User Preferences, Experiments and thè Question of thè Initiative in automated Law Retrìeval in Canada

AutoreEjan Mtckaay
CaricaProfessar of law ai thè University of Montreal
Pagine1-19

Page 1

    Text of a presentation given at thË Institute for Data Processing and Law- (IDR) of thË GMD at Schloss Birlinghovenª Germany on thË 25th of April 1977.

@1. Introduction

The topic of this presentation is an overview of ‡utomated law retrieval Page 2 in Canada and some guesses about its future.. The reason for choosing this generai subject rather than a more technical one for presentation to such a specialised audience as is assembled here, is that a recent event in English Canada has considerably modified thË outlook for this field as a whole. I am referring to thË acquisition by Canada Law Book of a signi-ficant interest in Q/L Systems Ltd and its pian to con•ert major case law series into a computer bank and to offer a self-ser•Ãce on this bank to thË practicing profession. This removes thË copyright barrier which so-far has been a serious impediment to Q/L Systems in its attempts to offer a realistic service to lawyers. It also puts behind this enterprise thË commerciai talent and established dient rektions of one of CanadaJs chief law publishers, I am convinced that this developinent along with thË creation of thË Canadian Law Information Council and thË SociÈtÈ quÈ-bÈcoise d'information juridique will lead thË substantial innovation in, and improvement of, thË documentation flow to Canadian lawyers. WithinPage 3this largef perspective, it has furthermore considerably brightened thË out-look for automated law retrieval in our country, .which is thË area that interests us here.

To appreciate this development one has to know a bit about our docu-mentation problem: we do not have a tradition of hook publishing - and purchasing for that matter - of thË variety and depth that yeti have known so far in Germany. This morning I foond at a bookstore in Bonn over four hook cases filled with currently available books in German on virtuali? ali legai subjects under thË -sun. Note that these were generally different books, not sets of a hundred or so copies of thË same text book used by university students. Such an experience is totally unthinkable in a comparable city in Canada, say Ottawa, or even in Montreal or Toronto. We -should be lucky if ali- Canadian legai texts - excluding case law series - published or republished since 1970 fili even three bookshelves.

We will therefore start with a brief overview of thË Canadian documentation situation. This will allow us to see thË interest shown in thË late 1960s for automated law retrieval in Canada and thË reason for universi ties to assume a role in developing this field which well exceeds that of their American counterparts. We will then follow thË evolution of thË two major retrieval systems - DATUM and Q/L Systems - since they left thË university environment in 1973, A concluding section looks into what is in store now in automated law retrieval and assesses thË anticipateci trends in thË light of thË generai development of legai documentation in our country.

@2. The Documentation Problem in Canada: a Brief Overview

The outstanding features of thË Canadian documentation problem are that there are two legai traditions - civil law for most private law subjects in Quebec, common law for other matters and for ali areas in thË ofher nine, English speaking province? - and two legai languages - French only in Quebec - and that our legai market is relatively meagre, at least so say our law publishers. Overall English Canada has some 15,000 lawyers, of which 60% work in Ontario alone. Quebec has some 6,000 lawyers and 2,000 notaries. Distances are enormous: frÛm. Halifax - in thË far East - to Victoria - West coast - is farther than frani Halifax to Frankfurt, which is meant to show you that telecommunications are one of our major preoccupations.

Operation Compulex and a study Jacques Boucher and I published for Quebec1 give a good generai view of how this profession documentsPage 4 irseli, Let me briefly summarise thË interesting findings, Research occupies at best 20% of thË lawyer's rime; of this amount only a third, or less than 7%, i.e. between two and three hours a week, go into retrieving references, thË function information systems hope to alleviate, Vatiation exists according to thË size of thË law office, with thË smaller ones doing less research, thË larger ones more and government lawyers and judges more stili. Most practitioners prefer to do research in their office library, thË smaller even more so, than thË larger ones. Presumably this reflects in part thË fact that public libraries in thË outlying regions, where many of thË smaller - but no larger - offices are located? are incomplete at best, non-existent more often.. The'content of thË libraries varies again according to office size, with what one should consider to be mini-mally complete collections existing only in thË large offices in ali instances. Most lawyers delegate some research to younger colleagues or students, but thË possibility to do so is very-slight in small offices, substantial in thË large ones. ¿mong thË sources consulted, one linds that case law is first, followed by statutes and doctrine (handbooks) and finally by orders and regulations (delegated legistation). The. very low ranking of this last source depends no doubt to ? a large extent on thË appalling problems of accessibility. No systematic, up-to-date compilations of these documents are published and thË rale-of-thumb is that to.keep up-to-date one has to have thË proper connections in government departments, an approach which, of course, is viable onlv for limited (specialised) fields.. With regard to thË other sources it should be noted that outlying regions and smaller offices rely more on doctrine and since - at least in Quebec -this source was aging at thË time of thË survey, this must be considered a move by these 'hard pressed groups to save time and to avoid thË cost of purchasing more complete series, at thË expense.of research quality. Such a philosophy is, of course? only viable as long as ali members of thË community or region adopt thË same attÏtude (research standard),

As a result of thË survey one.can identify several groups of practitioners with relatively homogeneous research habits, The least privileged are thË small offices in out-lying regions, Next are thË small offices in ? thË big cities,. who at least potentially have access to good public libraries and student help. ¿fter this we find, in climbing order of quality in research facilities, thË medium and large offices, ali of them in maior cities/ The degree of specialisation runs roughly parallel to this order, Further groups are government lawyers and judges. With regard to thË first group their seems to be no serious research problem as needs are specialised and thË corresponding documentation, as well as decent libraries, well within reach. Judges do a great deal of research and appreciate documentary help (thË? are now among thË most eager users* of D¿TUM), but depend entirely on government financing for this purpose. Given these distinc-tions? one would expect that among thË largest segment of thË professioo, thË private practitioners, thË greatest- need for automated retrieval - andPage 5 other documentary improvements - and its most ready acceptance would be observed among thË smaller offices, while thË most specialised needs and thË most criticai examin'ation of new ventures would occur within thË large offices. Of course, thË latter group, because of greater resources a•ailable for documentation, would nevertheless be among thË more desi-rable clients from a commerciai point of view.

Throughout Canada legai documentation is published in differing propor-tions by commerciai? publishers, governments - both federai- and provincial - and University presses. In English Canada thË major private publishers are Canada Law Book, Carswell-Methuen, Butterworths and Richard de Boo (in Toronto) and Maritime Law Book Publishers (in Fredericton, N. B.). In Quebec one has Wilson & Lafleur, Editions -FM LtÈe. and recently, GuÈrin ed. Virtually every University has its Press and most Law Faculties have their Law Review, If one looks at publica-tions by type, it is obvious that in thË area of thË* Statutes (¿cts of Par-liament), thË principal role is assumed by governments: they published thË Revised Statutes (an officiai consolidation, renewed about every twenty-five years) and thË Annual Statutes, as they come out. Private publishers generally limit their role to bringing out up-dated versions of statutes which are in great demand (for instance in thË taxation and labour law fields) as well as annotated codes and -statutes.

In thË area of case law, thË Queen's Printer for Canada publishes thË Supreme and Federai Court Reports. Many of these cases appear also in thË largest case reporter published by Canada Law Book, thË Dominion Law Reports. Overlap is a significant problem, or advantage, as thË publishers seem to believe, of this collection, in which barely 20% of thË cases do not appear in at least one other reporter. Canada Law Book also publishes other, regional collections such as Ontario Law Reports or specialised ones such as Canadian Criminal cases. Carswell publishes Western Weekly Reports, Until recently thË Maritime provinces (thË East of Canada) saw their collections gradually die out, but since about 1970 Maritime Law Book seems to have turned thË tide by publishing three collections for this region, It uses typing and photo-offset so as to- reduce thË cost of thË operation, which serves only a few hundred subscribers in each case. While initiatives such as these -help to create regional balance in thË choice of cases to be published, thË Western and Maritime provinces complain that thË ´ national ¶>> reporters, originating as they do in Ontario and catering foremost to this, thË most ´ juicy ª part of thË market, do not give adequate coverage of thË jurisprudence from their regions. One of thË tasks thË CLIC - Canadian...

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