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Ontario Condo Law Blog
Best of the blogosphere for February 2010
For a short month filled with Olympic excitement (Yay Canada!), there was still plenty of great condo-related stuff in the blogosphere in February. Businesses should learn from 2010 Olympics surveillance camera debate -- Winnipeg privacy lawyer Brian Bowman emphasises the importance of having appropriate policies in place to manage the data...
Tackling rude, disrespectful conduct
The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has become an increasingly popular venue for frustrated condo unit owners to bring their grievances against condo boards and property managers. This is thanks to the low cost to file a case, simple procedure, ability to self-represent and obtain free legal advice and help....
At long last, the official electronic version of the Condominium Act, 1998 has been updated to show the latest amendments made in December 2009. Most of those amendments were made by the Good Government Act, 2009, which amended over 300 Ontario statutes, and hence the long delay in updating the...
There were lots of newsy condo-related stories in the past month that we tweeted on our microblog. Here are some of them: ONCA: City was grossly negligent to wait 34 hrs before salting icy sidewalks; ordered to pay $280K in slip and fall - http://url4.eu/1FAAq BC Strata Property Act amendments now...
CCI-T and ACMO secure concession to offset impact of HST
In a special update released this week, CCI-Toronto and ACMO announced that they have successfully lobbied the provincial government to amend the regulations under the Condo Act so that corporations registered before May 5, 2001 will have 15 years (not 10 years) from the date of their first reserve fund study...
The Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute has posted a special info bulletin on how condominium unit owners can claim the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC). From the bulletin: On behalf of CCI Toronto & Area Members, and in conjunction with ACMO, a lawyer specializing in tax law was retained to coordinate...
CRIME and INVESTIGATION
Marie Osmond's son committed suicide, police say
(CNN) -- The death of Marie Osmond's 18-year-old son has been classified as a suicide, police said Sunday.Marie Osmond's Web site says her eight children are "always her greatest treasures."A family spokesman on Saturday said that Michael Blosil had died.Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Karen Rayner told CNN she could...
Suspect of Consulate Driver Murder Case
By LESTER KONGPETALING JAYA: The wife of the businessman accused of murdering a Malaysian consulate driver has been charged with being an accessory to the crime.The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Nita Eriza, 46, the wife of taxi operator Hazairin Iskandar, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon and charged at the...
Bath, Michigan, May 17, 1927By Mark GadoAndrew Kehoe's Farm (New York Times)The angry man marched over to the north end of his farm carrying a handsaw. As he approached the old maple trees, he dropped to his knees and began to saw through the bottom of each tree. When he severed...
Killing of street kids puts spotlight on vulnerable youth
Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- "I feel a deep sense of regret, I couldn't protect my own child," Nur Hamida said. "He had to go out on the street to work."As she speaks, she cradles her youngest child, rocking slowly back and forth. She used to have another son, 9-year-old Ardiansyah....
M’sian consulate driver murdered in Sydney
MELBOURNE: A Malaysian Consulate driver was stabbed and bashed with a hammer in Sydney last night.Road rage is a possible motive for the vicious murder of the 43-year-old Malay who had become an Australian citizen and had lived in Sydney for about three years.As he arrived at his home in...
Trial starts in Argentina's 'robbery of the century'
(CNN) -- About 600 witnesses are expected to testify in a trial that started Monday for a bank heist some call Argentina's "robbery of the century."A policeman carries pizza that robbers ordered during the January 2006 bank heist in Acassuso, Argentina.Four suspects are on trial in connection with the January...
Ozarks Law & Economy
Reformation, or when may a court change a deed?
When Rocky Lawrence saw the rig move onto his property to drill a gas well, he checked his deed. Sure enough, nothing on the deed indicated that the seller of the property reserved the mineral rights. Patsy Barnes saw the same drilling rig and went to Conway Title Company to make...
Why get a lawyer to help you sell a business?
In this interview for the New York Times’ online “You’re the Boss” feature, I give some of the reasons. Here’s the link: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/how-a-lawyer-can-help-you-sell-your-business/ Bentonville business broker Barbara Taylor interviewed me a couple of weeks ago. Barbara is one of a dozen or so business people whose blogs appear in the Small Business...
KIDSCOUNT Map: Ozarks not looking good by these measures
I like living in Southern Missouri, but I don’t like everything about it. In particular, children have a noticeably difficult time with basic needs. This map allows you to see how each Missouri county’s children rank according to: % on free and reduced school lunches births to mothers without high school diplomas infant mortality child...
Missouri Supreme Court calls “foul!” on Springfield’s red-light traffic camera
This is a $100 case. But sometimes, it’s not the money–it’s the principle. Those are the surprising words of the Missouri Supreme Court. The City of Springfield’s camera caught Adolph Belt’s car moving through a red light. Three months later, the City sent Belt a ticket for running a red light, and...
Taking a fresh look at the history, politics and ecology of the rainbow trout fishing industry
This morning, I scanned the headlines of Arts and Letters Daily, and was jolted by this: Behold the regal rainbow trout, dappled denizen of deep lake and rushing river, fierce hunter of fish and fly—and prize of pork-barrel politics, invigorator of men, eradicator of native species, payload of numerous bombing missions. Intrigued, I...
What do lawyers do? In other words, what is the scope of the lawyer racket? A suit filed in December 2009 in Cole County Circuit Court in December 2009 may give us some idea of whether LegalZoom’s document-generation service overlaps the practice of law in Missouri. LegalZoom has filed a motion...
The Jury Room
Surprise! How your brain reacts to the unexpected
Think of the last time someone did something that surprised you. You likely have a vivid recollection because we tend to remember things that are out of the ordinary. Scientists have actually been able to prove this using EEG’s to measure surprised brains and thereby predict memory formation. In brief, surprise...
Simple Jury Persuasion: Make Your Expert Optimally Persuasive
You don’t want jurors thinking your expert is a “hired gun” or otherwise nurturing thoughts to decrease the effectiveness of expert’s testimony. Yet, it commonly happens. An old literature review (Devine et al., 2001) and a newer research study (Boudreau and McCubbins, 2009) shed light on best practices to avoid...
Being a good bragger (but stopping short of narcissism)
It’s tough to toot your own horn without seeming arrogant and narcissistic. We don’t all have the charm to pull that off (although Mac Davis did). We know from the research that narcissists may make a good first impression but their ‘charm’ quickly wears off once we truly see them...
You know about story-telling, but do you know to wear red?
By now we all know to tell jurors a story. Articles like this one from Neuromarketing Blog are really not news to us. Tell a story and your sales pitch (or your argument) is more persuasive. Ho-hum. Old news. But here’s some news you may not know. Wear red. Why? When? And...
Simple Jury Persuasion: The ‘Scott Peterson Effect’—Displayed remorse and conviction
While re-reading a summation of research on jury decision-making, I ran across this finding that brought Scott Peterson to mind. This doesn’t happen often for me—although I hear some women dream of marrying violent criminals. Evidently the allure of marrying a notorious man (the ultimate ‘bad boy’) remains powerful. But, I...
Your brain is a liar: It will find what it wants before it even starts looking
Brains are pretty amazing. And the research on how our brains affect us comes out so fast it’s hard to keep up with–so we’re simply giving you a post with a hodge-podge of research findings. Prepare to be amazed (or perhaps amused). Farnam Street blog reminds us that we tend to...
Construction Law Musings- Richmond, VA
Run a Job Smoothly- And Turn a Profit Doing It
The news is everywhere that construction spending is down. Contractors face the liability issues inherent in having to cut prices while construction material costs either increase or stay the same. However, opportunities exist for a construction contractor to turn a profit, even in these seemingly dire times. In order to...
Do You Make These Pricing Mistakes?
For this week’s Guest Post Friday, we welcome Matt Handal for a second time. As a marketer, producer of the Construction Netcast podcast, contributing editor of SMPS Marketer, co-author of the Marketing Handbook for the Design & Construction Professional, and Twitter.com’s @MattHandal, Matt sure is busy. But never too much...
Originally posted 2009-03-20 10:00:00. For this week’s Guest Post Friday, Musings has the privilege of a post from Kelly McGinnis of the Portland Cement Association. As PCA’s Program Coordinator of Sustainable Development Ms. McGinnis is responsible for several green outreach and education programs for the design and construction community. Additionally,...
Green Building and Jazz- What Could be Better?
As I announced via my Posterous page (where I posted the registration form), the folks at the Green Legal Matters Symposium asked me to speak. My good buddy Scott Wolfe (@scottwolfejr) of the Wolfe Law Group and the Construction Law Monitor will be my co-presenter. The luminaries speaking at the symposium include my fellow attorneys...
Be Careful with Venue in Contracts
Originally posted 2009-08-10 13:45:00. If Musings has one overarching theme it is be careful with your construction contracts. The Courts remind us of that on a regular, if not daily, basis. One such case, in May of this year and out of the Eastern District of Virginia is Hall &...
Humility (and a lighter touch) Can Help Your Construction Marketing
This week, Musings welcomes back Mark Buckshon of the Construction Marketing Ideas blog to Guest Post Friday. Mark publishes several regional construction industry newspapers and websites. He can be reached at 888-432-3555 ext 224 or by email at buckshon@cnrgp.com. Recently, in co-ordination with my business’s primary business...
Law and Baseball
In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bruton v. United States. It stands for the proposition that codefendant statements can’t be used at trial unless the codefendant testifies. The following is a good explanation: When two defendants, A and B are tried jointly, and defendant A makes a confession that inculpates...
Coastal Baseball Cracks Top Ten
The Coastal Carolina University Baseball Team is getting some well deserved national attention this week. Coastal is ranked #8 in the nation according to Baseball America and the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll. Coastal went 5-0 last week. This included a midweek victory at Wake Forest. The highlight of the weekend was...
College baseball season begins today. I’m getting ready to head out to the ballpark to watch Kentucky and Virginia Tech open it up. Afterwards, it will be Coastal and West Virginia. The weather is great and I’m excited about the new season. It’s been an incredibly busy week for us with court so...
A Common Sense Approach to Ethics
This morning I read about another prosecutor getting suspended for ethics violations. Ethics can be a complicated field of law. I believe there are 59 Rules listed under the heading Rules of Professional Conduct. There are scores of cases on the subject. It can be difficult. But it doesn’t have...
College baseball season opens in one week. You have plenty of time to read Strike IX -The Story of a Big East College Forced to Eliminate its Baseball Program and the Team that Refused to Lose by Paul Lonardo. The book has everything: law and baseball. What else could you want? Seriously, Lonardo...
Three Years in Prison for Refusing Breathalyzer Test
This is one of the most outrageous articles I have read: A South Euclid man who became the first person in Summit County to be found guilty of tampering with evidence for refusing to take a Breathalyzer test was sentenced to three years in prison in Summit County Court. Apparently there is...
The Complex Litigator Home
Courtroom View Network, with over three years of experience Webcasting high-stakes civil litigation, is streaming the trial of Moreno v. Ford. This trial is part of the statewide coordinated judicial proceeding involving Firestone tire tread separation and Ford Explorer rollover related litigation, currently centralized in Los Angeles. Judge Anthony Mohr...
Nevada has a substantial interest in brothel advertisements
Yes. Perhaps an over-generalization, but, yes. See, Coyote Publishing, Inc. v. Miller (9th Cir. Mar. 11, 2010), wherein the Ninth Circuit held that Nevada's restrictions on brothel advertisements are constitutional because they are justified by state's "substantial interest." These headlines sometimes write themselves....
You've seen them. The settlement agreements with "Approved as to form and content" at the end of document, with a place for the attorneys to sign right along with the parties. I know a lawyer that has, for many years, refused to sign off on such language. His reason? He's...
California Supreme Court activity for the week of March 8, 2010
The California Supreme Court held its (usually) weekly conference today. Notable results include: A Petition for Review was denied in Davis v. Ford Motor Credit Co. (November 19, 2009) (adopting FTC-based formulation for "unfair" under the UCL and declining to import two-way attorney fee provision into UCL via predicate statute). See, UCL Practitioner here...
Other coverage of Coito v. Superior Court
Coito v. Superior Court (March 4, 2010) is apparently generating a fair bit of interest, based upon the search engine traffic viewing this blog's post about this new opinion. Other articles that may be of interest include: Witness Interviews Aren't Privileged Work Product, Says Calif. Court (National Law Journal Court: Witness Statements Taken By...
Yesterday, in Coito v. Superior Court (March 4, 2010), the Court of Appeal (Fifth Appellate District) addressed an issue that nominally concerned the collection of evidence in a wrongful death lawsuit naming California as one defendant. The facts are particularly sad in that the case involved the death of a child,...