This tax season the one million American citizens in Canada have to file an extra tax return. American citizens in Canada have always had to file a tax return, but recent legal developments make this more imperative. This article outlines some of the tax issues faced by U.S. citizens living in Canada.

Although I could speak today about the underfunding of B.C.’s courts, legal aid, and a recently released Angus Reid public opinion poll suggesting that British Columbians are dissatisfied with the justice system, this is, after all, supposed to be a light, entertaining, and fluffy column about legal practice on the west coast, and there are some topics that don’t lend themselves to my swordplay.

A recent Ontario Superior Court decision amended the class definition of a certified Canadian class proceeding to carve out the settled claims of a parallel U.S. class action. This was done in the face of vehement arguments from Canadian class counsel that the U.S. settlement was inadequate and improvident. This decision provides a powerful demonstration of the risks associated with litigating a class action on behalf of a global class where there are parallel proceedings in a foreign jurisdiction. As a result of the amendment to the class definition, the Canadian class was reduced by 85 per cent.

Every once in a while I come across a book that changes my understanding of the world. Laurence Bergreen’s Over the Edge of the World, which describes Magellan’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe, has had this effect on me. It is a truly harrowing tale of determination, discovery, and human strengths and weaknesses across different cultures. It made me step back and look at trade as a human endeavour.

Lawyers Weekly in Australia recently polled over 500 lawyers and nearly 75 per cent of those polled said “their firm doesn’t care about or allow for work-life balance” and drew the conclusion it was the firms’ culture not their policies that were the blame.

Spring has sprung! Along with the return of the Toronto Blue Jays, longer days, and patio season, it’s also time for spring cleaning.

It should be the goal of every law firm to deliver exceptional client service. Just as good food and good atmosphere are part of what make good restaurants, exceptional client service makes good law firms. In addition to providing sound legal advice, three areas in which law firms can enhance their services include providing a comfortable and professional office, a quality initial consultation, and personalizing the services being offered.

“Outsourced.”

It’s a word that for better or worse has definite value judgments attached to it. It conjures up images of call centres in remote corners of the world, and of jobs leaving for sunnier (and cheaper) climes.  RBC got itself a whole heap of bad publicity and angry customers last week, when word got out it was outsourcing a number of its IT roles to Indian firm iGate.

On April 4, the Federal Court of Canada approved the massive settlement of a class action in Manuge v. Canada, brought on behalf of disabled veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces. Since June 1976, the Federal Government had been deducting Pension Act disability payments from the amounts payable to veterans under their Service Income Security Insurance Plan LTD benefit plan. The loss of this income had a devastating effect on some class members of limited means and resulted in a substantial hardship to others.

Chapter 7 of Uta Hagen’s 1973 technical manual for the method actor, Respect for Acting, is devoted entirely to depicting the act of thinking. “Real thinking,” she wrote, “is active.”