Law in Quebec

News about Quebec legal developments

Legal business

  • Montreal AI chatbot helps people immigrate to Quebec

    Days after U.S. President Donald J. Trump issued a controversial executive order that barred refugees and temporarily suspended immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries, Amir Moravej and his team decided to lend a helping hand and launched an artificial intelligence immigration chatbot months ahead of schedule.

    The sweeping executive order, since rescinded by the courts, led to global chaos as it barred many passengers from flights to the United States, including one of Moravej’s team members. “He had an interview scheduled but couldn’t go to the U.S.,” explained Moravej. “And there were other students who planned to continue their studies in the U.S. but because of the policy changes had to stay here. So we decided to accelerate the launch to help students who are currently in Quebec to get their permanent residency.”

    The AI-driven chatbot uses machine learning to assist people through the complicated process of putting together an immigration application. Immigration into Canada and Quebec (which has different programs in place) is a laborious three-step process. Applicants must determine if they are eligible, then must provide supporting documents, and finally fill out an application form, which in itself can be tricky.

    That’s where the web-based application at Botler.ai can come into play. It automatizes much of the process. After an applicant answers questions about their qualifications and circumstances, Botler assesses if they are eligible for the immigration program. If so, the applicant can then upload the documents which the AI tool reads and reviews. If all goes well, Botler automatically fills out the application form based on the information the applicant has provided.

    Botler does more. If for whatever reason the applicant does not meet the immigration eligibility requirements, the AI tool can provide the applicant with “feedback and insights” and steps the candidate can take to take to become eligible, noted Moravej. And it learns and becomes “smarter” as it goes along because it uses deep learning, particularly for document reviews. The machine learns through recognized patterns based on the data it previously “saw,” explained Moravej. That is particularly useful as Botler has the potential of recognizing forged documents.

    “There are two things the machine can learn,” explained the Iranian-born developer. “First of all, it learns the profile of the user such as his experience and his educational background – all these things the machine can understand. And the machine can understand the rules of immigration and can determine if you are eligible or not. All these things are basically a decision-making process, and computers are very good at making decisions because they can calculate way more possibilities than us as humans. And it will get smarter as it sees more immigration cases.”

    Moravej, who developed Botler out of personal necessity, maintains that the chatbot will not replace lawyers. Indeed, Nonimo A&A Technologies, the nascent firm behind Botler, are working with Montreal law firm Campbell Cohen. Nonimo trains the machine, and the lawyers test it to ensure that Botler covers all cases and captures all of the exceptions.

    “Botler can augment what lawyers are doing and make their lives easier as it automates many things that lawyers are doing manually right now,” Moravej told me. “As a result, lawyers can process and can represent more clients because many of the tasks that they have to do manually can be automated using Botler. At the end of the day, a lawyer needs to represent a client before the government so Botler can in no sense replace a lawyer.”

    At present, Botler can handle only a single immigration program – the Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ) for foreign workers and students residing in Quebec. As of the beginning of April, 1,752 applicants used Botler to assess their eligibility, and Moravej said that 438 applicants will either be eligible or will become eligible to apply for PEQ, if they can resolve minor issues with their cases. In the near future, Moravej intends to adapt the technology to encompass other federal and provincial immigration programs.

    Across the Atlantic, a Stanford University student in Oxford, England Joshua Browder has embarked on a similar venture. The London-born developer and creator of DoNotPay, a chatbot that has overturned 160,000 parking fines in England, recently turned his sights on helping refugees claim asylum. The chatbot, which uses Facebook Messenger, helps refugees fill in immigration applications in the U.S. and Canada, and it helps those in the United Kingdom apply for asylum support. Like Botler, the chatbot asks applicants a series of questions to determine which application the refugee needs to fill out and assesses whether the refugee is eligible for asylum protection under international law.

    Both Moravej’s and Browder’s chatbot are the latest examples of online AI-powered tools that can expedite access to justice, an issue that has befuddled the legal profession for decades. “These tools that are now coming online are such a great opportunity to unlock access to justice, which is such a prevalent need in our society,” said Matthew Peters, national innovation leader at McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Toronto. “You have this whole huge swath of people in the middle class and all sides who quite frankly have (been the subjects of) a disservice from our profession who have not provided proper access to justice. We should be focusing on how fast can we get some of these solutions out.”

    Jin Ho Verdonschot, a justice technology architect at HiiL Innovating Justice too believes that AI holds much promise at providing greater opportunities for access to justice. “Artificial intelligence is a very good example of one of the many innovations now happening in the legal services world,” Verdonschot said at a conference held in Montreal last fall. “There are so many tools that (that are) emerging and being developed that will have real value and can really empower our citizens. And I think AI will have a place in that future.”

    Categories: , ,
    Tags: , ,

  • A third of large law firms hacked

    Large law firms, though commonly perceived to have stringent cybersecurity procedures in place due to large in-house Information Technology staff and devoted legal IT budgets, are in fact more vulnerable to cyber-attacks than smaller ones, with one in three the target of a cyber-attack over the past year, according to a legal benchmarking report on law firms from the United Kingdom.

    The report by NatWest reveals that 24 per cent of all U.K. law firms suffered a cyber-attack over the past year, 16 per cent of whom were small firms (generating fees of less than $3.75 million), 31 per cent large ones (generating fees between $3.75 million and $8.3 million), and 28 per cent very large firms (generating over $8.3 million in fees).

    “The fact that a quarter of law firms have been hit by a cyber-attack or fraud over the last 12 months is bad,” noted Steven Malone, Director of Security Management at Mimecast, an IT consultant. “But what is worse is that this is only half the story. Our research reveals that 20 per cent of UK organizations have experienced impersonation attacks (which involve hackers assuming the identity of executives) from their legal departments last year.”

    These findings somewhat echo those yielded by the American Bar Association’s latest Legal Technology Survey Report. It found that 26 per cent of firms with 500 or more lawyers reported security breaches in the past year, followed by 25 per cent of law firms with 10-49 lawyers, 20 per cent of law firms with 100-499 lawyers, and 11 per cent of law firms with two-to-nine employees. Solos are the least likely to experience security breaches, with only eight per cent reporting that they have been breached.

    The NatWest report does not put a dollar figure to the losses incurred by law firms following a security breach, but it suggests that some of the law firms incurred financial losses and potentially reputational damage. “There is huge pressure on firms to be ever more diligent and to ensure that they have a disaster recovery plan in place,” said the report.

    The Solicitor’s Regulation Authority (SRA), which regulates solicitors in England and Wales, revealed recently that approximately $11.5 million of client’s money were siphoned last year thanks to cyber-attacks on law firms. The majority, three-quarters, of cybercrimes reported to the SRA involved some form of “Friday afternoon” fraud where criminals modified emails directly, usually by hacking into the email system of a lawyer. Criminals aim to alter bank details in order to redirect completion funds to the criminal rather than the client. Such scams usually take place on Fridays because that is the time when completions take place, and it buys the fraudster some time before the crime is detected.

    Law firms, as custodians of confidential information, are also increasingly becoming targets by those looking for competitive intelligence, according to experts. The case of three men charged with insider trading based on information they hacked from prominent US law firms “should serve as a wake-up call for law firms around the world”,  said Preet Bharara, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. “You are and will be targets of cyber hacking because you have information valuable to would-be criminals.”

    Part of the problem is that law firms are not laying the basic groundwork to prevent security breaches, according to consulting firm ALM Intelligence. There are three fundamental stages of data security – assessment, planning and testing. That involves understanding data security needs and risk-profiling data accordingly, then implementing solutions on needs and profile, and finally – and critically — testing to ensure an effective response in case of breach. While 77 per cent of law firms have conducted a formal security assessment and 66 per cent have a data breach plan in place, a scant 46 per cent have tested their cybersecurity plans.

    “Many firms’ confidence in their own cyberattack preparedness seems misguided,” said Daniella Isaacson, co-author of the report. “Our research indicates that most remain surprisingly unprepared for the threat. Many, for example, never test their cybersecurity protocols. This means that on the day of a breach, those firms are using an unproven response plan.”

    But pressure from clients to deal with cybersecurity is mounting. Some 70% of law firms surveyed by ALM Intelligence said they are under pressure from their clients to beef up internal data security. If law firms shrug off pressure from clients, it will be much more difficult to ignore impending changes to Canada’s privacy legislation.

    The Digital Privacy Act, which amends the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), came into force in June 2015. But regulations regarding breach reporting, notification, and record keeping have yet to come into force. They are however expected to come into force sometime this year, said Imran Ahmad, who heads the cybersecurity law practice at Miller Thomson LLP.

    The impending changes will require custodians of data, including law firms, to report information security breaches where an organization “reasonably believes” that a breach of its security measures” creates a real risk of “significant harm” to an individual, said Ahmad. This assessment hinges on the sensitivity of the personal information that was compromised, the probability that the personal has been, is being or will be used as well as “any other prescribed factor,” added Ahmad.

    Organizations such as law firms should therefore conduct a review of their existing protocols and policies to ensure that they have the ability to detect, respond and report data breach incidents. And they should also assess the types of information they hold, be it personal information, intellectual property or supplier data.

    “Organizations should take steps to ensure compliance and make sure to document them appropriately,” said Ahmad.

    Categories: ,
    Tags: ,

  • Husband and wife team hope to lead the Quebec Bar

    In an unlikely turn of events, a husband and wife may end up leading the Quebec Bar.

    Lu Chan Khuong, the former president of the Quebec legal society who reluctantly resigned after a bitter and protracted fracas with the board of directors of the Barreau du Québec, recently announced that she is going to try her luck once again.

    (more…)

    Categories: , ,
    Tags: ,

  • Former president of Quebec legal society temporarily disbarred

    Stéphane Rivard could not bear to open correspondence from the Quebec taxman.

    During a stretch of four years, between 2007 and 2011, letters outlining collection procedures and seizures launched against him by Revenue Quebec were put by the wayside. Rulings by Quebec Superior Court and by the Federal Court of Canada in 2012 over his tax affairs too were ignored.

    (more…)

    Categories: , , ,
    Tags: , , ,

  • Yet another lead counsel of a public inquiry resigns

    This is a case of déjà vu all over again.

    When Bernard Amyot resigned as the lead counsel of a public inquiry that will shortly be investigating surveillance of journalists by Quebec police, it marked the third time in seven years that a lawyer who sought to make a mark in public affairs had his hopes dashed.

    Amyot, an ambitious Montreal lawyer with solid credentials, was appointed days before Christmas as lead counsel of the Commission of Inquiry on the Protection of the Confidentiality of Journalistic Sources by Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Jacques Chamberland, the chair of the commission. Less than three weeks later, an opinion piece penned by Amyot nine years ago came to haunt him. He had castigated Montreal columnist Patrick Lagacé for being a pseudo journalist who lacked vigor:

    “Lagacé, who is neither a journalist nor an analyst, all the same claims the right to preach to everyone, however without deigning to impose on himself, in a measured and rational manner, the necessary rigour to debate ideas.”

    Calls for his resignation by the organization that represents Quebec journalists soon followed because the opinion piece raised doubts about his neutrality. Lagacé, after all, is a central figure behind the scandal that prompted the Quebec government to launch the inquiry. Last fall it was revealed that the high-profile journalist had been the target of a months-long covert police operation that tracked calls and texts on his iPhone because law enforcement authorities were trying to find the source of an internal leak to the media.

    In a statement Amyot said “doubts have been raised about me, and even though these doubts have no legal basis, I am making the decision to withdraw from my position as lead counsel.”

    In 2012 renown Montreal lawyer Sylvain Lussier too felt compelled to resign a week after being nominated lead counsel of Quebec’s public inquiry into the province’s construction industry, which came to be known as the Charbonneau Commission. “Doubts” had been raised about a possible appearance of conflict of interest over an old case he had worked on as a lawyer, and while Lussier asserted that the concerns had “no basis in fact or in law,” trepidation over the integrity of the inquiry prompted him to step down.

    In 2010 Québec City lawyer Pierre Cimon also saw slip away his opportunity to leave his mark as lead counsel of a public inquiry that examined the way judges are nominated in Quebec, or the Bastarache inquiry as it is better known. Barely a week after being appointed by former Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache, Cimon bitterly resigned after being caught in a political maelstrom that raised doubts over his impartiality following revelations that he had regularly contributed to the Quebec Liberal Party. Between 2002 and 2007, Cimon made five donations ranging from $250 to $500 – far less than what he gives to the Barreau du Québec’s Foundation or his local parish.

    “I donate to the local parish even though I am not a churchgoer,” Cimon told me at the time. “I donate because I believe churches play an important social role. It doesn’t mean that I practice and believe in the church’s dogma or agree with Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s position that abortion should be criminalized. The same holds true for the donations I made to the Liberals. I am a federalist, and that was the only place I could donate.”

    Though the trial lawyer asserts he is apolitical, never attended a political meeting nor solicited or received any benefit from any government, and does not even know anyone stemming from ranks of the Liberals, he felt he had no choice to step down in order to avoid doubt being cast on the impartiality of the Bastarache Commission and to ensure the serenity of its procedures.

    The Quebec Act respecting public inquiry commissions is silent about how the commission’s counsel are appointed. It does not state who has the power to appoint the counsel nor does it stipulate whether a procedure should be followed. That is not a unique situation. The Ontario Public Inquiries Act too provides no “provision for this crucial step in an inquiry’s life,” pointed out a 1992 Report on Public Inquiries by the Ontario Law Reform Commission. (That is still the case today).

    In practice, the power to select an inquiry’s counsel is granted to the chair of the commission. “There are no rules or guidelines,” told me a lawyer familiar with the inner workings of public inquiries. A Protocol on the appointment of judges to commissions of inquiry that was adopted by the Canadian Judicial Council in 2010 states that’s the way it should be. “The judge should have complete independence in selecting his or her staff, in particular the commission counsel,” says the Protocol.

    But the three resignations strongly suggest that it is perhaps time to review how judges appoint counsel to public inquiries. “I have seen how public inquiries can restore confidence and fix institutions – and I have also seen the tremendous impact on individuals whose lives are forever changed through their participation in the process,” once remarked former Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Dennis O’Connor, who sat as Commissioner on both the Walkerton and Arar Inquiries. At a time when public confidence in the justice system is under siege, it is incumbent upon judges appointed to head public inquiries to put in place proper vetting procedures that take into account not only conflicts of interest but perceived conflicts of interest that may cast doubt upon the players even though the qualms may have “no legal basis.” It certainly would help if they were media savvy and aware that in this day of age of unhealthy partisanship and intense media scrutiny, aided and abetted by the omnipresence of social media, that perceived conflicts of interest take on a life of its own.

    Lawyers appointed as lead counsel of public inquiries too bear a responsibility of side-stepping potential ethical minefields. The president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, Stéphane Giroux, noted that a simple Google search revealed that Amyot had written a “very disturbing” article that led to his resignation. Lagacé, upon learning of Amyot’s resignation, said that he was astonished that Amyot had accepted the mandate to act as lead counsel of the inquiry in the first place. “He is no doubt a good lawyer, I have nothing to say about that, but he knew what he had written about journalism, the media and certain individuals such as myself. I find it surprising that he had accepted, but he redeemed himself by recusing.”

    But there’s no reason for yet another public inquiry to be subjected to an unnecessary blot. More is and should be expected.

    Categories: , ,

  • The sharing economy: A Pandora box for legal protection insurers

    The practice of law is under duress. Legal service innovations driven by digitalization and globalization are propelling seismic change. So too is the emergence of the sharing economy model which has taken the world by storm. Novel ways of delivering new products and services are seemingly materializing daily to satisfy increasingly demanding and fickle consumers. The rapidly evolving landscape is putting a strain on traditional business models, while governments and regulatory authorities are scrambling to keep up with the dizzying pace of change. But with change comes challenges – and opportunities – for legal service providers and legal protection insurers alike, all of which was  explored at a conference held in Montreal recently by the International Association of Legal Protection (RIAD).

    (more…)

    Categories: , , , , ,
    Tags:

  • No end in sight of strike by Quebec government lawyers and notaries

    A general strike by Quebec government lawyers and notaries shows no signs of abating as the provincial government is remaining firm while the bargaining agent has received the approval of the overwhelming majority of its members to shore up its war chest.

    Without a contract for more than a year, the 1,100 members of the Les avocats et notaires de l’État québécois (LANEQ) have been on strike since late October to push for a change in the negotiation process from the current mediation process. LANEQ is calling for binding arbitration, buoyed by a compensation committee, with a chair chosen and appointed by both parties. The mandate of the compensation committee would include assessing reasonable compensation while taking into the account the provincial government’s capacity to pay. In exchange, the association is willing to give up its right to strike. (Quebec Crown prosecutors are not part of the strike).

    (more…)

    Categories: , ,
    Tags: , ,

  • New Quebec ethics bill raises concerns

    A bill introduced recently by the Quebec government that aims to fortify governance and ethics in professional corporations, better protect the public, and encourage professionals to denounce reprehensible acts has been praised but also drawn concerns from disciplinary law experts.

    Bill 98, a piece of legislation that acts on four of the 60 recommendations made by the Charbonneau’s Commission’s report on granting and management of public contracts in the construction industry, will bolster the powers of the regulatory body that oversees Quebec’s 46 professional corporations, including lawyers and accountants, will hand more discretionary powers to the syndic or ethics officer, and will under certain circumstances provide protection to whistleblowers.

    If passed, the bill would allow the Office des professions to launch its own investigations without having to obtain prior approval from the Quebec Minister of Justice, enable it to determine through regulations the “standards of ethics” and professional conduct applicable to directors of professional corporations, and allow it to issue orders to boards of directors to take corrective measures.

    Bill 98 would also make ethics and professional conduct training mandatory for aspiring professionals seeking admission into a profession, and require professional corporations to offer the training to its members. The bill would also require boards of directors of a professional corporation to receive training on the role of a board of directors, including training on governance and ethics.

    “The bill is a follow-up to the Charbonneau Commission which raised awareness among different decision-making bodies over the importance of creating a culture of ethics and integrity in our society,” remarked Marie Cossette, Ad. E., an administrative law expert who heads the business integrity group for Lavery, de Billy in Quebec City. “The bill will not change attitudes but it is a step in the right direction. It fosters training and gives professional corporations powers to allow them to play an increased role in monitoring.”

    The boards of directors of small professional corporations stand to benefit the most from training in governance and ethics, said Francis Gervais, Ad. E., a Montreal lawyer with Deveau, Gagné, Lefebvre, Tremblay & associés. Many directors in small professional corporations do not realize “what it means to be part of a board of directors” and fail to grasp the nature of their responsibilities, added Gervais. “It’s not a private party or something that is added to one’s curriculum vitae,” said Gervais, a former president of the Quebec law society. “There is important work to be done when one is a member of a board of directors.”

    More controversially, Bill 98 also grants syndics of professional corporations the power to confer immunity to professionals who come forward to report irregular situations even though they may have taken part in the reprehensible act. One must protect whistleblowers to foster integrity, said Cossette, adding that often times the only way to discover wrongful acts is through whistleblowers. “By valuing whistleblowing and protecting whistleblowers, with appropriate mechanisms in place to avoid witch hunts, it will create a zero tolerance climate towards unethical conduct,” said Cossette.

    While there is a need for whistleblowers to denounce objectionable acts, Gervais is uncomfortable with the notion that professionals may be granted full immunity for acts that they have may have had a hand in. Bill 98 doubles the size of fines that can be imposed on professionals to at least $2,000 but not more than $25,000 for each offense “to give the image that we want to be severe” towards professionals yet provides an opportunity for professionals to obtain immunity, noted Gervais. “ I am troubled by the notion that a person who participated in a reprehensible act could obtain full immunity,” added Gervais.

    Rather than providing the possibility of granting immunity to professionals who have committed wrongdoing, citizens who lodge a complaint before a syndic against a professional should benefit from immunity, said Martin Courville, a Montreal lawyer with De Chantal, D’Amour, Fortier Avocats. He now has a case in which a citizen, who lodged a complaint with a syndic against a professional, is facing a lawsuit for harm to the professional’s reputation after the complaint was dismissed by the disciplinary council. “It appears we are going to be granting immunity to professionals who participated in an infraction but it seems to me that consumers who lodge complaints that ends up before a disciplinary committee deserve immunity,” said Courville.

    Moreover, Bill 98 provides no guidance over the criteria that ethics officers should take into consideration before granting immunity, added Gervais. “The syndic is lord and master of the decision to grant immunity,” said Gervais. “But what are the criteria? Can the decision be revised? Can the syndic’s decision be appealed? Can the professional corporation review the ruling. This idea needs to be refined before it is put into application.”

    Bill 98 will also contentiously empower syndics to request disciplinary councils to impose either a suspension or provisional restriction of the professional’s right to practice or use a reserved title in cases when proceedings are instituted for an offence punishable by five or more years of imprisonment. While ethics officers already had the power to request provisional revocation under certain circumstances when the protection of the public was at stake, the bill will make it easier for syndics to obtain their petition, said Cossette, who views this as a positive development.

    Other lawyers specializing in disciplinary law are concerned with this provision of Bill 98. According to Montreal lawyer Jean-Claude Dubé, Bill 98 will hand syndics, already vested with formidable powers, with even more powers to the detriment of professionals. “Syndics  will hold all the cards while professionals will have little recourse,” said Dubé. Gervais concurs, adding that Bill 98 is silent about the presumption of innocence and the right to silence protected under section 7 and section 11(c) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “What am I going to do to defend myself before a syndic when nothing is mentioned in the bill over the presumption of innocence, the confidentiality of information, in camera proceedings if applicable, or whether decisions will be motivated? I hope hearings on the bill will bring clarifications,” said Gervais.

    But Cossette counters that the presumption of innocence and the right to silence does not to be codified to exist. “It will be up to the professional to gauge his options and determine how he wants to ensure the respect of his rights,” said Cossette. “Perhaps the new provisions will be attacked constitutionally. Having said that, this is an issue about reasonableness in relation to the pursued objective of the legislator who wants to respond to the population’s expectation regarding regulatory matters.”

    This story was originally published in The Lawyers Weekly.

    Categories: , ,
    Tags: , , , ,

  • Young Quebec lawyers face bleak prospects

    Quebec law students are having a harder time finding articling positions, getting paid less for them, and receiving fewer job offers after articling, reveals a troubling report by the Young Bar of Montreal that urges the provincial law society to establish “reasonable” and variable quotas to curb the “uncontrolled” rising number of lawyers in the province.

    (more…)

    Categories: , ,
    Tags: , ,

  • U.S. authorities target individuals for corporation wrongdoings

    Internal investigations are likely going to be more costly and more difficult to conduct for Canadian companies with operations in the United States following a change of policy by the U.S. Department of Justice that will now prioritize the prosecution of individual employees for civil and criminal corporate wrongdoing, according to anti-corruption and white collar criminal defence lawyers.

    (more…)

    Categories: , , ,
    Tags: , ,

  • Quebec legal society calls for shift away from hourly billing

    For the “survival of the profession,” the Quebec legal society is calling on its members to shift away from hourly billing to alternative pricing arrangements to better respond to client’s needs, foster greater access to justice for citizens, and encourage a healthier and more balanced professional life for lawyers.

    But at a time when approximately 70 per cent of Quebec’s private practitioners still charge by the hour, the Barreau du Québec recognizes that its call for a paradigm shift will require a “total cultural change” that will be met with resistance by many lawyers and law firms who have done well by the status quo, said Claudia Prémont, the president of the Quebec Bar, which recently published an 84-page study entitled “Hourly Billing: A Time for Reflection.”

    (more…)

    Categories: , , ,
    Tags: , ,

  • Quebec government consolidates employment and labour boards

    In a move applauded by business and denounced by labour, the Quebec government has created a new labour, employment and workers’ compensation tribunal and consolidated several employment and labour boards into a single administrative body in a bid to streamline government services and modernize and improve the efficiency of the province’s administrative justice system. (more…)

    Categories: , , ,
    Tags:

  • Former Quebec law society president back in the spotlight

    Lu Chan Khuong, the former president of the Quebec legal society who reluctantly resigned after a bitter and protracted fracas with the board of directors of the Barreau du Québec, is back on the spotlight.

    (more…)

    Categories: , ,
    Tags: ,

  • Law students hiding mental health issues and alcohol and drug use

    A “significant percentage” of American law students are grappling with mental health and alcohol and drug problems, reveals a recent study, the first to assess alcohol and drug use among law students since 1991 and the first ever to assess prescription use or misuse, mental health issues, and help-seeking attitudes.

    More troubling is that law students are afraid of seeking help because they fear that it may jeopardize their chances of being admitted to the bar or getting a good job. Law students, “socialized into a competitive environment in which showing any vulnerability is discouraged,” are also afraid of the social stigma that may be associated with seeking help, according to the study.

    “For a self-regulating profession, these data should be very worrisome,” warned the study entitled “Helping law students get the help they need.” “We need to do something, and we need to get started now.”

    The study, conducted by a law professor, a dean of law students, and the programming director of a non-profit focused on lawyers’ mental health, surveyed more than 3,300 law students from 15 American law schools about their drinking, drug use, and mental health. Twenty-two per cent of law students reported binge drinking two or more times in the previous weeks, and almost a quarter showed signs that they should go undergo further testing for alcoholism.

    Use of marijuana and cocaine appears to have increased since a 1991 survey. Fourteen per cent of law students said they used marijuana in the past 30 days (compared to eight per cent in 1991), and 2.5 per cent had used coke (compared to one per cent in 1991).

    Over 14 per cent of law students reported use of some prescription drug without a prescription in the prior 12 months. Approximately 13 per cent of those with a prescription shared their prescription drugs with others in the past 12 months, with stimulants the most frequently distributed.

    More than a quarter of law students reported that they had received at least one diagnosis of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, psychosis, personality disorder and/or substance use.

    But law future law students are not seeking help, and nor do they intend to. Only four per cent of law students said they used a health professional to deal with alcohol or drug abuse. And while 42 per cent of would-be lawyers believed they needed help for emotional or mental health problems, roughly half actually received counselling from a health professional.

    That’s because a staggering 63 per cent of students thought that seeking help was a potential threat to getting admitted to the bar, 62 per cent felt getting assistance was a potential threat to job or academic status, and 43 per cent were concerned about privacy and social stigma. Just as discouraging, 39 per cent of law students felt they could handle the problem themselves, while more than a third stated they simply don’t have the time.

    Existing research suggests that a significant number of lawyers who face discipline have an underlying addiction or mental health issue that could affect their ability to fulfil their responsibilities to clients.

    “Those most in need of help are least likely to seek help,” pointed out the study. “The very students who most need to understand that they will be best served by seeking help and getting the help they need are the very students who are most concerned that seeking help will be detrimental to their bar admission processes.”

    That’s where the culture of law comes into play. Many law students – even before getting to law school – get advice from advisors or from lawyers they consulted to “think carefully” about disclosing information and to be “wary” of how disclosure might be perceived by law schools or by state boards of law examiners. “Character and fitness” questions on law school applications or by state bars appear to be counterproductive and may discourage students from seeking help, suggests the study.

    “While in law school, students are getting messages indicating that seeking help may be problematic for their professional careers,” noted the study. “The competitive nature of law school reinforces a message that students are better off not seeking help and instead trying to handle problems on their own.”

    Categories:
    Tags: , ,

  • eDiscovery global market surpassed the US$10 billion mark in 2015

    The eDiscovery global market ostensibly surpassed the US$10 billion mark in 2015, and is expected to grow at a clip 9.8 per cent compound annual growth rate until 2019 when it is forecast to reach US$14.7 billion, according to market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

    The Americas are leading the surge, while Europe and Asia are beginning to see an uptick in demand for eDiscovery services. Europe is expected to comprise nearly 23 per cent of the market while Asia just over seven per cent by 2019, foresees IDC.

    The sheer volume of electronically stored information, coupled with increased regulation and litigation, are the driving forces behind the increased growth in eDiscovery, according to Sean Pike, an IDC program director. So too is growing data governance concerns.

    But trying to calculate the opaque size of the eDiscovery market amounts to “wild ass guesses,” warned George Socha, of Socha Consulting. Attempting to size up the market based on the overall number of cases and average eDiscovery cost per case is incorrect because no two cases have similar eDiscovery costs, Socha told Bloomberg News. Adding to the murky nature of the market is the fact that many users still demand custom eDiscovery solutions, which in turn leads inaccurate estimated average costs per case, added Socha.

    And that’s not taking into account that law firms and corporate law departments are likely to record costs for eDiscovery software differently. A case in point: many software provide both cybersecurity and eDiscovery solutions – and the costs could be recorded under either account. Then there’s the vendors, who often measure and define the eDiscovery process differently, with some companies including paper scanning as eDiscovery while others do not.

    “The biggest problem is there’s no transparency into eDiscovery costs in general,” Socha said.

    Categories: ,
    Tags:
Law in Quebec
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.