Access to Justice
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June 03, 2025
Why inmates’ COVID-19 isolation lawsuit moves forward as class action
When I first started teaching prison law, one of my students struggled to distinguish between the terms “administrative segregation” and “punitive dissociation,” both of which are used by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) to isolate prisoners. The student expressed concern over the similarity of conditions: “Same bed!”
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June 02, 2025
BMW awarded $190K in costs in dismissed engine defect class action
BMW has been awarded $190,000 in costs for a dismissed class action that sought damages in relation to alleged defects in the engines of certain BMW vehicles with model years from 2012 to 2015.
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June 02, 2025
Appeal Court determines uninformed guilty plea merits retrial
Dwayne Gordon felt dismayed when he received a longer sentence than he believed was agreed upon during a pretrial negotiation session.
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May 30, 2025
CIVIL PROCEDURE - Parties - Class or representative actions - Certification - Common interests and issues
Appeal by Michel (Appellant) from a court order dismissing the plaintiffs’ motion to certify an action against the respondent as a class proceeding.
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May 30, 2025
B.C. legal institute hopes to increase understanding of economic abuse in family law
The British Columbia Law Institute (BCLI) is looking to shed some light on an issue that it says has been seriously under-explored in legal literature and case law — economic abuse in family law, especially as it relates to family businesses.
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May 30, 2025
Lack of remorse, restitution failure inform N.S. Supreme Court lobster fraud conviction
“How many families get destroyed because of Terry f--king Banks?” Those were the words of one of three men who stopped by the cottage of Beaverdam Lake, N.S., lobster dealer Wayne Banks, who was recorded on a tape subsequently turned over to CBC News. The visitors complained that, over about 10 days, someone had defrauded them for approximately $1.6 million.
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May 30, 2025
DND says it now offers independent legal advice to victims of sexual misconduct in the military
The Department of National Defence (DND) says it has expanded the services of its Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre to offer “independent” and “direct” free legal assistance to those 18 years and older, who have experienced sexual misconduct in a DND or Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) “context.”
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May 30, 2025
N.L. accepting grant proposals for violence prevention program
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador is inviting proposals for its 2025 Community Violence Prevention Grants Program.
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May 28, 2025
Justice minister defends Trudeau bail reforms, but throne speech confirms new restrictions coming
The official Opposition Conservatives have renewed calls to repeal the Trudeau government’s so-called “catch and release” bail reforms, but the new Carney government is defending the changes while pledging to legislate new bail restrictions for certain crimes and repeat offenders.
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May 29, 2025
Is it a rabbit or a duck? Why lawyers must be storytellers
Every lawyer has been there. We have laid out the facts. We have cited the law. We have prepared what we believe is a clear and persuasive argument. And yet the court saw something else — something that seems, at first glance, unrecognizable.