See how the active voice wins you your case
Today, I read a lawyer’s factum. By the third paragraph, I stopped reading it and started to count the sentences written in passive voice.
Like the kids in the classroom tallying the number of times the teacher performs a nervous tic, my brain switched off and looked for something else to do. The writing style alone induced this autonomic response. The writer of the factum lost my attention simply by abusing the word “to be” in various tenses followed by a past participle. After my indulgence in pedantry, I had to re-read it and struggle to understand what it said. Just think how a cranky judge will read it the evening before a motion day.
Get your job application “proofed”
Lawyers are lousy at marketing themselves to other lawyers. Just put out an ad for hiring a new lawyer and the proof of this statement, in the form of badly written applications, will come streaming in.
This week, I read a job application from an LL.B. graduate from England and Wales. It started “Hello,” Out sputtered a few lines of marketing jargon intended to impress the reader. The candidate then claimed to be familiar with the Canadian legal system. He had not bothered to find out his degree – an undergraduate LL.B. – does not qualify him to practice law in Canada. What a lawyer he would be! Continue reading
Buttonholed by a family member?
“In times when access to justice is ever precious, isn’t it great to have a lawyer in the family?”
In the May Canadian Lawyer, the Accidental Mentor helps you navigate dealing with the clients you can’t completely fire.
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“Maintenant que l’accès à la justice soit si précieux, n’est-il pas terrible que notr’ cousin(e) est avocat(e)?”
Dans ma colonne de mai dans Canadian Lawyer, vous trouverez des conseils au sujet de l’interaction avec les clients que vous ne pourriez vraiment pas virer.
Canadian Defence Lawyers Annual Meeting June 7, 2012 – Toronto
Join leading defence counsel at the CDL Annual Meeting
This year’s Annual Meeting is entitled: “The Conjuror Unmasked: The Magic of a Spellbinding Defence”.
Date and Place: Thursday, June 7, 2012 at the Radisson Hotel Admiral Toronto – Harbour front, 249 Queen’s Quay West for an informative day of CPD. Details: Continue reading
Law Society of Upper Canada – What’s in the name?
Call it what it is, instead of what it is not. Call it: Ontario Independent Regulator of Lawyers and Paralegals.
(le résumé en français suit)
The Law Society of Upper Canada‘s name is a millstone around our necks in the battle to preserve self-regulation. Continue reading
Unpacking the legalities of the “Three Little Pigs”
Hidden behind The Guardian‘s provocative “Three Little Pigs” ad is a subtext on the role of public opinion on the judicial process.
(la version française suit)
It starts, of course, where the children’s story ended. The Big Bad Wolf was boiled alive, but then the layers of the story unwrap into a fractured tale of a “just” crime, and perhaps more than one. Continue reading
Like this:
Managing “wasted time” – Dealing with non-lawyer adversaries
Few experiences in a lawyer’s work are as infuriating as having your time wasted by a lay adversary.
But it is easy to allow frustration to steer you off the path to a desired outcome, or to a good result in litigation. The sooner you realize the futility of convincing someone incapable of understanding why you are right, the faster you will reach the best result for your client. In my April Canadian Lawyer column, you will find that interacting with non-lawyers still requires you to think strategically.
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Peu d’expériences dans le travail d’un avocat sont aussi exaspérants que le temps perdu par un adversaire laïc.
Mais il est facile de laisser la frustration vous désorienter. Le plus tôt que vous vous rendez compte de la futilité de convaincre quelqu’un incapable de comprendre pourquoi vous avez raison, le plus vite que vous cesserez de gaspiller l’effort et l’argent de votre client. Dans ma colonne d’Avril dans Canadian Lawyer, vous trouverez des histoires au sujet del’interaction avec des non-juristes dans des situations problématiques.
Unbundling the civil litigation retainer
“A significant proportion of middle-income Ontarians can afford to pay for some legal services. Developing innovative programs to harness this market, whether through unbundling, legal expense insurance, or other forms of subsidized legal services, would represent an important step forward.”
– Report of the Ontario Civil legal Needs Project, 2010, p. 56
(la version française suit)
Uncharted territory, albeit well-trodden
What is your experience so far with limited scope retainers, otherwise known as “unbundling”? At the moment, Ontario lawyers appear to be slow adopters of this mode of legal service delivery, at least with that label. Fingers crossed, no one has been successfully sued or disciplined for an error or omission in an “unbundled” retainer. Look up “unbundling” in the law reports or the Law Society of Upper Canada discipline decisions and you won’t find anything – yet. Continue reading
