The Lawyers Weekly - June 1, 2012

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
June 1, 2012 | 21

BUSINESS
CAREERS

Ever wonder how easy it is to research people using the Internet?

“Several years ago, default
privacy settings on social net-
working sites were set to no pri-
vacy,” says Brian Vail, an Edmon-
ton-based partner at Field Law.
“It was a gold mine.”
A gold mine, that is, for litiga-
tors who research people involved
in their matters. Opposing cli-
ents, their own clients, opposing
counsel, jurors, witnesses,
judges — the Internet can provide
invaluable information on them

LUIGI
BENETTON

all to search-savvy lawyers, much of it coming from the subjects themselves and their social network posts.

Omar Ha-Redeye believes
researching opposing counsel is
becoming the norm. “Every time
I open a file, I get hits on my web-
site from the opposing counsel
firm’s IP address.”
Try the following tips on
searching the web for useful
information on people involved
in your cases.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Daniel E. Pinnington
Raymond G. Leclair

Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company
Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company

The LAWPRO Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Susan T. McGrath as Chair of the Board.

Since her call to the bar in 1979, Ms. McGrath has been a very active member of the legal community. She has served as president of her local law association, the Ontario Bar Association and the Canadian Bar Association. As well, she has contributed in many capacities on committees and task forces of these and other legal associations.

LAWPRO President & CEO Kathleen Waters announces the appointment of Daniel E. Pinnington as Vice-President of LAWPRO’s newly created Claims Prevention and Stakeholder Relations Department and Raymond G. Leclair as LAWPRO’s Vice-President, Public Affairs.

As a bencher of The Law Society of Upper Canada since 2007, Ms. McGrath has served on numerous Law Society committees dealing with issues such as access to justice, professional development and competence of the profession, government relations, and the Law Society’s compensation fund. She is well-respected for being an advocate for sole practitioners/small firm lawyers and those working in remote areas.

As director of practicePRO for the past 11 years, Mr. Pinnington built LAWPRO’s risk management program into one highly regarded within the legal community in Canada and the U.S.A. He has served in many roles at all levels of the Ontario, Canadian and American bar associations, and is a frequent speaker and writer on risk management, technology and law practice management issues.

Ms. McGrath currently practises as a sole practitioner based in Iroquois Falls.

Mr. Leclair joined LAWPRO in 2008 as Vice-President, TitlePLUS and in 2011 was appointed LAWPRO’s Vice-President, Public Affairs on an acting basis. He has served in senior capacities with the real property sections of the Ontario and Canadian bar associations, as well as representing the interests of the real estate bar on numerous task forces and working groups.

LAWPRO provides malpractice insurance and risk and practice management programs to more than 23,500 Ontario lawyers, and title insurance in all Canadian jurisdictions. LAWPRO’s TitlePLUS title insurance program is the only all-Canadian provider of title insurance in the market today.

name, company and professional interests (via LinkedIn groups) among other criteria.

Once you join, start building your network by connecting to people you know. Ha-Redeye says that between his 3,500 Facebook connections and 2,000 LinkedIn connections, he can get a good sense of social circles, political affiliations, and sometimes even hobbies for most people under 40 in Toronto, just by looking at connections they have in common. “Lawyers who don’t use social media simply will not be able to obtain these insights.

On Facebook, people post vacation photos and share details about their “club life and things they would not share in networks like LinkedIn,” says Monica Goyal, founder and CEO of online service My Legal Briefcase.

Caveat: Stuart Rudner, who works with HR professionals in employment law, advises them to take Facebook findings with a grain of salt. “You don’t always have control over what’s posted about you,” says the Markham, Ont.-based partner in Miller Thomson LLP’s labour and employment group.

Rudner says that, since Twitter is a fairly casual medium, lawyers can glean a tweeter’s family, hobbies, views on politics, business and so forth.

Twitter is not as popular as LinkedIn or Facebook. “There’s a certain class of people who use Twitter: tech people, media people, celebrities, business people,” Goyal says. She also says that tweeters may use aliases on Twitter, which makes their Twitter streams more difficult to find.

WestLaw, CanLII, QuickLaw (owned by LexisNexis, which also owns The Lawyers Weekly) — these and other such resources can offer information on people who will participate in litigation. For instance, lawyers can use these resources to learn how certain judges dealt with issues in the past, as well as the expertise and experience opposing counsel bring to the case.

Try online courthouse records,
where available. “I had one case
where my client rear-ended
somebody on a right turn at a
particular intersection,” Vail
recalls. “The plaintiff here was
also the plaintiff in 14 previous
cases, all rear-enders, all at that
intersection. This suggested that
the accident was staged and my
client was sucked into it.”
“I encourage my clients to
Google themselves before coming
to examinations for discovery or
court proceedings,” says Eric
Magraken, a Victoria -based
partner at MacIsaac & Company.
“Litigants need to know what
people can learn about them