Five New BC Provincial Judges Appointed

The BC Attorney General Michael de Jong announced the appointment last week of five new judges to the Provincial Court:

The office of the chief judge has confirmed these appointees have been assigned to the following districts: Sheri Ann Mark has been appointed to the Kamloops district, Roy Couper Dickey will serve in South Fraser, Steven Myles Merrick in Coast district, James Parker MacCarthy, QC, on North Vancouver Island and Supreme Court master Marguerite Elizabeth Shaw in the Okanagan.

“The appointment and assignments of these judges will ensure the timely management of court cases,” said de Jong. “All of the judges appointed today have extensive legal experience and I’m confident their leadership will serve the public well.”

For more information, including biographical information on the judges, see the Backgrounder included in the news release.

Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada – International Human Rights Forum

Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada is holding an “International Human Rights Forum” on Saturday, October 16, 2010 at the offices of Owen Bird, 29th Floor, Three Bentall Centre, 595 Burrard St., Vancouver.

Speakers Robert Morales in Vancouver and Cara Gibbons in Toronto will examine the gap between international human rights law and national practices in Canada and in Mexico and the need for improved implementation, enforcement and education.

This event is free and has been approved for 3 hours of Law Society of BC CPD Credits

For more information, to RSVP contact LRWC at lrwc@portal.ca

Tel: 604 738 0338                              Fax: 604 736 1175

Vancouver Bar Association Membership Application/Renewal Forms Available

It’s nearly time to submit membership application or renewal forms for the Vancouver Bar Association. All BC Law Society members are eligible to apply.

The form is available on the VBA website. The deadline for submission is November 1.

Deadline Approaching for Goyer Memorial Award Nominations

The CBABC is accepting nominations for the 2010 Charles A. Goyer Memorial Award for Distinguished Service until September 3o.

This year’s nomination package explains that the Award recognizes the exceptional contributions and/or achievements by any resident of BC

• to the legal profession in BC;
• or to jurisprudence in BC or Canada;
• or to the law or development of the law in BC;
• or a significant law-related benefit to the residents of BC.

Any resident of BC (excluding current members of the CBABC Executive Committee) is eligible for the Award, and there will be generally only one or two recipients in any one year. The Award(s) will be presented at the Bench and Bar Dinner organized by the CBABC and the Law Society of BC, to be held November 3, 2010.

Charles A. Goyer, QC was a respected member of the CBABC who passed away on November 5, 1992 after a courageous battle with cancer. He served the CBA in various roles including Chair of the National Legal Aid Liaison Committee, Chair of the BC Branch Criminal Justice (Vancouver) Section, Elected Member of the BC Branch and National CBA Councils, and was Assistant Professor/ Director of the UBC Legal Clinic, Faculty of Law.

Further information is available on the Award information page and in the nomination package.

BC Legislation Tables of Contents Now on CanLII

CanLII reported on September 24 that automatically-generated Tables of Contents are now included for BC statute and regulation databases, along with those of Ontario and Quebec, and that the same soon will follow for other jurisdictions:

Statutes and regulations from British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec have been republished with automatically generated tables of contents and HTML anchors to parts’ headings, sections and subsections.

The tables of content that were already available at the federal level were also improved for better readability.

You will navigate more easily within legislative texts from these four databases. You will also be able to establish hyperlinks to specific parts, sections and subsections. For instance, a link to subsection 54(3.1) of the federal Broadcasting Act, S.C. 1991, c. 11 can be established with the following URL:

http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/sc-1991-c-11/latest/sc-1991-c-11.html#sec54subsec3.1

This feature will be implemented to other legislative databases in the coming months.

For more information, see the announcement on the CanLII blog.  Hat tip to the New & Notable post at Courthouse Libraries BC for the news.

AG Begins Final Limitations Act Reform Consultations

Last week the BC Attorney General announced the final round of consultations on limitations legislation reform with the issuance of a white paper inviting public comments. The current BC Limitation Act has not been changed substantially since its enactment in 1975, whereas other jurisdictions – Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and, most recently, New Brunswick all have reformed their limitation legislation since 1999.

The press release summarizes some of the key changes recommended in the white paper:

• Moving from a variety of basic limitation periods, based on the type of legal action, to a single two-year basic limitation period for all civil claims.
• Moving from a general 30-year ultimate limitation period to a single ultimate limitation period of either 10 or 15 years. Reforms include making the legislation more certain as to when the ultimate limitation period starts to run.
• Eliminating the six-year ultimate limitation period for negligence claims against doctors, hospitals and hospital employees. All lawsuits will be governed by a single ultimate limitation period of either 10 or 15 years.

Reports by the former B.C. Law Reform Commission and its successor, the B.C. Law Institute, along with the model limitation law adopted by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada were considered in developing the white paper, as was the case with some of the amendments in the other jurisdictions mentioned.

Final comments on the white paper and draft legislation, located at http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/legislation, are invited and are due by Nov. 15. The press release states that feedback will be considered in finalizing the new limitation law.

BCLI Elects New Executive

The BC Law Institute announced the election of a new executive last week. The new executive for the 2010-2011 term consists of the following individuals:

• Chair:  D. Peter Ramsay, Q.C., of the Nanaimo law firm Ramsay Lampman Rhodes
• Vice-chair:  R.C. (Tino) Di Bella, of the Victoria law firm Jawl & Bundon and a former BCLI Treasurer
• Treasurer:   Gregory K. Steele, Q.C., of the Vancouver law firm Steele Urquhart Payne and a founding member of the BCLI, who has previously served in all executive positions

The announcement also notes the appointment of two new members to the BCLI: Christine Elliott has been appointed to a three-year term by the Canadian Bar Association-BC Branch and Richard H.W. Evans has been appointed to a three-year term by the Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia. A complete list of members is available at the BCLI website.

For a complete list of the BCLI’s members, please visit our website at www.bcli.org

New Impaired Driving Law Now in Effect

Earlier this summer we posted notice that Canada’s toughest drinking-and-driving penalties would soon come into effect in B.C. As of this past Monday, September 20, those penalties are now in place by way of Bill 14, amending the Motor Vehicle Act. Motorists now face progressively harsh penalties, depending on whether they fall in the “warn” range (between 0.05 and 0.08 blood-alcohol content)  or in the “fail” range (over 0.08 blood-alcohol content) or refuse to provide a breath test at the roadside. The sanctions for each of these are outlined in the Backgrounder at the end of the last week’s press release from The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

The amendments also address speeding, as also noted in the press release: Motorists “driving 40 km/h over the posted speed limit – will have their vehicle impounded for seven days and face escalating penalties for repeat offences. Impoundment is in addition to existing penalties for excessive speeding, which include fines, penalty points and increased premiums.”

More information is available in the press release and on the website of the Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles.

New Registrar for BCSC

The B.C. Supreme Court announced the appointment of Kathryn S. Sainty as the court’s new Registrar as of September 2. The details are set out in the following notice posted on the court’s website on September 7:

The Supreme Court of British Columbia welcomes the appointment of Registrar Kathryn S. Sainty as Registrar of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Registrar Sainty was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Master William McCallum elected to become a Senior Master and retire from the position of Registrar. Master William McCallum will continue to sit as a Master of the Supreme Court.

Prior to this appointment, Registrar Sainty had been a Deputy Registrar since 2001.

New BCCA Directives & Notices: Appeal Scheduling, Extension Refusals, and Five Justice Divisions

Last week the BC Court of Appeal posted notice of three significant Practice Directives or Practice Notes.

The first is a Practice Note addressing the scheduling of appeal sittings in Kamloops, Kelowna, and Prince George:

The Court of Appeal is adopting a new way of scheduling appeals in the interior of the province. Appeals will be scheduled individually based on the local interest or importance of the litigation. The procedure for requesting a hearing can be found in this Practice Note.

Second, the Court posted notice of a Practice Directive explaining the consequences of an order refusing the extension of time:

Where an extension of time is refused, and the refusal effectively stops an appeal, the order refusing the extension of time shall also include a direction that the appeal is dismissed as abandoned pursuant to s. 10(2)(e) of the Court of Appeal Act. Please see the new Practice Directive here.

Finally, the Court announced an amendment to the Practice Directive on Five Justice Divisions:

The Practice Directive on Five Justice Divisions has been amended to require that the request for a five justice division be made at least two months before the appeal is scheduled to be heard.

Third BC Information Summit Coming September 29

The 2010 BC Information Summit: Transparency Turnaround will be held Wednesday, September 29 at UBC Robson Square Theatre, Vancouver. This third instalment of the event is subtitled “When public information goes private and personal information goes public.” The Summit is part of Right to Know Week in Canada and is presented by the BC Freedom of Information & Privacy Association, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the BC Library Association, and the UBC School of Library, Archival and Information Studies and is co-sponsored by several other organizations. The Information Summit “brings together legal experts, journalists, academics, present and past elected officials and experienced Freedom of Information and privacy experts. Together, they shall explore the challenges of creating transparent government and protecting privacy in an increasingly turbulent and complex information environment.”

The website explains a bit more about the theme of the 2010 Summit:

It’s a critical time for FOI and privacy rights in BC, with some game-changing recommendations for changes to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act on the table.

A Special Committee of the Legislature has just completed the third review of the FOIPP Act and delivered its final report to the BC Legislature on May 31.

The public wants privacy protection and more access to government information. Government officials want less scrutiny and a LOT more license to collect and share our personal information. Both are demanding major reforms of BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Are big changes ahead for freedom of information
and privacy in BC?

The Law Society has approved the Information Summit for up to 6.5 hours of continuing professional development credit. See the website for further information including agenda, speakers, or to register.

BCCA Announces Pilot Project for Criminal Appeals

On September 7, the BCCA began a pilot project in which all appeals from criminal convictions and acquittals will be strictly monitored by the Court. The Court issued an Explanatory Note and Practice Directive.

The Explanatory Note provides the background of the pilot project and a schematic timeline showing the filing timetable, which sets the maximum time for hearing of an appeal at one year from the date the appeal is filed.

The Practice Directive explains the purpose of the pilot project, which is

to reduce unacceptable delays in the prosecution of appeals from conviction and acquittal (and combined conviction/sentence).

The pilot project will run until December 30, 2011.

BC Law Society Adopts Adopts New Discipline Abeyance Policy

The Benchers of the Law Society of BC have adopted a new “abeyance policy” for disciplinary proceedings. The policy is set out in Appendix 4 of the Benchers Governance Policies. The Law Society posted the following news item explaining the policy:

The policy covers a situation in which a lawyer who is being investigated may request that the Discipline Committee hold the matter in abeyance because of proceedings in another forum, usually civil or criminal litigation. The lawyer may provide the Law Society with protective undertakings, conditional on the society’s decision to grant the abeyance. The Law Society always retains the discretion to end an abeyance unilaterally at any point and to proceed immediately with its investigation.

Appendix 4 explains further that the policy does not address just any decision to wait but, rather,

describes a very specific kind of arrangement between the lawyer who requests it and the Discipline Committee who grants it. A lawyer subject to an investigation may make written request to the Discipline Committee to have the matter held in abeyance because of relevant proceedings pending or ongoing in another forum. To date, abeyances have been agreements wherein the lawyer subject to investigation provides the Law Society with protective undertakings, conditional upon the Law Society’s decision to grant the abeyance. The Law Society always retains the discretion to end an abeyance unilaterally at any point and to proceed immediately with its investigation.

BCCA Begins Issuing Reserved Judgments by Email

As of September 7, counsel and litigants are able to receive reserved judgments released from the BCCA in chambers by email, on request. The Registrar issued a Practice Note on August 31 providing more information, including the following:

Once counsel or a party is notified of the release date of reserve reasons for judgment by the registry staff, counsel should send an e-mail to the Court of Appeal reserve judgment office at ca-rj@courts.gov.bc.ca.

…

The judgment will be e-mailed to you by reply e-mail at the same time it is released in chambers. This will usually be at 9:30 a.m. For your information, the judgment will usually appear on the court’s website before noon the same day that it is released.

Summer Newsletter and Other News from the Justice Education Society

The Justice Education Society (formerly the Law Courts Education Society) issued a number of news items recently, including the release of the Society’s International Program Summer 2010 Newsletter. Highlights include coverage of human rights and justice system projects in Central America and Ethiopia and the creation of a Centre for the Interception of Telecommunications in El Salvador, to assist in improving the security situation in El Salvador.

The Society also reported news from the Court Information Program for Immigrants. Binh Luong, the Chinese and Vietnamese Court Worker for the Society’s Court Information Program for Immigrants, will be delivering two public workshops in September for new immigrants that speak Chinese.

And “advertisements for the Court Information Program for Immigrants were placed in bus shelters throughout Vancouver in August. There are also 100 ads placed in buses driving in numerous Lower Mainland communities and, beginning in September, ads will appear in 100 SkyTrain cars.”

Finally, the announced that it “has recently increased how frequently it publishes BC justice news on its Facebook and Twitter pages. Become our friend (Facebook) or follow us (Twitter) to receive links to 2-3 interested justice-related stories per day.”