Sweet Sixteen

January 26, 2015

By Kelly Laycock

In honour of our popular newsletter Case Mail completing its 16th year in publication, the Library thought it might be time for a bit of a redesign. Nothing crazy, just a few tweaks to help it change and grow with the times, like swapping Adam West for Christian Bale. (Batman really has nothing to do with Case Mail, but I hope you can appreciate the blatant attempt to associate our newsletter with something exciting and powerful! BLAM!) . While we don’t swear revenge on criminals in every case, we do promise our digests will continue to be of the high quality you’ve come to expect. POW!

If you aren’t familiar, Case Mail is our semi-monthly online newsletter that highlights recent case digests from all three levels of Saskatchewan Court. The digests are written by our talented digesters, who receive recent cases from the courts and masterfully summarize the details so that you can get the big picture without reading through the numerous written decisions that come out each month. The Library staff then enters these digests into our Cases Search database, which eventually feeds into our newsletter that you all enjoy so much! It can be up to a two-month-long process, depending on how many judgments come from the courts at any time.

We are aiming to release the first Case Mail with the new look early in 2015. Keep an eye out for that!

We need your help!

Along with the updated look, we are also planning a Special Edition of Case Mail three times a year, starting in May 2015. The focus of these special editions will be to highlight Saskatchewan cases that have come out in the previous 12 months that have received higher than normal levels of attention. Our intent is to bring together as much outside media these cases have received as possible, such as comments and articles in journals, blog posts and other law-related media, and to provide links to all of these resources in one convenient place.

And this is where you come in! We have identified two possible formats for these new editions:

1. By Level of Court – Each newsletter would focus on a different level of court: Court of Appeal, Court of Queen’s Bench, and Provincial Court. With this model, the subject matter would be a diverse cross-section of the important cases at each level of court.
2. By Subject – Each newsletter would focus on a different area of law: Corporate & Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Family Law, Litigation, Real Estate, and Wills & Estates. With this model, all levels of court would be included in each edition, but only three distinct areas of law would be focussed on in any year.

• If you prefer number 2, then which subjects would our members most like to read first? Send me your top three choices! If I’ve missed a category above, be sure to let me know.

Leave your comments and preferences in the Comments area below, or email me at klaycock@lawsociety.sk.ca. We look forward to streamlining this new publication to suit the needs of our members!