Resources, Articles, & Advocacy
Article | January 08, 2026
When Clients Bring Their Own AI: The New Challenge for Legal Advice
The modern legal client increasingly comes armed with their own AI-generated research, presenting novel challenges for lawyers. Debating a ‘machine’ that produces opinions with authority and rapidity but without legal skill or judgement, can not only cost lawyers time and erode trust, but create liability exposure. Allan Ritchie offers advice for responding with restraint to AI-fueled ‘findings’ while redirecting the conversation to the real-world decisions the client needs to make.
Article | January 07, 2026
What’s New in Pension and Benefits – Winter 2026
Recent updates in Ontario and Federal pension legislation, regulatory policy, taxation and caselaw, including overcontributions, automatic OAS enrollment, climate-related financial risks, and more.
Article | January 07, 2026
"To Serve Man": Governing AI and the Era of Digital Soma
When lawyers reference Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, they often treat "soma" as a literary symbol: a metaphor for the numbing effect of mindless entertainment. But soma is not just a metaphor; it is a product specification. It is a set of functional requirements: rapid, predictable relief from distress; minimal downside; and a secondary effect that is central, not incidental, which is social pacification. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes capable of optimizing human experience with greater precision, soma stops being a philosophy seminar and becomes a governance problem. Crucially, that governance problem is not limited to the digital. A superhuman scientific capability could plausibly contribute to a literal, pharmacological soma through generative chemistry and inverse molecular design (a subject that raises its own governance challenges at the intersection of IP, bioethics, and regulatory law). But the first widely deployed soma analogues will almost certainly arrive through recommendation systems, immersive media, and bewitching AI companions. That is where entertainment lawyers need to focus.
Resource | January 07, 2026
Standard Minutes of Settlement and Release
Prepared by the OBA Labour and Employment Law Section Committee, this Standard Minutes of Settlement and Release provides a practical template for use in employment law matters.
Article | December 30, 2025
Section 493.2 of the Criminal Code: Addressing the Primary and Secondary Grounds for Vulnerable and Racialized Clients
In 2019, the federal government amended the Criminal Code of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46 to incorporate the principle of restraint into bail hearings. As stated in section 493.2 of the Criminal Code, a peace officer, justice or judge that is considering release shall give particular attention to the circumstances of (a) Aboriginal accused, and (b) accused who belong to a vulnerable population that is overrepresented in the criminal justice system and that is disadvantaged in obtaining release. Section 493.2 is remedial in nature, and is intended to “ameliorate the pre-trial over incarceration of overrepresented, vulnerable groups," “release more of the accused described in the provision,” and “remedy the problem of overuse of pre-trial custody as well as the overrepresentation of certain populations in the criminal justice system."
Article | December 24, 2025
Driving this Holiday Season: Understanding offences of impaired driving and dangerous driving
Impaired driving and dangerous driving are both illegal and equally serious criminal offences. They are technically rather different when it comes to the Crown proving their elements in court and for counsel defending the accused. Notably, consumption of alcohol, short of the point of impairment, is not the element of the offence of dangerous operation. However, it is “a relevant factor for the trier of fact in considering the mens rea element of the offence of dangerous driving:" R. v. McLennan, 2016 ONCA 732, at para. 27.
Legislative Update | December 19, 2025
Your OBA LegUp Policy and Legislative Update Week of December 15
CRR Final Report Released: The Civil Rule Review (CRR) Working Group's Final Policy Report, is now available online. The 200+ page document proposes a broad range of reforms across core areas of the civil litigation process to help reduce delays and costs and increase access to the civil justice system for Ontario litigants.
