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Sarah A. Sutherland

@parallaxinfo.bsky.social
1.1K followers 651 following 2.9K posts

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 www.parallaxinformation.com. 📍 Vancouver and Edinburgh

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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
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.)
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
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)
Surreal photo of a tree in pink and blue with text: “Hallucinated References, Government Reports, and Managing Your Citations” by Sarah A. Sutherland has been published in Legal Information Management
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
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.
Photo of a street scene in Zanzibar, Tanzania, with the following text: "African law can be surprisingly hard to find. Legal Information Institutes ("LIIs") exist to close that gap by publishing the law online. Since its founding in 2018, TanzLII has gone beyond generating user value to improve how Tanzania's justice system behaves."
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Charlie Feldman @parlcharlie.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
📚⚖️ 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
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CanLII @canlii.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
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!
lvi2026.org
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.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
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-....
en.lvi2026.org
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.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
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/...
search.informit.org
New panic over old mistakes: Judicial sanctions and hallucinated citations
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
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.
Photograph of Toronto office towers from below.
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Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
“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-...
feelingdigital.substack.com
Let AI Be Weird
The Case Against Synthetic Sincerity
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
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!
Photo of crowded Tokyo streets, with text overlaid:
"The use of artificial intelligence for law risks that we will conflate the law as written and integrated into computer systems with the law itself."
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
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...
404media.co
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.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
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*
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Robert Diab @robertdiab.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Great idea Sarah and great work! CanLII's open collection of legal commentary is invaluable.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
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...
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
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
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Jessica Lussenhop @jlussenhop.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
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...
propublica.org
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.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
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).
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
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...
Image of
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
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....
slaw.ca
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 ...
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
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...
slaw.ca
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...
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
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/...
Publisher article page screenshot
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
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...
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
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...
Photo of the Quebec City skyline across the St Lawrence River through a window.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
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....
site.smu.edu.sg
ICAIL 2026 | SMU Microsites
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Time to set an alarm…
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
"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....
Photo of two hands holding sparklers at sunset
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
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).
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
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.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
.@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)
cbapd.org
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?
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
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...
slaw.ca
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...
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
I'm happy to be in Turin, Italy, today for the 38th Jurix Conference. I look forward to learning about what people are working on and catching up with other attendees. jurix2025.di.unito.it
A photo of a Turin street scene
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Came across this observation from Joshua Walker's "On Legal AI" (2019) today in my research folders: ending war or contract disputes is not going to happen soon, but "ending X% of stupid disputes is a quest within our immediate grasp." It would have been cool if we had done this.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
.@cyberjusticelab.bsky.social has shared the video of the panel I spoke on at the ACT Conference in October. Please take a look if you are interested in some of what I've been researching.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Tonight I was told that the combo of Tamanaha on legal pluralism and wine is iconic.
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Steve Matthews @steveamatthews.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Big thanks goes out to Marlene Gebauer and Greg Lambert @geeklawblog.com for helping us kickoff #clawbies2025 on their Geek in Review Podcast. Happy 20th Clawbies anniversary to my judging colleagues Sarah Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social and @jordanfurlong.com!
linkedin.com
#legaltech #legalpublishing #aiinlaw #legalblogging #substack #clawbies #truthinlaw #legalcommunity #legalinnovation #thegeekinreview #tgir | Marlene Gebauer
Lawyers as truthtellers. Steve Matthews, Owner of Stem Legal Web Enterprises, Inc., Sarah A. Sutherland, Founder and Principal Consultant at Parallax Information Consulting Ltd., and Jordan Furlong, P...
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
I'm grateful to have been invited back to judge the Clawbie Awards again for their 20th year with @steveamatthews.bsky.social and @jordanfurlong.com. Please send us your nominations using the #Clawbies2025 hashtag! Here's more information and the formal announcement: www.clawbies.ca/2025/12/20th...
clawbies.ca
20th Annual Clawbies – Nominations Now Open! #clawbies2025
“It was twenty years ago today…” Where were you in December 2006? Were you listening to speeches from Prime Minister Paul Martin or US President George W. Bush? Just returned from seeing Borat in t…
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Computer-Readable Legislation Project @crlp-jerseyldo.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Very useful & interesting couple of days at LVI2025, Law via the Internet conf www.lvi2025.org/program/ - "Shaping the Future of Legal Accessibility: Improving access to law through legal info, tech & AI” in Sydney at AustLII (Australasian Legal Information Institute www.austlii.edu.au/about.html)
lvi2025.org
LVI 2025: Program & Speakers | Law via the Internet Conference 12-14 November 2025
Connect with a diverse international community of legal professionals, technologists, policymakers, and researchers.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
I am happy to share that we have started a not-for-profit organization called @nomosanalytica.bsky.social with the goal of doing independent research to assist in supporting positive development in the Canadian legal system. We will be sharing more information in the coming months as we grow.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
I am looking forward to speaking about my research in my session "Narrowing the Gaps Between Primary Law and Computational Systems Through Better Parsing of Secondary Document Elements." at the Law Via the Internet Conference next week in Sydney. Here's the full program: lvi2025.org/program/
Arial view of Sydney harbour.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
I'm looking forward to presenting "Selective Memory: A Case Study on the Limits of Using Case Law to Understand Legal History", which will share research I have been working on with Amy Swiffen and Alec Duncan at the Law Via the Internet Conference in Sydney, next month. lvi2025.org/program/
lvi2025.org
LVI 2025: Program & Speakers | Law via the Internet Conference 12-14 November 2025
Connect with a diverse international community of legal professionals, technologists, policymakers, and researchers.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
My Slaw column "Quantitative Assessment of Access to Justice Initiatives" was published today. www.slaw.ca/2025/10/08/q...
slaw.ca
Quantitative Assessment of Access to Justice Initiatives - Slaw
Quantitative methods are at once well-established and novel when speaking about access to justice. We’ve been reporting on our activities to funders, boards, and communities for decades, but we’ve als...
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
The categories of academic collaborators and nerdy friends with overlapping niche interests seem to significantly overlap…
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
I'm looking forward to presenting on "Process, Purpose, and Time: Examining the Gap Between Judicial Decision Making and Legal Prediction" at the Autonomy through Cyberjustice Technologies (ACT) Conference at ‪@cyberjusticelab.bsky.social‬ on Oct 16 Registration: fcdroit.umontreal.ca/Web/MyCatalo...
fcdroit.umontreal.ca
Formation continue en droit
Colloques, conférences, formations spécialisées et autres activités. En développant de nombreuses activités adaptées de formation continue, la Faculté entretient des liens solides avec ses anciens é...
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Good morning! I started working on a daily art habit some months ago. Here’s yesterday’s sketch.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Ah, the traditional Monday morning ritual when I have a moment of panic about not getting enough done yet this week before 9am on Monday morning.
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
I'm happy to share that I joined UVic Access to Justice Centre for Excellence as a research fellow. I'm looking forward to working with so many new smart and interesting people! bcace.org
bcace.org
BC ACE
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
I'm looking forward to presenting on "Quantitative Assessment of Access to Justice Initiatives" at the 2025 People-Centred Justice Workshop on May 30-31 in Vancouver. There's still time to register. I hope to see you there! Here's the registration link: docs.google.com/forms/d/17DV....
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Sarah A. Sutherland @parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
"Justice is an abstract ideal whose precise content in any particular dispute is uncertain and debatable.…the law is a kind of system, a collection of principles, makeshifts fictions and expedients, none of them unchangeable, and most varying in character…" - Lord McCluskey, 1987
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Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/04/2025
“If one already knows the thought that one wants to express, it is possible to assess whether text generated by AI captures it correctly. However, this hope neglects that the process of writing is not—or not usually—a mechanical one, whereby we put on paper thoughts that we already possess […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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