Home -> Law Blog Directory -> International Law Blogs -> Wise Law Blog

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

International Law

: Wise Law Blog

The Digital Ontario Reports Fail

ADVERTISEMENTS

I received this morning's email with great anticipation.

The inaugural digital edition of the Ontario Reports was, after numerous calls by bloggers, parody-video-makers and concerned environmentalists, at last, in my inbox.

It went downhill from there.

To my surprise, the email notice itself did not feature an index, with links, of the cases reported in the edition. No headnote summaries. No information at all, in fact. And not a single utilization of the advanced functionality offered by the new, long-awaited digital environment.

The email does, however, feature an advertisement for LexisNexis.

Along with a link to the online O.R. edition - 98 O.R. (3d) Part 8 Pages 561-640 -itself.

Clicking through, we arrive at a cumbersome, awkward effort to mimic the look and feel of the old paper version of the O.R.'s.

It is difficult to read. The pages require ongoing zoom adjustments, and it was necessary to adjust a page-format selection to change the default, two-pages-at-once view, which rendered the text virtually unintelligible.

The case text cannot be selected, copied and pasted. It is difficult to view an entire page on one screen in a font size large enough to read.

An attempt to use the Reports' social media sharing function to post the O.R. cover to Facebook resulted in an error message.

And then there were those pages and pages of ads.

Easy to flip through en-masse in paper-form, but a labourious succession of repeated clicks was required to simply proceed through the advertisement section, until I simply had enough, and used the contents index to skip the ads altogether (as I suspect most readers will).

This is simply a good idea gone bad. Poorly conceived, poorly implemented.

What we need is not that complicated.

Lawyers would benefit from a weekly Ontario Reports email containing:

An index of the cases reported, with subject area, concise summary of the ruling, and links to the complete text of each ruling, whether on CanLii or elsewhere;
A listing of the other key O.R. sections - Law Society news, careers, practise resources, tribunal decisions, etc.- including highlights of key items.
An O.R. that is current, and does not simply regurgitate cases that have been reported by blogs and the major press months prior. As an example, the Tauber decison, found in this week's O.R.'s, was decided on December 23, 2009, and covered in the National Post on January 11, 2010 - nearly three months ago.

The O.R.'s ads section just won't work in the digital format and needs a complete rethink.

As does the entire format of the, new digital O.R. era.

We give this effort a major thumbs down. Hard to read, outdated materials will not cut it in 2010.

Even if there are lots of Lexis-Nexis ads.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net

EMPLOYMENT LAW ? CIVIL LITIGATION ? WILLS AND ESTATES ? FAMILY LAW & DIVORCE

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG ? SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

Full post as published by Wise Law Blog on April 08, 2010 (boomark / email).

Lawsuits and Settlements

Apple Inc.
allegedly maintained an illegal monopoly on the digital music market.

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
has been accused of not doing enough to keep addicted gamblers who have signed up for a "self-exclusion" program out of casinos.

Garden Benches
Recalled Following Reports of Injury

Healon D
Reports of Postoperative Eye Problems Prompts FDA Recall

Wrinkle-Fillers
FDA to Review Labeling due to Adverse Event Reports

Frozen Chili Beef Products
Recalled Following Injury Reports

Related Searches