Listserv

The Association has set up a national email discussion group devoted to criminal law for the benefit of its members and the discussions on-going on this mail group are both lively and informative. This is a member only service. There is the MAIN Listserv (open to all CLA members), as well as a Recent Call Listserv (open to CLA members in their first seven years of practice).

Note, members are only allowed ONE email address to be subscribed to the Listserv. This cannot be a shared email address – only current eligible CLA members can have access to the Listserv and its messages.

To administer your CLA Listserv settings visit:

http://clamail.ca (redirects to http://clamail.gaggle.email/).

• The CLA uses Gaggle email for its Listserv service.
• Click “sign in” at the top right of the page IF you are ALREADY subscribed to the Listserv. Access information to the Listserv site is NOT the same as your access to the main CLA members only site as the Listserv is a 3rd party operator. If you cannot remember your access information, please enter your Listserv email and click “forgot password?”

Join the MAIN CLA Listserv:

To activate the MAIN CLA Listserv – send an email to support@criminallawyers.ca requesting activation with the subject line “MAIN CLA Listserv subscription request.”

Join the RECENT CALL CLA Listserv:

To activate the RECENT CALL CLA Listserv – send an email to support@criminallawyers.ca requesting activation with the subject line “RECENT CALL CLA Listserv subscription request.”

How to Create a Website Link on Your Home Screen for easy Listserv Access:

Want to respond directly to a Listserv sender versus the entire Listserv?

As a Listserv, the service is designed to build discussion threads and create a history of discussions for members to use as reference materials. We do appreciate there are instances when Listserv users will not want to respond to ALL. Please note the following:

1. When a user hits “reply” to a Listserv message, it will ONLY go to the individual recipient you are responding to.
2. If you want to send a message to the ENTIRE Listserv, please hit “reply all”
3. Please continue to check the recipient list BEFORE sending any message to help ensure you are sending to the correct person and/or audience.

A reminder of several best practices:

• Hit reply if your response only needs to be seen/viewed by the individual participant. Note, individual replies are NOT captured in the Listserv archive.
• Hit reply all if your response warrants and benefits multiple Listserv participants. Note, responses using “reply all” are captured in the Listserv archive.
• If you mistakenly send a message to the ENTIRE Listserv, please note the CLA office cannot recall the message from participant in-boxes, but we CAN remove messages from the archive. Please email support@criminallawyers.ca should you need a message mistakenly sent to the entire Listserv removed from the Archive.
• Reminder to familiarize yourself with the Listserv code of conduct by going to https://criminallawyers.ca/members-only/listserv/
• Please note, when posting or commenting on the listserv, your messages or comments has been posted once you click on the Post button.  To avoid excessive emails you will not receive a copy of your own messages or comments.
• When including attachments with messages, please name the attachments so they reflect the content related to. This will enable the Listserv “search” function to better locate documents shared.
• When doing searches on the Listserv, please be specific. Search outcomes are impacted on how the search is entered. For example, if you are looking for messages related to drunk driving and you enter the  search as:
  • “Drunk Driving” – more than 1,000 items will come up as it searches for all messages with either/both words entered.
  • “Drunk” – 200+ items will come up and it will only search for that specific word.
  • “Drunk+Driving” – 65+ items will come up as it will only search for messages that contain both words.
• If you haven’t received postings from the listserv, please go to clamail.ca, login and click on your name in the top right corner.  Click on change email settings.  Under preferred addresses, please click on the verify button next to your email address.  Then go to your inbox with the subject line “Verify your email address (action required)”.  Open the email and click on the link to verify.

What can you do if a message is accidently sent to the entire Listserv?

Contact the CLA office ASAP during business hours at info@criminallawyers.ca. We can remove the message from the website to ensure it cannot be viewed online at a later date. However, we are not able to retract messages that have already been sent and landed in subscriber email boxes. Always use caution as a best practice.

How do you place a vacation hold on your Listserv Account?

The new CLA Listserv enables you to control your own settings, including halting delivery during vacations. Please go to http://clamail.ca and log in to update your profile — specifically “change email settings.” Change your settings to “pause” for when you do not want to receive Listserv messages to your email. Update to “instant” or “daily digest” when you want to resume.

Criminal Lawyers’ Association (CLA) Listserv Conditions of Use & Code of Conduct

By participating in the listservs maintained by the Criminal Lawyers’ Association (CLA), whether by sending, receiving or reading messages, or being involved in the listserv in any other manner, I agree to the following:

1. I will not send, re-send or disseminate any material that is defamatory or otherwise actionable;
2. I will keep the contents of all messages that are distributed on the listservs confidential, and will not share the contents of messages with any person who is not a member of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association.  I understand that the other members of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association rely on my undertaking as a fellow solicitor and member of the Law Society of Ontario to maintain confidentiality in their decision to use the listservs;
3. I acknowledge that it would be impractical and undesirable for all the CLA listservs to be moderated, censored or controlled by the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, its employees, officers or directors or any other third party.  I agree that I will therefore be solely responsible for the contents of any message I send or disseminate, and agree that I am not relying on the Criminal Lawyers’ Association or any other person to monitor, edit or control the messages that I choose to send or receive;
4. I will hold the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, and its directors, officers, members, employees, agents and service-providers (collectively, the “CLA”) harmless and will fully indemnify the CLA in respect of any legal demands, proceedings or claims, brought against the CLA by any party, including but not limited to indemnifying the CLA for all legal costs on a full indemnity basis incurred in responding to or dealing with any such claim or demand, (a) in respect of any message I send, re-send or disseminate, or (b) which arise from a failure on my part to keep the contents of any message confidential as set out above;
5. I will not institute legal proceedings of any type against the CLA, in respect of any message that is published on the listservs;
6. I will not institute legal proceedings of any type against any member of Criminal Lawyers’ Association in respect of any message that is published on the listservs except, and only to the extent it is necessary, to enforce the indemnification provisions set out in paragraph 4 above;
7. I will abide by the Code of Conduct
8. Conditions of Use (1-7) Apply to all CLA listserv services.

Code of conduct FOR THE MAIN LISTSERV

• To participate in the Main Listserv your signature must include your first and last name as identifiers;
• The Main Listserv is meant solely for: discussion about current legal issues relevant to criminal law and inquiries relevant to the practice of criminal law;
• Personal attacks on other members are not permitted;
• Off-topic comments, postings or statements are not permitted;
• Inquiries about judges and crowns are permitted but replies to these inquiries must be made directly to the member seeking the information;
• Inquiries with respect to obtaining recommendations with respect to lawyers in other practice areas or geographic locations are permitted but replies to these inquiries must be made directly to the member seeking the information;
• Requests for agency appearances are permitted but replies to these inquiries must be made directly to the member seeking the assistance;
• Job postings, notices, and offering of services related to criminal law work are permitted on the Main Listserv but replies to these inquiries must be made directly to the member offering the position(s);
• Members shall not incite others to violate this Code of Conduct or to participate in unlawful activities;
• Members are prohibited from “spamming” (the sending of unsolicited or junk e-mail on the Internet). This includes offering sports tickets, concert tickets or any other products not related to the business or practice of law;
• Non-CLA CPD events and legal publications or materials may be promoted on the Main Listserv with email approval from the Executive Director of the CLA;
• Members shall only utilize language that would be considered appropriate when appearing as counsel in a criminal courtroom. Profanity, swearing, or name-calling is absolutely prohibited;
• Members shall not campaign or endorse members for CLA executive/director positions except during periods when members are notified that campaigning is permitted on the Main Listserv;
• Members shall not engage in political campaigning for any party;
• Discussions and campaigning with respect to LSO elections is permitted;
• Members are encouraged to avoid posts that are not of assistance to the discussions (e.g. “agreed”, “please reply all”, “test”, jokes, etc.) and/or not of relevance to the other members of the Main Listserv;
• Members are expected to consider whether or not a post is of interest or relevance to the entire membership before posting items to the entire Main Listserv or when using the “reply-all” function;
• Members shall not post on behalf of non-members of the CLA. When posting on behalf of another CLA member, the full name of that member must be identified.

PROHIBITED CONDUCT FOR ALL CLA LISTSERVS Code of Conduct

The CLA reserves the right to terminate, without prior notice, access to the online discussion listservs by any member who does not abide by the Codes of Conduct and Conditions of Use for the CLA listservs.

The CLA reserves the right to revoke a member’s participation privileges in any listserv for any postings deemed by the CLA to be offensive or otherwise in contravention of the Conditions of Use or Listserv Codes of Conduct.

Prohibited conduct for all CLA listservs includes:

• Members shall not falsely impersonate anyone;
• Postings that may be libelous or defamatory;
• Postings that are racist, homophobic, sexist, transphobic, or otherwise bigoted or derogatory remarks or jokes that are likely to be offensive to other people;
• Postings that are threatening, injurious, bullying, or which may constitute or further any criminal offence;
• Postings that are inappropriate to the professional objectives of the CLA listservs;
• Postings that involve name calling and/or abusive conduct;
• Postings that could be harmful to the reputation of the CLA; however, this does not include criticisms of the CLA organization.

OMBUDSPERSONS

The Main Listserv discussion group shall have two volunteer Ombudspersons, selected by the Executive Committee in-camera on an as-needed basis. Ombudspersons will utilize email accounts that only identify them as Ombudspersons.

An Ombudsperson has the right in his/her/their sole discretion to edit or delete inappropriate postings when applicable. Members are encouraged to bring to the attention of an Ombudsperson the existence of an offending post.

A single Ombudsperson may decide to temporarily remove a person, warn the person, or take any other action necessary to enforce the Codes of Conduct and Conditions of Use. The Ombudsperson will temporarily remove or temporarily suspend a person (and removal of post in question) by notifying the Executive Director of the CLA.

Ombudspersons may be appointed for any other CLA listservs at the discretion of the Communications Committee.

The CLA does not pre-screen or filter member e-mails posted to the CLA listservs or discussion groups. The CLA relies upon members to ensure that their listserv or discussion group submissions are appropriate.

SUSPENSION OF DISCUSSION GROUP OR LISTSERV PRIVILEGES

The CLA may, in its discretion, suspend or give a member notice that their rights in regard to all or a specific CLA listserv may be suspended or impose conditions on any member’s privileges for any breaches of the Conditions of Use or Codes of Conduct and provide the user the opportunity to show good reason why such a penalty should not be imposed. A decision regarding such a penalty shall be made by the Listserv Committee (which will include two board members and the Executive Director of the CLA), who acts in their discretion with such consultation with CLA staff and volunteers as they see fit. There will be no reasons for the final decision given and no appeal of that finding. The decision of the Listserv Committee is final.