The University of Exeter Law School

Yesterday two of our lawyers and instructors, Liran Kandin and Tiffany Sillanpää, spoke at the University of Exeter Law School. We had such a wonderful time speaking to budding law students. Special thanks to Professor Sue Prince for organizing the evening. We look foward to more collaborative events in the future.

Use HigherEdPoints to pay for your studies!

Students have the opportunity to exchange their Aeroplan, TD, CIBC Aventura, and/or Amex rewards for funds that can be applied to courses and study materials offered by NCA Tutor by using the HigherEdPoints program. The program also allows family, friends, and donors to contribute their rewards to assist students.

To get started, all you need to do is register for a free membership account with HigherEdPoints at https://secure.higheredpoints.com/register/ and redeem your points for HigherEdPoints education credit. After redeeming your points, you can return to your HigherEdPoints membership account and follow the instructions to transfer the funds to NCA Tutor. Once the transfer is completed, your funds will be made available for use with NCA Tutor.

For more information, please visit HigherEdPoints website here: https://www.higheredpoints.com/

NCA Fee Changes

The NCA operates with a cost recovery approach and need to adjust their fees as needed to account for changes in expenses. Therefore, the following fees will be changing:

NCA Exams - The registration fee for each NCA exam, starting with exams in April 2023, will be $550 CAD plus taxes, and this change will take effect on February 13, 2023.

NCA Exam Cancellation - As of March 1, 2023, cancelling an NCA exam will carry a fee of $100.

NCA Exam Appeals - The fee for appealing NCA exam results remains at $250 CAD, inclusive of taxes.

NCA Assessments - The fee for NCA assessments will increase to $500 CAD plus taxes, effective March 1, 2023.

Fixed interest rates with Windmill Microlending

Despite the increase in inflation and many newcomers being negatively impacted by the rising loan rates and cost of living. Helping newcomers succeed professionally in Canada is Windmill Microlending's main goal. Windmill values giving all newcomers the chance and the self-assurance to get jobs that fit their qualifications and experience including your dreams of becoming an accreditted Canadian lawyer.

One of the ways Windmill is making this possible is by offering all new loans at a fixed interest rate of 5.95% for the entire loan duration.

Windmill loans will continue to be available and inexpensive for newcomers because of the unprecedented below-prime rate cap on the loan. An interest rate that is fixed for the duration of the loan guarantees stable payments, which enhances financial management comfort.

NCA Tutor has frozen our course fees for the past couple of years and will continue to maintain these low rates despite the increase in operating costs. We will also continue to offer early bird discount prices to the first 7 registrants for each course giving our students further savings in their mission to successfully become accreditted Canadian lawyers. NCA tutor course and study materials are pre-approved expenses with Windmill Microlending!

For more information on Windmill Microblending loans, please visit their website: https:https://windmillmicrolending.org/

Which NCA elective exam is better to write?

Which NCA elective exam is better to write? Property, contracts, civil procedure, torts, tax, commercial?

This is an excellent question and the answer will vary depending on your objective. For example, some students may wish to simply choose the ‘easiest’ elective. However, figuring out which of the exams are ‘easy’ is not necessarily clear or easy to do as the level of difficulty can be an entirely subjective experience. Students who enjoy a particular subject, may find the content easier to study than a subject they dislike. For this reason, we suggest you choose an objective criteria to narrow down the subject of interest.

Pick an area of law that you wish to practise some day.

If there’s a specific area of interest, why not learn that subject now? You may find that you don’t actually like the subject and it will save you a lot of headache down the road.

Pick a subject that may advance your preparation for the bar exams.

If you’re writing the Ontario barrister and solicitor exams or the BC bar exams or perhaps you’re taking CPLED, choose topics that overlap the content in those exams. For example, the Ontario barrister exam has a very large section on Civil Litigation. You can cover much of this subject in the NCA civil procedure exam.

NCA Exam results have been released!

Results from the September 2022 exam session are now available for the following exams:

  • Civil Procedure
  • Administrative Law
  • Contracts

Make sure you head straight to the NCA portal to find out how you did. Please find the link to the portal here: https://ncaportal.flsc.ca/CandidatePortal/Login.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Please remember to email us if you worked with one of our lawyers on these exams. We’re anxiously awaiting your results.

Congratulations to everyone who passed the exam!

NCA updates Contracts and Foundations of Canadian Law Syllabus - 2022

Important Notice - The NCA just updated the Contracts and Foundations of Canadian Law Syllabus. The Foundations of Canadian Law update only removes the "Robin Maynard, “Arrested (In)justice: From the streets to the prison” in Policing Black Lives" article.

You can find the Contracts (2022) and Foundations of Canadian Law (2022) syllabus on the NCA Website or you can download the 2022 version of the Foundations of Canadian Law notes here.

NCA Exam results have been released!

Results from the August 2022 exam session are now available for the following exams:

  • Business Organizations
  • Canadian Criminal Law
  • Canadian Professional Responsibility
  • Remedies
  • Taxation

Make sure you head straight to the NCA portal to find out how you did. Please find the link to the portal here: https://ncaportal.flsc.ca/CandidatePortal/Login.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Please remember to email us if you worked with one of our lawyers on these exams. We’re anxiously awaiting your results.

Congratulations to everyone who passed the exam!

Upcoming informational webinar: Understanding the Canadian Student Financing Landscape

Are you an internationally-trained lawyer thinking about re-qualifying as a lawyer in Canada? Are you looking for financing options? We know the number of financing options available is large and confusing. Join Windmill Microlending's upcoming informational webinar where they share the different options, they have available to you.

NCA Tutor is a Windmill partner and all of our courses and study materials are pre-approved expenses for Windmill loans.

To register for the webinar please visit one of the links below:

 

For domestic students born outside Canada:

Register to attend

Tuesday, September 13, 2022 at 7:00PM EST, 5:00PM MST, 4:00PM PST

Register to attend

Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 12:00PM EST, 10:00AM MST, 9:00AM PST

 

For students born in Canada:

Register to attend

Tuesday, September 13, 2022 at 3:00PM EST, 1:00PM MST, 12:00PM PST

Register to attend

Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 1:30PM EST, 11:30AM MST, 10:30AM PST

NCA Exam results have been released!

Foundations of Canadian Law and Constitutional Law results have been released!

Congratuations to everyone that has passed their exam. Please remember to e-mail us your results. We are anxiously awaiting all of your replies.

For all of you who are now done with the NCA process, please do keep in touch and let us know which area of law you end up practicing in.

Congrtulations once again!

The Supreme Court restores an Alberta man’s acquittal for attacking a woman while in a state of automatism.

Matthew Brown drank wine and took "magic mushrooms" at a party in Calgary, Alberta on January 12, 2018. Psilocybin, an illegal drug that can produce hallucinations, which is found in mushrooms. Mr. Brown lost his sense of reality, fled the party, and physically assaulted a woman inside a nearby residence. As a result of the incident, the woman has lasting injuries. When Brown broke into another house, the residents alerted the authorities. Brown claimed he had no recollection of the events.

Brown faces charges of aggravated assault, breaking and entering, and property damage. He had no prior criminal record or mental illness background.

Brown pleaded not guilty to the allegations of "automatism" throughout his trial. When someone claims to have lost entire control of himself due to intoxication or impairment, this is known as automatism.

The Crown contended that Brown could not use automatism as a defense because section 33.1 of the Criminal Code prohibits using automatism as a defense for offenses involving assault or interference with another person's bodily integrity.

Mr. Brown stated that section 33.1 of the Criminal Code violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms' sections 7 and 11(d). Section 7 ensures that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of the person, whereas section 11(d) ensures that everyone is deemed innocent until proven guilty. Brown was acquitted after the judge agreed with him. The Crown appealed to the Alberta Court of Appeal, which upheld Brown's conviction. He subsequently took his case to Canada's Supreme Court.

The acquittal has been reinstated by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court heard this case with R. v. Sullivan, and the decisions are being handed down together at the same time.

Section 33.1 of the Criminal Code violates sections 7 and 11(d) of the Charter and is therefore unconstitutional.

According to Justice Nicholas Kasirer, writing for a unanimous Supreme Court, section 33.1 of the Criminal Code violates sections 7 and 11(d) of the Charter in a fashion that cannot be justified in a free and democratic society and is therefore unconstitutional. He argues that section 33.1 breaches section 11(d) of the Charter because society could misinterpret someone's desire to get drunk as a desire to commit a violent crime. Section 33.1 also directly contradicts section 7 because the prosecution does not have to prove that the activity was voluntary or that the individual meant to commit the crime.

Convicting someone for their actions while in a state of automatism is a violation of fundamental justice standards. The concept of personal responsibility supports our criminal justice system. To be found guilty of a crime in Canada, two elements of fundamental justice must be present which are a guilty action and a guilty mind. When a person is in a condition of automatism, neither element is present.

Parliament could implemant legislation to address the issue of extreme intoxication related violence/crimes.

The Court indicated that Parliament could implement new legislation to hold someone who is highly intoxicated responsible for a serious crime. "Protecting victims of violent crime – especially in light of the equality and dignity interests of women and children who are vulnerable to drunken sexual and domestic activities – which is a pressing and important social purpose" as stated by the Court.