Top 10 business decisions of 2025, part one
Bedrin-Alexander: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM By Julius Melnitzer | February 1, 2026 Here is my annual list of the top 10 business decisions in Canada for the year just ended. This two-part series begins with the cases ranked sixth through tenth, in ascending order. Part two will cover the top five cases. Top 10 business decisions of 2025, […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Lawyer disbarred for failing to ID known Client | PE law firm takeovers on the Rise | Farting is a Crime in NB | Trump would have deported Beatles | IACA launches Global Passport for arbitration Community
By Julius Melnitzer | January 30, 2026 CERTIFYING COPIES OF ID DOCUMENTS LEADS TO DISBARMENT Andrew Jackson, a UK solicitor for more than two decades who led the commercial property at Chester firm Cullimore Dutton Solicitors, lost his license to practise when he admitted certifying copies of of a client’s passport and driving license without […]
Drop that carrot. You’re under arrest.
When do you have the right to return to an all-you-can-eat salad bar? Did you know you can be arrested for salad bar abuse? We all thought COVID-19 would signal the end of the salad bar. However, these sumptuous buffets have made a resurgence. The number of establishments offering all-you-can-eat salad bars (AYCESB) is forever […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Minimum wage overtakes Legal Aid rates | ICE keeps immigration lawyer watch list | Criminal jury trials on the way out? | Bees awarded legal rights | Legal author’s life imitates art
By Julius Melnitzer | January 4, 2026 RATES HIT NEW BOTTOM FOR LEGAL AID LAWYERS $193.20 for 15 hours: that’s what the UK government paid an experienced lawyer for publicly-funded family law work. And according to a recent Bar Council report, that news doesn’t come close to revealing the personal cost of taking on legal […]
True legal library confessions: Much overdue about nothing
By Marcel Strigberger | December 1, 2025 Did I commit a crime? If so, I want to come clean. Which gets me to a book entitled The Law of Horses, Including the Law of Innkeepers, Veterinary Surgeons, &c., by one George Henry Hewitt Oliphant. Shortly after being called to the Bar in the mid-1970s, I borrowed the […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Rapper Drake accused of promoting illegal gambling | AI replacing arbitrators | Trump: lawyers’ public service work “illegal” | Government convicted of ignoring itself | Cozen beefs up estates practice
By Julius Melnitzer | November 23, 2025 DRAKE SUED FOR “GLAMORIZING” GAMBLING Justin Killham, a Missouri resident, has initiated a class action against Drake and others for promoting Stake, an online casino. The claim alleges that the Curaçao-based platform violates gambling laws by using a “dual currency” system designed to evade gambling regulations, and that […]
Recent Developments in AI (Animal Intelligence) and the Law
“If I could talk to the animals…” — Doctor Dolittle By Marcel Strigberger | October 1, 2025 Animal law? Have we come a long way from Noah? This cat came back. I speak of Nub Tang, a Bangkok tabby. She strayed, was rescued and taken to a police station. Ms. Tang, however, got a bit feisty with […]
Should we prosecute fraud against the mega-wealthy?
Things are seldom as they seem. Skim milk masquerades as cream. — Buttercup, in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore Which gets me to Bill Pallot. I’m sure you’ve all heard of this guy. Vanity Fair called him “the world’s leading expert on the works of 18th-century France”. However, Paris Match recently branded him “the Bernie Madoff of art.” You see, Pallot and […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Mandatory mediation undermines experts’ reports | DEI malaise infects UK | Susskind wrong: AI not lawyers’ demise | Law firm bet on the Leafs | Rap sheet for rapping lawyer
By Julius Melnitzer | May 27, 2025 GETTING EXPERT WITNESSES BACK ON TRACK There’s little doubt that courts have manifested an increasingly critical look at expert testimony lately. Gerald Genge, a claims adjudicator and expert witness with 25 years’ experience, is not surprised: he says the quality of experts’ reports has dipped with the introduction […]
Assault with a loaded slipper
By Marcel Strigberger | May 25, 2025 En garde! Choose your weapon. Actually, do you know what constitutes a weapon? You may be surprised what ignorance of the answer to this question can cost you. This gets me to turtles, turkey and Toblerone. A gentleman from Pennsylvania recently set off an alarm at Newark Liberty […]