Keep Current: A review of provincial Section meetings.

Introducing: The CBABC Appellate Advocacy Section Chair: Gregory Pun, Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP (photo) Vice-Chair: Peter Senkpiel, Nathanson Schachter & Thompson LLP Secretary: Elizabeth Clarke, Lawson Lundell LLP Treasurer: Joel Payne, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP		Charities and Not-For-Profi t Law Meeting: September 27, 2011 Speakers: Chris Becker and Ian Moes, Kuhn & Company LLP Topic: Guidelines for Charities Operating Internationally
Appellate Advocacy Meeting: September 22, 2011 Speaker: Timothy Outerbridge Topic: Various		Alternate Dispute ResolutionVancouver Meeting: October 18, 2011 Speakers: The Honourable Judge Donna Senniw, Mr. Gordon Turriff, QC and David Merner. Topic: Taking off the Robes and Rolling up their Sleeves: Should Judges be Mediating – the Future of “Judicial Dispute Resolution” in B.C.

Introducing: The CBABC Appellate Advocacy Section
The mandate of the Appellate Advocacy Section is to provide a forum for discussion of topics of interest related to civil and criminal appellate practice, primarily in the B.C. Court of Appeal, but also in the Supreme Court of Canada and B.C. Supreme Court. The Section will consider procedural and substantive law, and oral and written advocacy, relevant to appellate practice in those courts. The Section currently has 96 members, including eight from interior B.C. and Vancouver Island as well as members from the Department of Justice and the Criminal Bar. Meetings are held at lunch times at the offices of our Executive members. The Executive welcomes joint meetings with other Sections, e.g. a joint meeting with the Legal Research Section on November 29, 2011, on the topic of factum writing. Speakers will include leading appellate counsel, and justices and legal officers of the Court of Appeal (e.g. registrar and law officer).

Appellate Advocacy
The Appellate Advocacy Section held its inaugural meeting on September 22, 2011. Tim Outerbridge, Law Officer at the British Columbia Court of Appeal, discussed recent rule amendments and his role as Law Officer. Mr. Outerbridge explained the rationale behind recent changes and answered questions regarding their implementation. He also informed the Section of amendments, which are currently being contemplated by the Court of Appeal. For example, the Court is concerned that there is uncertainty regarding whether orders are final or interlocutory and is currently finalizing a closed list of matters for which leave to appeal is required. Mr. Outerbridge also explained the Court’s goals in advancing the electronic-court project. He expressed his hope that the Appellate Advocacy Section will provide an opportunity for communication between the Bar and the Court and opened the floor for feedback from counsel.

Charities and Not-For-Profit Law
Ian Moes and Chris Becker of Kuhn LLP presented on Guidelines for Charities Operating Internationally. The presentation addressed how charities should structure international activities, how to meet CRA requirements, and how to assess the advantages and disadvantages of using various intermediaries (agents, contractors, cooperative participants, joint venture participants). There are good reasons to prefer contractors to agents: limiting vicarious liability, and shifting to an invoice-for-services model. The speakers also discussed compliance with existing anti-terrorism legislation and CRA policies, noting the potential risks to charities operating in regions where terrorists are present. Overall, the CRA policy is ambiguous and disconnected from the actual legislation, and charities must exercise due diligence in assessing their risks of inadvertently or indirectly supporting terrorism. The meeting concluded with a discussion period.

ADR Vancouver
The Honourable Judge Donna Senniw (Provincial Court of B.C.), Mr. Gordon Turriff, QC (counsel to Stikeman Elliott LLP), and David Merner (Ministry of Attorney General) tackled the issue of “Judicial Dispute Resolution” or “JDR.” They described a wide variety of JDR processes involving mediation, settlement conferences, trial conferences and mini trials. Questions focused on what is the role of judges: to resolve problems or provide answers and finality to issues? The panel examined JDR processes currently applied across the country and debated controversial issues, including the following. Should disputes be streamed into either an adjudicative or “settlement oriented” process depending on the nature of the case and the needs of the parties? Can the parties be empowered to select their judge drawn from a pool of specially trained judges? Should the JDR approach be facilitative, evaluative or a hybrid? Should judges caucus separately with the parties? How does this fit with the traditional view that judges should be neutral and the current policy of the Provincial Court promoting judges to be generalists? It was a fascinating and thought-provoking session!

 
For enrolled CBA members, more detailed information and available minutes from the Section meetings are online at www.cba.org/bc in Sections under Professional Development.
 

Tracking Tool and CPD Hours


Thank YOU for Using the CBABC Online Section Enrolment!
A friendly reminder to all B.C. lawyers: your 12 credits of CPD are due for reporting on December 31, 2011. Here are some simple tips for entering your CBABC hours through the CBA Tracking Tool. Hours eligible for CPD are added to the Tracking Tool after each meeting is completed and sign-in sheets have been returned to the CBABC office by the Section Secretary. The Hours Attended field will be defaulted to 0.00. Follow the Edit link to the Events Detail page to amend the hours attended. The number of hours accredited for the meeting will be provided as reference on this page. On the Law Society of B.C. website, Section meeting attendance is recorded under the individual Section rather than by topic. Search for the Section under which the hours should be applied, and use the course dates of January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.

We welcome you to contact CBABC Sections staff and share your feedback using this new system.

Enrol online today! www.cba.org/BC/PD/main/section_enrolment.aspx

This article was published in the October 2011 issue of BarTalk. © 2011 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.