International Law

New York Estate Court Recognizes Canadian Same Sex Marriage

Posted on February 04, 2009
In a decision released yesterday, a second court in New York State has recognized the validity of a Canadian same-sex marriage.Law.com reports:Recognizing the validity of a same-sex marriage between New Yorkers contracted in Canada, a Manhattan surrogate has ruled that a man is entitled to inherit the entire estate of his deceased male partner...

LL.B. or J.D. ? Which is better?

Posted on January 27, 2009
Following the emerging trend of Canadian law schools making a switch from the LL.B. to J.D. degree designations the York University?s Senate has approved a change in Osgoode Hall Law School?s law degree designation from Bachelor of Laws (LLB) to Juris Doctor (JD)...

Antiques and the Courts? Use of Extraordinary Remedies

Posted on January 27, 2009
Legally speaking . . .A frustrating aspect of the law is its occasional unfairness to those who lead their lives honestly. Consumers and business owners often lament that the unscrupulous, often with deep pockets, somehow figure out how to avoid paying the piper, despite laudable efforts of our legislators, courts and judges...

Law Blog Award Notes

Posted on January 24, 2009
In yet another "top legal blog" listing, Avvo Blog is now posting Alexa's traffic rankings for the top 300 law blogs. Among Canada's offerings, our own Wise Law Blog comes in at a not-too-shabby #104. Our friends at Law is Cool are impressive at #82, all as of today's rankingsAnd on a related topic (from the better late than never department), the selections for the 2008 CLawBie Awards are up, and we are glad to see the notable quality of the blogs that have been highlighted, many of which are featured daily at our sister site, Wise Law Reader...

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On Paternity, Polygamy, Palimony and Parental Alienation in Canada

Posted on January 24, 2009
Canada's press has been having a field day with four sensational cases that have been winding their way through the nation's courts.Dealing with fundamental questions at the very root of our values around marriage, children and family, these cases have captured the public's collective imagination - and ire -for very good reason...

Video: President Obama's Inaugural Address

Posted on January 21, 2009
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net EMPLOYMENT LAW ? CIVIL LITIGATION ? WILLS AND ESTATES ? FAMILY LAW & DIVORCEORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG ? SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

Video: January 20, 2009 - Inauguration Day

Posted on January 21, 2009
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net EMPLOYMENT LAW ? CIVIL LITIGATION ? WILLS AND ESTATES ? FAMILY LAW & DIVORCEORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG ? SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

Inauguration Day - The Obama Era Begins

Posted on January 20, 2009
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net EMPLOYMENT LAW ? CIVIL LITIGATION ? WILLS AND ESTATES ? FAMILY LAW & DIVORCEORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG ? SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

Are You With Us, Or With the Torturers?

Posted on January 19, 2009
Glenn Greenwald presents another compelling argument today at Salon that the 1988 Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment legally obligates the Obama administration to prosecute Bush administration officials who authorized or participated in the use of torture: Article 21...

The Girl Who Silenced the World at the United Nations

Posted on January 09, 2009
This one comes via our own Rachel Spence:- Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net EMPLOYMENT LAW ? CIVIL LITIGATION ? WILLS AND ESTATES ? FAMILY LAW & DIVORCEORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG ? SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

2009

Posted on January 05, 2009
Now that we're back after a bit of a blog break, it'll probably take a a few days to ramp up to our usual posting pace.  I'll begin this year's offerings simply, then, with a happy new year to all.  I've got quite a few topics saved up for attention in the days and weeks ahead, so stay tuned...

Season's Greetings from Wise Law

Posted on December 25, 2008
 With the festive season upon us, we'd like to wish all our readers, clients, friends and colleagues the happiest of holidays.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Season's Greetings to everyone from all of us at Wise Law Office.(Special thanks to our own Justine Hamilton for creating the artwork above...

Season's Greetings from Wise Law Blog

Posted on December 25, 2008
 With the festive season upon us, we'd like to wish all our readers, clients, friends and colleagues the happiest of holidays.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Season's Greetings to everyone from all of us at Wise Law Office.(Special thanks to our own Justine Hamilton for creating the artwork above...

The 2008 Canadian Law Blog Awards

Posted on December 23, 2008
The Canadian Law Blog AwardsSteve Matthews, the mastermind behind the Canadian Law Blog Awards, has asked members of our nation's 'blawger' community to help him by proposing our nominees for this year's ClawBie Awards, presented to Canada's top law bloggers...

Constructive Dismissal: Employers Beware

Posted on December 22, 2008
p/pdiv align="left"/divpspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"It is often said that people are assets and human capital drives the organization. But unfortunately the same assets and capital are the first to bear the brunt as part of cost-cutting exercises by businesses...

Constructive Dismissal: Employers Beware

Posted on December 22, 2008
It is often said that people are assets and human capital drives the organization. But unfortunately the same assets and capital are the first to bear the brunt as part of cost-cutting exercises by businesses.As per Statistics Canada, the Canadian economy lost 71,000 jobs in November 2008, 66,000 of which were here in Ontario...

About That Shoe-Throwing Incident in Baghdad...

Posted on December 15, 2008
Here's the video.Luckily for the President, the 'assailant's' aim ranks as Cheney-esque... - Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net EMPLOYMENT LAW ? CIVIL LITIGATION ? WILLS AND ESTATES ? FAMILY LAW & DIVORCEORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG ? SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

Video: Glenn Greenwald on 'Tragic Legacy' of Bush

Posted on December 14, 2008
Constitutional lawyer and leading progressive blogger, Glenn Greenwald, visited Bill Moyers this week, and discussed 9-11, unitary executive theories, and the constitutional excesses of the Bush Administration.Mr. Greenwald asserts that failing prosecution of high-ranking Bush government officials who broke the law by engaging in warrantless wiretapping, torture and suspension of habeas corpus rights, America will essentially have adopted a two-tiered justice system that subjects ordinary Americans to the harshest form of "three strikes" criminal sanctions but wholly exempts the ruling elite from any criminal accountability at all...

Britain's Shariah Courts

Posted on December 12, 2008
Divorce, Sharia Style, a British TV documentary, looks at Britain's Sharia councils and asks "whether religious laws should be recognized by the secular British legal system:"(h/t: Tarek Fatah)- Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www...

Ontario Small Claims Court Limit to be Upped to $25,000 in 2010

Posted on December 11, 2008
Significant changes were announced today by Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley that may revolutionize the way civil claims are handled in Ontario's court system.The amendments, to come into effect in January 2010, will provide that:The monetary jurisdiction of Ontario's Small Claims Courts will increase to $25,000...

About Neil Young

Posted on December 06, 2008
Neil Young, the ageless Canadian rocker who made two sold-out appearances at Toronto's Air Canada Centre this week, isn't well-known for factoring in his audience's preferences when choosing his set-lists.This year's edition of Mr. Young, however, sent no-one home unhappy...

Maddow On Prorogue-Gate

Posted on December 05, 2008
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow chimes in on Stephen Harper's efforts to "banish the enemy:"- Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net EMPLOYMENT LAW ? CIVIL LITIGATION ? WILLS AND ESTATES ? FAMILY LAW & DIVORCEORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG ? SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

Coali-cious Canada...

Posted on December 02, 2008
What's going on in Ottawa? At a joint press conference yesterday, Canada's opposition leaders lay out the rationale behind their declaration that they will defeat the minority government of Stephen Harper at the earliest opportunity, and seek thereafter to form a coalition government:h/t - Jeff Jedras)- Garry J...

MySpace Ruling: Intentional Violation of a Website's Terms of Service is a Federal Crime

Posted on November 26, 2008
One of the many perversities to arise from today's misdemeanour conviction of Lori Drew in the so-called "My Space Suicide Trial" is summed up by Orin Kerr at Volokh:The government's theory in the Lori Drew case is that it is a federal crime to intentionally violate the Terms of Service on a website, and that it becomes a more serious crime ? a felony rather than a misdemeanor ? if the Terms of Service are violated to further a criminal or tortious act...

Intestacy and the Marketing of Wills

Posted on November 26, 2008
Carole Elefant's article at Law.com, Lack of Lawyer Marketing Blamed for High Levels of Intestacy considers an interesting theory:It's not often that you hear that lawyers market too little. But that's apparently the premise of this recent abstract entitled "Marketing Wills" that appears in the Elder Law Journal...

Bill 133: Ontario's Family Statute Law Amendment Act

Posted on November 26, 2008
Sweeping change will come to Ontario family law as a result of Attorney General Chris Bentley's introduction of Bill 133 yesterday in the provincial legislature.The legislation includes major change to the calculation and distribution of employment pension plan entitlements between separating spouses...

We've Been Nominated

Posted on November 23, 2008
I'm very grateful to see Wise Law Blog has been nominated for a Canadian Blog Award in the Best Professional/Career Blog category.Voting continues until November 29. Check out all the nominees, and cast your ballot here. - Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www...

Launching Wise Law Reader

Posted on November 22, 2008
Funny how technology always seems to get the better of me.It wasn't that long ago that I marvelled at the time-saving my RSS Reader brought to my professional life. Once I started using RSS, I suddenly was able as never before- and in virtually no time - to track news and legal developements in real time, as published in dozens of varied, online locations...

Impeach Barack Obama???

Posted on November 18, 2008
A new wave of Facebook groups has suddenly sprung upon us, apparently aiming to save democracy from .... elections? Here are but a few of these choice Facebook selections:Impeach Obama Impeach Barack Hussein Obama Impeach Obama - Save American Democracy One Billion People To Impeach Obama As one must have a Facebook account to view these groups, allow me to save you the trouble...

Obama: "I Intend To Close Guantanamo"

Posted on November 17, 2008
Barack Obama tells 60 Minutes he intends to close Guantanamo, end U.S. torture, and immediately begin the process of drawing down troops in Iraq:- Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net EMPLOYMENT LAW ? CIVIL LITIGATION ? WILLS AND ESTATES ? FAMILY LAW & DIVORCEORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG ? SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

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