Bonnie Patrick*

Greetings from Windsor and welcome to Spring!

There is quite a bit of interesting content in this newsletter for you to read and share with your colleagues.  Again, I implore you that if you like what you read, let us know.  If you don’t like what you read, let us know.  If you want to write something that you want us to read, let us know.  If you would like to write the next “Greetings” for the next newsletter, let us know.  We aren’t proud people on this Section Executive.

In fact, we are wonderful people to work with and if anyone out there would like to join our Executive, the forms to do so were sent out at the end of March.  We meet approximately once a month, by phone, at 1:10 p.m. on a day convenient to the majority for approximately one hour.  If you would like to help out the Sole, Small Firm and General Practice Section please return the documentation you received to the OBA offices.  If you cannot find the nomination documentation, you can contact Peter Guennel (pguennel@oba.org) at the OBA for a copy or you can download a Section nomination form from the OBA website.

Our Section’s Annual General Meeting is coming up on 15 June 2006 at 5:30 p.m. at the offices of the OBA.  As of now, most of our members have agreed to be there...even those from the “regions”.  I promise to try and keep the meeting short and the networking over food and beverages afterwards as long as you would like it to be.  So check your calendars and if you can make it, we would love to have you attend.  You should be receiving information about this event soon!

Finally, the material presented by our Section at the Annual Institute 2006 (as well as the material presented at the Annual Institutes for 2004 and 2005) is on the OBA website.  We have now covered the topics of precedent retainers, to precedents to secure your costs and finally to a discussion and list of cases where costs were awarded against such Parties as the Crown, Children’s Aid Society, Family Responsibility Office, Administrative Tribunals, etc.  I encourage you to take a look at this material and you can do so by clicking here (link to Melville paper and link to James paper). 

And last, but not least your OBA is bringing the concerns of its members with respect to Bill 14, the one about regulating paralegals, or should I say “providers of legal services rather than persons who practice law” to the members of the provincial government.  If you have any comments or concerns, please share them with us.  The OBA is not opposed to regulating paralegals, as some would try to lead you to believe.  If you would like to read the position of the OBA follow this link.  There has been a lot of work put into this submission and I suggest you take a look to see what will happen if the legislation, which your Law Society approved, passes in the form it now exists and what the OBA is trying to do to ensure that the interests of the lawyers in this province are protected once this Bill becomes law by requesting amendments to it at Committee.

* Bonnie Patrick, Goulin Patrick, Chair, OBA Sole, Small Firm and General Practice Section.