Schulich School of Law
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA | CANADA B3H 4R2 | +1 (902) 494-3495

D. A. Rollie Thompson 

B.A.Hons. (McGill) 1971, LL.B. (Dalhousie) 1978.

Professor

Telephone: (902) 494-1033
E-mail: rollie.thompson@dal.ca

Biography:

Professor, Dalhousie Law School, since 1992; Associate Professor, 1986-92; Assistant Professor, 1982-86; and Executive Director, Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, 1982-85, 1992-94. Member, Nova Scotia Barristers Society, since 1980. Clerk to Justice Brian Dickson, Supreme Court of Canada, 1978-79. Associate, Kitz, Matheson, Green & MacIsaac, Halifax, 1980-82.

Appointed Queen’s Counsel 2011. Recipient of Dalhousie Law Alumni Association and Dalhousie Law Students Society Award for Teaching Excellence 2001-02 and the Vincent J. Pottier Award for Exceptional and Outstanding Contribution to Dalhousie Legal Aid Service (awarded in 2005). Co-Director, Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines Project, Canada Department of Justice, 2001-2008.  Editor of the Canadian Family Law Quarterly.

Teaching subjects:

Evidence, Family Law, Civil Procedure, Family Law Dispute Resolution, Nova Scotia Supreme Court (Family Division) Placement, Clinical Law

Some recent publications:

  •  Editor, Nova Scotia Civil Procedure Rules 2nd ed. (LexisNexis Canada, looseleaf);
  • “Heading for the Light: International Relocation from Canada” (2011), 30 Canadian Family Law Quarterly 1;
  • (with Carol Rogerson) Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (Ottawa: Department of Justice, July 2008);
  • "Slackers, Shirkers and Career-Changers: Imputing Income for Under/Unemployment" (2007), 26 Canadian Family Law Quarterly 135;
  • "Rounding Up the Usual Criminal Suspects, and a Few More Civil Ones: Section 7 After Chaoulli" (2007), 20 National Journal of Constitutional Law 129;
  • "Movin' On: Parental Relocation in Canada" (2004), 42 Family Court Review 398;
  • "Are There Any Rules of Evidence in Family Law?" (2003), 21 Canadian Family Law Quarterly 245;
  • "The Cheshire Cat, or Just His Smile? Evidence Law in Child Protection" (2003), 21 C.F.L.Q. 319;
  • “No Lawyer: Institutional Coping with the Self-Represented" (2002), 19 C.F.L.Q. 455;
  •  "Rules and Rulelessness in Family Law: Recent Developments, Judicial and Legislative" (2000), 18 C.F.L.Q. 25.
  • "The Supreme Court Goes Hunting and Nearly Catches a Hearsay Woozle" (1995), 37 C.R. (4th) 282.

Research interests:

Family law, child protection, evidence, civil procedure, legal aid, poverty law.

Courses: