses. Single copies are $4.00 Circulation www.lawtimesnews.com 11/7/12 11:23 AM be worthwhile considering the New Zea- land legal licensing process and, more specifi cally, the professional legal studies course. Th e course provides a working common law model of how both the ma- jority and minority could implement the education and assessment components of their proposals. LT Jonathan Hooper practised condo- minium litigation at Grimshaw & Co. in Auckland, N.Z. He currently works at Forbes Roth Basque in Moncton, N.B., and is awaiting admission to the New Brunswick bar. inquiries, postal returns and address changes should include a copy of the mailing label(s) and should be sent to Law Times One Corpo- rate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto ON, M1T 3V4. Return postage guaranteed. Contact Ellen Alstein at ............416-649-9926 or fax: 416-649-7870 ellen.alstein@thomsonreuters.com ADVERTISING Advertising inquiries and materials should be directed to Sales, Law Times, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON, M1T 3V4 or call: Karen Lorimer ....................................416-649-9411 karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com Kimberlee Pascoe ..............................416-649-8875 kimberlee.pascoe@thomsonreuters.com Sandy Shutt ...... sandra.shutt@thomsonreuters.com

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