Two Hours a Budget: Why Legal-Aid Case Management never got the software everyone else did
It is not unusual to hear counsel with twenty years in criminal practice describe spending upward of two hours preparing a single case management assessment form, and describe that as efficient. They are not wrong about the second part. Given the tools available, two hours is a reasonable result. However, that is the part worth examining.
Quebec Courts Draw a Hard Line on Generative AI for Judges
On August 31, 2026, the chief judges of Quebec’s four judicial courts: the Court of Appeal, the Superior Court, the Court of Québec and the Municipal Courts, signed a common set of guidelines on the use of generative AI by judges. The courts announced them publicly on September 4.
The document is short: seven pages of guidelines plus an optional self-assessment grid. Its position is not subtle. The guidelines state outright that they do not encourage adoption of generative AI. They exist to fence in how it might be used, and to mark the lines judges should not cross.
For anyone who practices in Canadian courts or builds legal technology, this is one of the most detailed judicial statements on AI in the country so far. Here is what it says, and what it means.
Vrbanic, Jacques-Taylor, and Bill C-14: Two 2026 developments that pull in the same direction
Two things happened to Ontario criminal practice within seven weeks of each other in 2026, and they are usually written about separately. On May 29, the Supreme Court released companion judgments in R. v. Vrbanic, 2026 SCC 19 and R. v. Jacques-Taylor, 2026 SCC 20, declining to disturb the Jordan ceilings while reworking the tests […]
Reverse Onus, the Ladder Principle, and the Suspended Deposit Rules: Ontario Bail After August 2026
Two separate sets of amendments changed bail practice in Ontario this summer, roughly a month apart, from two different levels of government. They are frequently discussed together, they operate differently, and as of yesterday only one of them is in force.
Canada’s First AI Suspension is not the AI Case you think it is
A Toronto lawyer lost her licence for six months in the first Canadian discipline case of its kind. The tribunal’s reasoning should change how firms think about the risk.