News

Debt Recovery in Alberta
I am currently working with two others to write a book on creditors’ remedies in Alberta. My co-authors are Tamara Buckwold, a professor of law at the University of Alberta and Renée Cochard, Q.C., a lawyer in practice in Edmonton. The tentative title is Debt Recovery in Alberta: Commentary on the Civil Enforcement Act and Related Statutes. The publication date is late 2009 or early 2010. Besides the Civil Enforcement Act, the book will cover statutes relevant to fraudulent conveyances and preferences and the special remedies available in matrimonial actions.


Is Charles Dickens Too Hard on Lawyers?
Charles Dickens published Bleak House in monthly instalments from March 1852 to September 1853. Ever since, the novel has puzzled lawyers and amused everyone else because of its savage attack on the legal system. Lawyers are shown as pretentious windbags, power-hungry monsters, or vampires preying on unsuspecting and innocent clients. The Lord Chancellor, the principal judge of the Court of Chancery, is indifferent to the misery of the people who appear before him. These criticisms were common in the nineteenth century and can be heard today. However, they puzzle lawyers who see their job as seeking compromise, a goal often frustrated by clients who want to litigate even the weakest of cases. Judges accept their responsibility to do fair, courteous and expeditious justice according to the law. There is evidently a dispute between Dickens and the legal profession as to what lawyers and judges do and how they act.

I have started working on an article on this magnificent but troubling novel. I could use your advice. What do you think about Bleak House? Is it fair to lawyers in the Victorian period or today? Or maybe this is the wrong question to ask about the novel which may not be about the law but about something else, for example, people’s desire to fight rather than to compromise. I’d like to hear your views. My e-mail address is dick@dickdunloplaw.com


Exemption of Future Income Plans
In earlier versions of this page, I noted my involvement in a study by the Alberta Law Reform Institute on the exemption of future income plans from creditors' remedies. That study resulted in Final Report No. 91, Exemption of Future Income Plans and Final Report No. 92, Exemption of Future Income Plans on Death. Both can be viewed on the Institute website or hard copies can be obtained by mail:

Alberta Law Reform Institute
402 Law Centre, University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H5

Call: (780) 492-5291
Fax: (780) 492-1790
E-mail: reform@alri.ualberta.ca
Website: http://www.law.ualberta.ca/alri/

The two reports were forwarded to the government of Alberta but have not yet been acted on.


Reform of the Alberta Rules of Court
The Institute is nearing the end of its major review of the Alberta Rules of Court. The current version of the proposed new Rules is on the Institute’s website. The Institute thinks that it will complete the last of its new draft Rules of Court by July, 2007. The draft then goes to the Rules of Court Committee created under the Court of Queen’s Bench Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. C-31. That committee reviews the Institute draft, approves or modifies it and recommends its promulgation to the responsible Minister. It is unlikely that the new Rules will become law before 2008 or 2009.

Future Plans
In the near future, I will be adding articles, case notes, book reviews, links and other news.

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