I am a U.S. trained and licensed attorney going through the arduous process of becoming licensed in Ontario. The next step in the process for me is sitting for three exams in January–Evidence, Admin., and Con. Law. I haven’t yet received the syllabi from the National Committee on Accreditation. My last exam was is 1996 so my study skills are a bit rusty, to say the least…
Anyway, I have several questions and any thoughts from Canadian lawyers will be greatly appreciated:
I’m only going to have about 7 or 8 weeks to study for these exams–what are your suggestions for how to approach this?
What are people talking about when they talk about indices? Are these subject outlines? What is their purpose?
Ideally, how much time should I spend per week per subject studying? I work full time so I will only have evenings and weekends.
Are there special study guides for these exams? If so, where can I find them?
Any other thoughts, suggestions, horror stories?
What is the form of the exam? Several short essays or a couple of long essays? I assume a fact pattern is presented and then specific questions asked.
Do people generally pass on the first go?
I’ve googled a lot of this stuff but still feel like I’m completely in the dark so all suggestions, comments, insights, etc. are very much appreciated.
I’m afraid I can’t provide any help on the questions about the exam process, since the exam process for foreign lawyers is different from the bar ad process for law students already in the country. The exams you’re taking are run by the Federation of Law Societies, while the bar ad courses for resident students are run by the individual Law Societes of each province.
I would think the most important thing is to get the syllabii as quickly as you can and use them as study guides.
However, I am pretty familiar with the three areas you mention, and also have some book-learning about the US legal system, so if you have general questions, feel free to ask.
The standard text for constitutional law is Hogg, Canadian Constitutional Law - two volumes loose-leaf, or a one volume paperback student edition. Many of our Charter provisions have been interpreted similarly to Bill of Rights provisions, but there are some differences. Our federalism is quite different from yours, since the basic principle is that the Constitution Act 1867 allocates all legislative authority between the federal Parliament and the provincial Legislatures. As well, federal and provincial legislative jurisdiction is exclusive. Perhaps the biggest single difference from the US system in the specific allocation of legislative powers is that criminal law is an area of exclusive federal jurisdiction.
I would imagine that you’ll find evidence pretty similar, since Canada and the US both are common law systems. Wigmore is a respected authority up here. I think that the biggest difference between our evidence law and the US is that we’re more case-law oriented. Our Evidence Acts are not codes of evidence. Some provisions are legislative re-statements of a particular principle derived from cases, some provisions are changes to the common law principles, but a lot of evidence is still based on case-law.
Admin law is probably the area that is the most different from US. It’s derived primarily from case-law, not statute law, based on the courts’ inherent jurisdiction to supervise administrative tribunals. Some provinces have passed admin law statutes, others haven’t - but the general principles are much the same. Federal admin law is based on the same general principles as provincial admin law.
And a link to the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada. It’s not complete, but all major recent decisions (past 15 years) are likely there.
And here’s a link to the Canada Evidence Act. This is the federal Evidence Act, which applies to criminal prosecutions and civil matters under federal jurisdiction. Each of the provinces has an evidence act which applies to matters under provincial jurisdiction, but at a guess, I would imagine the Federation uses the federal Act for its accreditation course. The provincial acts are similar in some respects, but I know that there is also considerable variation from province to province, so I would expect the Federation would just use the federal Act as its standard.