Sarah A. Sutherland
@parallaxinfo.bsky.social
Digressions on the world, legal data, and information. Author of “Legal Data and Information in Practice” with Routledge Press. Humour may be attempted. Principal consultant at https://www.parallaxinformation.com/. 📍 Vancouver and Edinburgh
It's a bit early for the weekend, and the world may be in shambles, but we should enjoy the little things, and I just cited a Victorian sensation novel in my law thesis and feel like I have accomplished everything I need to for the week. (The Woman in White — I've always liked Collins.)
I'm pleased to share that my article "Hallucinated References, Government Reports, and Managing Your Citations" has been published in the most recent issue of BIALL (British and Irish Association of Law Librarians)'s Legal Information Management journal. (link in reply)
I am so happy that I got to contribute to a project analyzing TanzLII's impact this year. There's always room to grow and improve with any project, but scalable projects like this one and others developed by the Free Access to Law Movement , can reach so many and facilitate the work of others.
📚⚖️ Calling all law & politics nerds! I'm the new Book Review Editor at the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law — Canada's foremost (ok fine, ONLY) journal of its kind. Review a book, keep the book. That's it. Easy! Interested? unparliamentarybook@gmail.com
The LVI 2026 conference program is now online! en.lvi2026.org/explore-the-... Co-organized by CanLII and Lexum, in collaboration with FALM and the Chaire L.R. Wilson, with support from Legora, Harvey, and the Law Commission of Canada. Register today!
Programme LVI 2026 | IA, accès au droit et information juridique à Montréal
Consultez le programme de LVI 2026 à Montréal : conférences, panels et échanges sur l’IA, l’accès au droit et l’avenir de l’information juridique.
lvi2026.org
I'm looking forward to presenting at the Law Via the Internet Conference in Montreal with my collaborators Professor Makoto Nakamura and Professor Aki Shima on "Measuring Legal Distance: Mapping Japanese Civil Law to Quebec and British Columbia Legislation." en.lvi2026.org/explore-the-....
Program | LVI 2026 Conference | Montreal, Canada
Explore the LVI 2026 program in Montreal, October 12–14, 2026. View the full schedule including sessions, plenaries, workshops, and networking events with international legal information experts.
en.lvi2026.org
My article "New panic over old mistakes: Judicial sanctions and hallucinated citations" was recently republished in Australian Law Librarian journal. Do you think research errors that originate in AI systems are objectively different from others? search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/...
New panic over old mistakes: Judicial sanctions and hallucinated citations
search.informit.org
I'm in Toronto helping a law library plan for the future. I find this work meaningful. It's easy to focus on large institutions and trends like technological change, but small organizations make much of the daily work of justice flow more smoothly. I'm grateful I get to collaborate in this way.
“Human language produces an infinity of meaning from a handful of signs. Generative AI does the opposite. It takes in billions of words and ends up with a probabilistic middle.” feelingdigital.substack.com/p/let-ai-be-...
Let AI Be Weird
The Case Against Synthetic Sincerity
feelingdigital.substack.com
I've been thinking about the risk that computational AI models will conflate the law as written and integrated into computer systems with the law itself. This is one of the concerns at the core of my research, and I look forward to having more to share about it in the coming months!
According to @josephcox.bsky.social, companies running through AI tokens quickly is the result of people doing tasks like converting PDFs to slides. I wonder about law and how much they are willing to spend, when many firms still won't buy lawyers adequate computers. www.404media.co/the-tokenpoc...
The Tokenpocalypse Is Here: Companies Are Scrambling To Stop Spending So Much on AI
Leaked audio from Accenture says a big source of AI token ‘chewing’ is people just converting PDFs to presentation slides.
404media.co
I feel like I arrived as a legal scholar today: I asked ChatGPT for a reading list on a topic, and it recommended I consult my own book. *buffs nails on shirt*
Great idea Sarah and great work! CanLII's open collection of legal commentary is invaluable.
Sarah A. Sutherland@parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 3mo agoMy new pieces have been added to the updated CanLII ebook of my @slawdotca.bsky.social columns. The development of CanLII's open collection of legal commentary continues to be one of the things I am most proud of working on in my career, and I'm happy to continue to contribute. canlii.ca/t/smqs
My column "New Panic Over Old Mistakes: Judicial Sanctions and Hallucinated Citations" was published in Australian Law Librarian this week. search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3...
My new pieces have been added to the updated CanLII ebook of my @slawdotca.bsky.social columns. The development of CanLII's open collection of legal commentary continues to be one of the things I am most proud of working on in my career, and I'm happy to continue to contribute. canlii.ca/t/smqs
A new episode of "Paper Trail" is LIVE — this one is the backstory of @ctmirror.org's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into a towing industry scandal with an assist from @propublica.org's Local Reporting Network. I attempt a joke at the top. Be nice about it: www.propublica.org/podcast/conn...
How to Lose a Car in 15 Days
When two local reporters heard drivers were having their cars towed and then sold in as little as two weeks, they teamed up with ProPublica to investigate.
propublica.org
My Slaw column "Hallucinated References, Government Reports, and Managing Your Citations" has been republished in the most recent issue of American Association of Law Libraries' Spectrum Magazine: aallspectrum.aallnet.org/html5/reader... (at page 28).
New Panic Over Old Mistakes: Judicial Sanctions and Hallucinated Citations" — My latest @slawdotca.bsky.social column was published today: www.slaw.ca/2026/04/24/o...
I'm happy to see that my article "Demographics, Civil Law, or Something Else? Understanding the Lower Rate of Reported Legal Problems in Quebec" has been shared as today's Thursday Thinkpiece on @slawdotca.bsky.social: www.slaw.ca/2026/03/19/t....
Thursday Thinkpiece: Demographics, Civil Law, or Something Else? Understanding the Lower Rate of Reported Legal Problems in Quebec - Slaw
Periodically on Thursdays, we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher ...
slaw.ca
I really think that using generative AI applications for generating citations to support writing is problematic practice, especially when tools like exist that manage references so well. I wrote about this more in my most recent @slawdotca.bsky.social column: www.slaw.ca/2026/02/02/h...
Hallucinated References, Government Reports, and Managing Your Citations - Slaw
Given the high value placed on research excellence by legal professionals and consultants, I am surprised that stories continue to be reported about the lack of rigour exercised in the creation of wor...
slaw.ca
Oh hey @parlcharlie.bsky.social! I just saw an interesting article to read and then looked at who wrote it: "Going beyond repeal: a preliminary exploration of ‘unenacting’ legislation," doi-org.eux.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/slr/...
J’ai le plaisir de partager la publication de mon tout premier article dans une revue de droit : « Démographie, droit civil ou autre chose ? Comprendre le taux plus faible de signalements de problèmes juridiques au Québec » : www.lex-electronica.org/articles/vol...
I'm thrilled to share my first published law review article: "Demographics, Civil Law, or Something Else? Understanding the Lower Rate of Reported Legal Problems in Quebec." It was published in Lex Electronica, Centre de recherche en droit public (CRDP): www.lex-electronica.org/articles/vol...
I'm happy to be joining the program committee for the ICAIL Conference, which will be held at Singapore Management University Centre for Digital Law, June 8-12, 2026. Please send your conference proposals before January 31. The call for papers is here: site.smu.edu.sg/icail-2026#c....
ICAIL 2026 | SMU Microsites
site.smu.edu.sg
"This is the time of year when many people are getting unwelcome news about something…", so I thought I'd reshare my Slaw column on "Failure and What Comes Next": www.slaw.ca/2019/12/24/f....
There's one more day to make your Clawbie nominations, please let us know what Canadian legal blogs, podcasts, and social media accounts you've been paying attention to this year by posting here with the #clawbies2025 hashtag. The deadline is Dec. 15 (for more information: www.clawbies.ca).
It seems to me that if you really want to speak with your dead family members, you would be better off with a good medium than an LLM model.
John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 9mo agoYou know what, I have literally millions of words written over 40 years that could be compiled into an LLM representing "me" and still wouldn't come close to being me at all, your grandma's recorded history is confined to a bunch of extremely brief Facebook posts, how's that gonna go
.@jordanfurlong.com, @steveamatthews.bsky.social, and I spoke about the #clawbies2025 awards and the state of open legal publishing for one of @cba-news.bsky.social's Legal Futures Fireside Chats: www.cbapd.org/details_en.a.... (the video is free for CBA members and $25 for others)
The Canadian Bar Association : Amplifying Canadian Legal Voices: Examining the Role of the Annual Clawbie Awards (Recording)
Last year, it was predicted that 2025 would be “The Year of the Truth-Teller.” But for legal bloggers, what does that really mean for the profession and the clients it serves? Why do the Clawbies matter, and how do they help shape the conversation around legal issues in Canada?
cbapd.org
My new Slaw column "What Doesn’t Bore You Makes You a Scholar: On Picking a PhD Thesis Topic" was published today: "When starting a PhD thesis or other long piece of writing (any substantial intellectual project really), choosing the right topic is a significant part…" www.slaw.ca/2025/12/09/w...
What Doesn't Bore You Makes You a Scholar: On Picking a PhD Thesis Topic - Slaw
When starting a PhD thesis or other long piece of writing (any substantial intellectual project really), choosing the right topic is a significant part of whether the end result will be successful. Gr...
slaw.ca
