uLaw Spot Light with paralegal Jon Sparling

When Jon Sparling was about to enter law school, he says it wasn't easy deciding which area he was going to focus on. But at the same time, the (then) Law Society of Upper Canada was making the unprecedented move to begin regulating the paralegal profession. In this

BC gov approves experimental decriminalization of hard drugs

Small amounts of hard drugs such as opioids, cocaine, meth and MDMA are being decriminalized in the province of British Columbia in order to stop overdoses in that province. The exemption, which was granted by the federal government will effectively decriminalize the possession of 2.5 grams or less of

How coders unintentionally found $13,000 of lost income for an Ontario lawyer

An Ontario lawyer is $13,000 richer because a few lines of code were changed inside his accounting software. It was an unintended (yet welcomed) consequence of coders implementing a feature inside uLawPractice that was originally geared to benefit Manitoba lawyers, who are required to follow slightly different rules when

uLawPractice Receives Acclaim from Capterra: Named a Top Legal Case Management Software for 2023!

In the ever-evolving landscape of legal practice, having the right tools and software at your disposal can make all the difference. uLawPractice is thrilled to announce that it has been recognized and featured on the esteemed 2023 Legal Case Management Software Shortlist by Capterra, a leading platform for software reviews

Ont. gov launches website to cut down on red tape

TORONTO — The Ontario government is making it easier to start and grow a business with the launch of the new Ontario.ca/business website. The website is one of the initiatives being implemented as part of the Fewer Fees, Better Services Act, which received Royal Assent on March 3, 2022,

Automate Ontario Civil Estate court forms with uLawPractice

Automate Ontario Civil Estate court forms with uLawPractice uLawPractice now supports the automation of Ontario Civil Estate forms. As of February 8, 2022, compliance coders employed by uLawPractice have successfully rolled out a new production-level deployment of a brand new feature that is sure to make Ontario Wills and Estates

uLaw “relieves me of the mundane,” says Ont Paralegal Joseph Behar

Advocating for clients while also juggling tasks related to compliance and proper bookkeeping are no easy feat for practitioners, especially solo lawyers and paralegals who comprise a huge percentage of the legal landscape. According to Ontario paralegal Joseph Behar, it’s extremely important to be able to have the time

Will AI replace judges? Ontario's Law Commission explores this in a report

Artificial intelligence is changing the way a lot of industries are handling things, including the justice system. (hint, uLaw does this too! For small to-mid-sized Canadian legal firms) Dubbed "Accountable AI", the Law Commission of Ontario recently released a report which disseminates the impact that AI has had

Trudeau appoints new Chief Justice of Superior Court of Quebec

Honourable Marie-Anne Paquette is now the chief justice of Superior Court of Quebec, following an annoucnement made by Justin Trudeau. This new appointment is among a swath of new judicial appointments in recent months. Paquette will be replacing Jacques Robert Fournier, who retired from his full-time position as the province&

SCC strikes down law prohibiting automatism thru extreme intoxication

While it might be an exceedingly rare defence to certain sections of the criminal code, the Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled that the defence of automatism in cases of extreme intoxication remains valid, and that laws prohibiting the defence are unconstitutional. Charter Subsections 7 and 11(d) were found

LSO elects new treasurer

Effective June 28, Jacqqueline Horvat, a litigation lawyer specializing in business law and commercial arbitration, will become the Law Society of Ontario's newest treasurer. Treasurer is the top-elected role within the Law Society of Ontario. As of last week, the election that was held will see the departure

Ont. Immigrant nominee system gets $15 million overhaul

Over the next three years, the Ontario Government is committing $15.1 million to "improve and expand" the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program. This initiative is part of a larger goal of the government to attract skilled immigrants to fill labour gaps due to Canada's ageing population.

Anti-racism data legislation becomes law

Indigenous and Black people, and people of colour, are another step closer to having better access to government programs and services as the historic Anti-Racism Data Act is enshrined in B.C. law. The Anti-Racism Data Act, introduced on May 2, 2022, passed unanimously through the legislative assembly and received

Connecting Google Calendar with uLaw Calendar

Google calendar users rejoice, it's time to synchronize! Many users of uLaw are aware of the interactive calendar and how it relates to the processing of their legal matters. But a recent tech update implemented by uLaw developers now makes it possible to synchronize your uLaw calendar with

Subscribing to uLaw insight emails

With uLawPractice, your data works for you in manifold ways. Subscribe to uLaw insight emails so you can be given regular updates with fresh information about the health of your legal firm. Our analytics programmers have devised a series of emails that you can get sent to your inbox which

New legal threshold for cellphone searches at border

A new legal standard is in the process of being established for the searching of digital devices of people entering Canada. Bill S-7, a bill introduced in the Senate, will amend the Customs Act to establish "reasonable general concern" as the threshold by which agents can search people&

Man acquited in SCC case over pill of gabapentin

A ziploc bag containing a single pill of gabapentin was placed front and centre as evidence during a supreme court case where an accused was acquitted after an officer believed the anticonvulsant drug was prohibited. In a judgement rendered on May 14th, a majority of Supreme Court jurists ruled in

Be ready: spot audits can lead to big headaches for the ill-prepared

Legal firms in Ontario (and other jurisdictions as well) can expect to get audited once every few years despite submitting annual self-reported data pertaining to financial management and practice management of their firms. When a spot audit is initiated, it usually merely begins as routine scrutiny of a firm'

uLaw’s automated Civil Estate forms, a technical guide

As part of uLawPractice’s ongoing development, uLaw now is supporting automation of more than 70 Civil Estate forms for Ontario. uLaw is committed to making your data work for you. This means that for the information you collect and store on your account, algorithms are working so you can

Minimum wage mandate coming for Ontario Articling Students

After meeting for the first time in more than two years, the LSO has made the decision to mandate a minimum wage for articling students, a decision that was certainly not unanimous for Ontario's regulator for lawyers. Articling students have long been subject to ad-hoc wage arrangements with

Matthew Stanley appointed as new OCJ Judge

Matthew Stanley is the Ontario Court of Justice's newest judge to be appointed to that court. Effective April 28, the former sole practitioner was appointed by Attorney General Doug Downey. Stanley operated his own law firm, Matthew W. Stanley Law in the city of Guelph. His career began

uLaw wins Frontrunner award for legal billing

Ottawa, Ont. Tues. April 19th - uLawPractice is named a Frontrunner by Gartner digital media in its Software Advice category for Legal Billing. Though it is used elsewhere, Frontrunners is used by lawlaw firms to determine the viability of a wide subsection of software products. More generally, it's

Automating special Criminal Law forms, surety, with uLaw

As of April 2022, a new uLawPractice technical update has upgraded the support uLaw has for criminal lawyers in particular, in the realm of specific court forms that are now supported. uLaw’s compliance coding team has teamed up with new feature developers to create support under ‘additional parties’ to

Q&A with paralegal Kristen Jarvis

As part of its ongoing Spot Light series profiling Canadian legal practitioners, the uLaw team recently sat down with paralegal Kristen Jarvis. Like many other paralegals, Jarvis has experience working in other industries, and in the past decade she switched into the legal industry after having worked as a Personal

Ontario spending announcement: $5.9 for intimate partner/human trafficking survivors

Over the next two years, the Ontario government is committing $5.9 million dollars towards the Victim Support Grant program. Established to support the needs of victims and survivors of human trafficking or intimate partner violence, the VSG program administers funding to dozens of different police services engaged in these