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Canadian Legal Research

Download PDF version of guide for print

I. Introduction

The Goodson Law Library has extensive holdings in Canadian law, emphasizing English language material, housed either in the reference collection or on Level 1 under call numbers beginning with KE. The collection is arranged beginning with national statutes, followed by administrative codes, gazettes, case digests and reporters, and then other material, such as treatises. Following the national collection, the provincial collections are arranged in a similar fashion. Canadian law journals are shelved on Level 4 with Law Periodicals, alphabetically by title. Selected Canadian legal material is also available online, through the research services LexisNexis Quicklaw , Lexis Advance , Westlaw , and HeinOnline , among others.

Note : Quicklaw currently (as of October 2017) requires individual user registration while issues with IP access are restored. Current Law School students, faculty, and staff may contact the Reference Desk for registration information.

II. Research Guides

The Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide . Formerly known as "Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research" (for its original author, Catherine Best), this site from CanLII provides an excellent tutorial on Canadian legal research and legal citation.

MacEllven, Douglass T. et al., Legal Research Handbook, 6th ed. (Ref. KE250 .M32 2013). Contains lists of primary sources and an extensive treatment of Canadian law databases.

McCormack, Nancy et al, The Practical Guide to Canadian Legal Research , 4th ed. (Ref. KE250 .C37 2015). This is a good, concise introduction to Canadian resources which includes checklists to follow in researching.

Tjaden, Ted, Researching Canadian Law . Includes an introduction to the Canadian legal system and information about both print and online resources. The author also publishes Legal Research and Writing (Essentials of Canadian Law series), 3d edition (KE250 .T53 2010 & online in vLex ).

III. Treatises

The Law Library owns many treatises on Canadian law.  Most are classified under KE and are located on Level 1. Among the basic texts explaining the Canadian legal system are:

• Forcese, Craig, The Laws of Government: The Legal Foundations of Canadian Democracy , 2d ed. (KE4219 .F67 2011). Overview of Canada’s parliamentary system.
• Gall, Gerald L., The Canadian Legal System , 5th ed. (KE444 .G34 2004). Includes a chapter on the legal system in Québec.
• McCormack, Nancy and Melanie R. Bueckert, Introduction to the Law & Legal System of Canada (KE444 .M33 2013). Delves into the historical background for Canadian law.
• Waddams, S.M., Introduction to the Study of Law , 8th ed. (Ref. KE445 .W32 2016).  Gives basic legal concepts and a description of the Canadian legal system.

Additional treatises on particular legal topics can be found in the Duke Libraries Catalog with a subject search for [topic] – Canada ; e.g., constitutional law -- Canada ; civil procedure -- Canada . The "Essentials of Canadian Law" series, published by Irwin Law, is an excellent starting place for many Canadian legal subjects. The database vLex provides electronic access to many of the recent titles in that series, which are also available in print at the library. Other recommended treatises for specific legal topics can be found on the Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide Suggested Textbooks page.

IV. Encyclopedias and Digests

Another good place to start your research is one of the digests or encyclopedias of Canadian law. The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest is available to Duke Law students, faculty, and staff on Westlaw , through the path International Materials > Canada > All Canadian Treatises. The online version combines and updates the text of two separate print encyclopedias, both no longer updated in print at the Goodson Law Library: the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (Ontario) (KEO142 .C35 3rd ed., updated through 2007 in print), which focuses on Ontario and federal law; and the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest, Western (KE156.2 .C21, updated through 2007 in print), which focuses on federal law and provincial law of the Western portion of Canada. Entries in the Digest provide a textual summary of the law with extensive footnotes to primary sources.

Quicklaw provides access to the full text of the encyclopedia Halsbury's Laws of Canada . Halsbury's began publication in 2006, and consists of topical volumes of commentary written by prominent legal scholars. Quicklaw also contains JurisClasseur Quebec , a French-language encyclopedia covering Quebecois law, and the Canada Digest , a compilation of various topical digest services. Users may search or browse the various digest subtopics to access the case law summaries, which date back to 1893.

The Canadian Abridgment , 3d ed. (KE173 .C35 2003, updated in print through 2007) provides a digest for all reported cases from all of Canada (except Québec civil law cases heard in provincial courts) and many unreported cases. This comprehensive work includes case digests, statute and case citations, a consolidated table of cases and an Index to Canadian Legal Literature (Reference Indexes) which includes both treatises and periodicals. The Gu­ide to Research Using the Ca­nadian Abridgment (KE250 .G85 1989) and A Short Guide to the Canadian Abridgment (KE173 .C352 2007) will help you use this work in print. To access Canadian case law by topic online, see Section V.

V. Case Law

Canada's judicial system is composed of both provincial courts and federal courts . Provincial courts hear cases involving provincial law and most federal law cases. Although there are variations, all the provinces have developed a system with trial courts of general jurisdiction (whose names vary from province to province) whose decisions may be appealed to courts of appeal.

Canada has a Federal Court of limited jurisdiction, known until 1971 as the Exchequer Court , which hears such matters as copyright, patents, and claims against the federal government. The decisions of both federal and provincial courts may be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which is also the constitutional court. The website of the Supreme Court of Canada provides a good explanation of the Canadian judicial system.

Finding case law for Canada is similar to finding case law in the United States. There are reporters for the provincial, territorial, and federal courts. Canadian decisions are also available in electronic format on Quicklaw , Lexis Advance , Westlaw , HeinOnline , and free websites. The reporters available through Duke include:

Supreme Court cases are reported in Canada Supreme Court Reports (KE140 .A23 & online). Coverage of this official publication begins in 1867. Since 1970 all decisions have been reported in both French and English. Judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada are available on HeinOnline's Canada Supreme Court Reports library, in Quicklaw , as well as on Westlaw and Lexis Advance . Decisions are also available on the web at LexUM and CanLII .

Since the Federal Court's inception, its decisions have been reported in the official Canada Federal Court Reports (KE142 .A23 1971-2003 & online). This reporter series contains all appellate cases but only a selection of trial cases. Federal Court of Canada decisions are on Quicklaw since 1971, Westlaw since 1979, and Lexis Advance since 1986; decisions are at the court's website since 1990, and CanLII back to 1997, with selected earlier judgments also available back to 1912.

Exchequer Court decisions are located in the official publication, Reports of the Exchequer Court of Canada , from 1875 to 1922, and Canada Law Reports: Exchequer Court of Canada (both at KE142 .A23) from 1923 to its demise in 1970. Both reporter sets are available online in PDF via LLMC Digital . In the Duke collection, the Canada Law Reports for 1923 to 1951 bind together both the Supreme Court cases and the Exchequer Court cases and are shelved with the Canada Law Reports: Supreme Court of Canada (KE140 .A23). All Exchequer Court decisions are on Quicklaw , Lexis Advance , and Westlaw.

Beginning with 1974, a commercially produced reporter, National Reporter (KE138 .N37), has published all Supreme Court and Federal Court of Appeal decisions and a selection of cases heard by the British House of Lords and the Privy Council. Decisions appear more quickly here than in the official publications, and also include research headnotes (similar to Westlaw's Topic and Key Number System).

B. Federal and Provincial

The Dominion Law Reports (KE132 .D66) is a weekly report of both provincial and federal cases throughout Canada. It began in 1912 and is presently in its 4th series. Historical volumes of Dominion Law Reports (1st series and New Series, 1923-30) are available online in PDF in LLMC Digital . Dominion Law Reports is the Bluebook citation manual’s preferred unofficial reporter if official reporters are unavailable (see Table 2.6).

C. Provincial

There are two regional reporters that publish provincial decisions. The Western Weekly Reports (KE156 .A2) covers Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, the Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan, beginning in 1911. The provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island were earlier covered by Maritime Provinces Reports (1929-1968) (KE150 .A22 & online in LLMC Digital ) and Eastern Law Reporter (1905-1914) (KE150 .A2). These provinces now have their own reporters and the Law Library does not collect the regional reporter.

The Law Library has a selection of the current provincial reporters and some earlier reporter series. Provincial reporters are published for each of the provinces and territories, except for Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, which have a combined reporter. Only Ontario and Québec have had uninterrupted reporting for any length of time. Provincial reports for other areas began only in the late 1970s or early 1980s. A large number of provincial court decisions are on Quicklaw , Lexis Advance (International > Canada > Canada Case Law) and Westlaw (International Materials > Canada > All Canadian Cases > By Jurisdiction).

D. Subject Law Reporters

Although searchable online databases like Quicklaw and Westlaw have made it easier to quickly locate case law on a certain topic, many subject law reporters are also published for Canada. They include standard areas of law, such as patents, family law and securities, as well as some that you may not expect, such as human rights. The best method of finding out whether such a reporter exists for your area of interest is to check the lists provided in MacEllven's Legal Research Handbook (Ref. KE250 .M32 2013), McCormack's The Practical Guide to Canadian Legal Research (Ref. KE250 .C37 2015), or Banks on Using a Law Library (Ref. KE250.B35 1994).

E. Case Updating

As in United States legal research, all cases must be updated (Canadians generally refer to updating cases as "noting up"). It is possible to update cases from the Supreme Court of Canada and other federal courts, as well as from some specialized and provincial courts on Westlaw with the "Citing References" tab, as well as with the QuickCITE citator service available on Quicklaw . The free website CanLII also includes "Citing References" to cases as part of its RefLex citator.

The other method of updating cases is to use Canadian case citators (or "noter-uppers") in print. The end of the Canadian Abridgment consists of a series of volumes entitled Canadian Case Citations (KE173 .C353, 1867-2008). In order to completely update a case in a print citator, you must search it in each of the series by case name and then go to the paper pamphlets that update the citations. Although the Canadian Abridgment's citator is the most comprehen­sive, it does not contain all cases, and is no longer updated in print at the Law Library. The Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide includes a comparison and how-to guides for the major case citators .

VI. Statutes

The Canadian Constitution is actually a series of documents, beginning with the British North America Act,1867 . With the passage in 1982 of the Canada Act, the British Parliament officially removed itself from the legislative structure of Canada. Simultaneously, the Canadian Parliament passed the Constitution Act, 1982 , which consolidated all of the various acts that were considered part of the Canadian Constitution and included a schedule of 30 laws, of which 23 are still in effect. It also added to the Constitution the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , laws analogous to the U.S. Bill of Rights. Since then there has been added to the Constitution the Constitution Act, 1985 (Representation). The best source for the Canadian Constitution is A Consolidation of the Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1982 (KE4165 2001 & online ). The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms = Charte canadienne des droits et libertés (Gérald-A. Beaudoin & Errol Mendes eds.), 4th ed. (KE4381.5.Z85 C35 2005) is a bilingual commentary with citations to many cases.

Bills are read three times in parliament before becoming statutes. Current bills are available on the House of Commons LEGISinfo website . Enacted bills are next published in the session laws, Acts of the Parliament of Canada (KE87 .A2 & online ), which are bound and chronologically arranged. Until 1984, the volumes were sessional, which means that they did not correspond to the calendar year. Beginning with 1984, they are annual volumes.

Periodically, Canada consolidates its statutes and issues them as Revised Statutes of Canada (R.S.C.) (KE89 1985 & online ); the most recent printed consolidation (in both English and French) was published in 1985. Prior editions of the R.S.C. are available in the library and in HeinOnline's Revised Statutes of Canada library. Statute consolidation is now an ongoing process at the federal Justice Laws Website . Federal legislation is also available on Quicklaw , Westlaw (International Materials > Canada > Legislation), and via CanLII .

Legislation in the online services will include citing references from later case law and from secondary sources. To update statutes in print, check Canadian Statute Citations (KE173 .C354 until 2008), then check the issues of the Canada Gazette Part III ( on the web since May 1998 ) that post-date the most recent issue.

B. Provincial

The provincial statutes are published in annual volumes. Most of the provinces have also published their statutes in codified form, generally found under the title Revised Statutes of [Province] (Manitoba’s is slightly differently titled, Reenacted Statutes of Manitoba ). Current and historical statutes can also be found in HeinOnline ’s Provincial Statutes of Canada library. Some provincial legislation is also available on Quicklaw , Westlaw (International Materials > Canada > Legislation), via CanLII , and online .

Quicklaw and Westlaw include citing references to statute sections from later case law and commentary. CanLII also includes a legislative citator feature, which has limited historical coverage but works well for citing cases within its scope of coverage. (Print citators may also be available for a particular province, although the library's citator collections are generally no longer updated in print.)

VII. Regulations

Certain statutes enable federal or provincial executive agencies to create rules and regulations to govern various areas. These rules and regulations, together with other subordinate legislation, such as orders and municipal by-laws, may be referred to as regulations or statutory instruments.

Federal regulations are officially published in the Canada Gazette Part II ( online since Jan. 1998). You can access regulations through the Gazette 's quarterly publication " Consolidated Index of Statutory Instruments ." This source contains tables that list the regulations and other statutory instruments alphabetically and a table of enabling statutes.

The most recent consolidation of regulations, the Consolidated Regulations of Canada, 1978 (KE119 1978), lists regulations under the name of the enabling statute. Unfortunately, this work does not have an index, and access is only through the Table of Contents. However, federal regulations are also searchable online on Quicklaw , Westlaw (International Materials > Canada > Regulations), and on the Canadian Department of Justice website .

Provincial statutory instruments are researched in a similar fashion to federal ones. Each province also publishes official gazettes that contain new regulations and amendments of the older ones. Check the online catalog for library holdings of the particular province in which you are interested. Some provincial regulations are available on Quicklaw , Westlaw (International Materials > Canada > Regulations), and online .

VIII. A Note About Québec

Québec law is not as foreign to the rest of Canadian law as one might think. After all, the province of Québec is still bound by Canadian federal law. The federal cases decided in Québec provincial courts are decided in the same way as in all other provinces. The major influence of the civil law is in the area of Québec's private law, i.e. , that part of the law that regulates the relationships among individuals, associations and corporations. Henri Kélada's Précis de droit québécois (KEQ 219 .K44 1997) is a good introduction to Québec law. Quebec Civil Law: An Introduction to Quebec Private Law (KEQ 219.Q83 1993) provides a useful basic background as well. Le May & Goubau, La Recherche Documentaire en Droit , 5th ed. (Ref. KEQ 140.L45 2002), provides a concise introduction to researching Canadian federal and Québec provincial law in French. General research guides listed in section III also include chapters on Quebec research.

Québec enacted the Civil Code of Lower Canada in the late 1800s. About a century later it developed the Civil Code of Québec , which was a massive revision of the earlier code. Québec phased in part of the Civil Code of Québec in the 1980s. In 1991 Parliament passed into law a revision of the Civil Code of Québec that replaced both of the earlier codes. This newest code became effective as of January 1, 1994. The code is in ten sections: Persons, Family, Successions, Property, Obligations, Prior Claims and Hypothecs, Evidence, Prescription, Publication of Rights, and Private International Law.

The library's copies of the code (both in English and in French) are located at KEQ214.5. The code, other legislation, and regulations of Quebec can also be found on Quicklaw , Westlaw (International Materials > Canada > Quebec), CanLII , and Justice Quebec . LexUM provides an online Annotated Civil Code of Quebec , including citing references.

It is important to remember that case law does not have quite the precedential value that it does for the common law parts of Québec's laws. When researching provincial law in Québec, keep in mind whether you are looking at a civil code or common law subject.

IX. Dictionaries

Canadian Online Legal Dictionary is a free online glossary of legal terms from the publisher Irwin Law. There are also many Canadian law dictionaries shelved in the reference collection, including The Dictionary of Canadian Law , 4th ed. (Ref. KE183.D85 2011) and Canadian Law Dictionary (Ref. KE183 .Y63 2013). Dictionaries useful for researching the law in Québec include Dictionnaire de droit privé (Ref. KEQ132 .D52 1985), Private Law Dictionary and Bilingual Lexicons , 2d ed. (Ref. KEQ132 .P74 1991), and Expressions juridiques en un clin d’oeil , 2d ed.  (Ref. K52 .F7 B42 2000).

X. Citation Manuals

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation , 20th ed. (Reserves KF245 .U55 2015) contains an extensive list of sources and citation guidance for Canadian legal materials in Table 2.6.

The Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (also known as "the McGill Guide"), 8th ed. (Ref. KE 259 .C25 2014). Developed by the McGill University Law Review , this guide has been adopted by several law reviews and courts in Canada. It provides citation information in both English and French.

Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations , 2d ed. (Ref. K89 .G85 2009). Contains citation examples for Canadian statutes, case law, and secondary sources.

XI. Periodicals

Research services such as Westlaw and Lexis Advance include the full text of some Canadian law reviews and legal journals in their legal periodical collections. vLex includes several Canadian law journals under Browse > Canada. HeinOnline 's Law Journal Library includes 100 titles for Canada , in PDF format dating back to the earliest volumes.

Additional periodical materials can be accessed via the online Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals . The major U.S. legal literature indexes, LegalTrac and Index to Legal Periodicals also include some Canadian legal literature. The Bora Laskin Law Library at the University of Toronto also provides a free monthly service for Tables of Contents for Canadian Law Journals , dating back to 2014.

Quicklaw includes a full-text library of All Canadian Legal Journals, dating back to 1989, which can be searched or browsed. Quicklaw also includes electronic access to the Index to Canadian Legal Literature , published as part of the Canadian Abridgment service. The Index service includes both French and English titles and descriptions, back to 1985. This index can also be accessed in print in the Reference Indexes area on level 3. Index to Canadian Legal Periodical Literature , another print index devoted solely to Canadian journals, is available in the Reference Indexes area from 1961-2006.       

Legal articles may also be included in more general or non-legal Canadian periodical indexes, such as CPI.Q: Canadian Periodicals Index Quarterly . For more information about general sources for Canadian research, see the Duke University Libraries' guides to Canadian Government Resources and Canadian History .

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🗝 The Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide on CanLII 🗝

We are happy to announce that the Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide has been added to CanLII’s Commentary section . The Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research , as it was previously known, has been freely available online since 1998.

Catherine Best created the website version of the Guide over her almost 30 year career as a research lawyer. Her expertise in researching complex legal issues and teaching legal research and writing have translated into a quality guide that has been helping researchers effectively use online tools for 20 years. When Catherine Best retired in 2015, she generously donated the site to CanLII.

We have been lucky to have had volunteers step forward to make up a national editorial board of legal researchers who have updated the text and worked with us in the process of converting it to an ebook:

Melanie Bueckert legal research counsel with the Manitoba Court of Appeal in Winnipeg. She is the co-founder of the Manitoba Bar Association’s Legal Research Section, has written several legal textbooks, and is also a contributor to Slaw.ca .

André Clair was a legal research officer with the Court of Appeal of Newfoundland and Labrador between 2010 and 2013. He is now head of the Legal Services Division of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Maryvon Côté is an associate librarian at the Nahum Gelber Law Library at McGill University in Montreal. He is active on the Canadian Association of Law Libraries executive and writes on legal research topics.

Yasmin Khan is the head librarian at the City of Toronto Law Library. She has just finished a master’s of science, information and knowledge strategy from Columbia University.

Mandy Ostick is a law librarian and information professional with legal research experience in law firm, university library, and courthouse environments. She has had previous positions as library services manager for Norton Rose Fulbright in Vancouver, law librarian at Thompson Rivers University, and director, digital library at Courthouse Libraries BC.

🚨 Don’t forget to update links from individual pages on the previous site to the new guide 🚨

We are grateful for Cathie’s contribution to legal research in Canada and the ongoing work of the editorial board, and we look forward more exciting content developments. Thank you all!

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Between 9:00 PM EST on Saturday, May 29th and 9:00 PM EST on Sunday, May 30th users will not be able to access resources through the Law Library’s Catalog, the Law Library’s Database List, the Law Library’s Frequently Used Databases List, or the Law Library’s Research Guides. Users can still access databases that require an individual user account (ex. Westlaw, LexisNexis, and Bloomberg Law), or databases listed on the Main Library’s A-Z Database List.

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Canadian Legal Research

Introduction.

• Secondary Sources: Treatises & Books
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Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy comprised of ten provinces and three territories.  Its official languages are English and French.  The federal government operates on a bilingual basis.  Its bicameral parliament meets in Ottawa.

Each Canadian province has its own unicameral legislature.  Common law prevails at the federal level and in nine of Canada's ten provinces.  The French-speaking province of Qu é bec has a mixed system of civil law and common law in which civil law predominates.

The Georgetown Law Library's extensive collection of Canadian legal materials is located on the fifth floor of the Williams Library.  All of these materials have call numbers that be begin with the letters KE.  

Key Resources for Canadian Legal Research

Free resources.

• Justice Laws Website This website, maintained by Canada's Federal Department of Justice, provides free online access to federal statutes currently in force (Consolidated Acts), federal session laws (Annual Statutes), and federal regulations currently in force (Consolidated Regulations).  Use the website's French language interface to access all of the foregoing content in French.  
• Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) This comprehensive Web portal provides free online access to both federal and provincial statutes , regulations, and case law.  Dates of coverage vary, depending on the type of content.  

Canadian Content for U.S. Academic Subscribers to Lexis & Westlaw

• Lexis U.S. academic subscribers to Lexis may access consolidated statutes and regulations at the federal level and for all Canadian provinces and territories.  Lexis also provides access to federal and provincial case law, with the exception of the Yukon Territory, as well as a selection of Canadian law reviews and journals.  Dates of coverage for case law vary by court and by jurisdiction.   
• Westlaw U.S. academic subscribers to Westlaw may access Canadian federal statutes and regulations, in both English and French, as well as provincial statutes and regulations for all ten provinces and three territories.  Westlaw also has federal and provincial case law and a selection of secondary sources on Canadian law.    Dates of coverage for case law vary by court and by jurisdiction.  

Practical Guidance & Commentary on Canadian Law

• Getting the Deal Through (GTDT) GTDT offers practitioner-written summaries of Canadian law governing dozens of practice areas ("work areas").  Each summary follows a question and answer format and includes references or citations to relevant primary law materials.  Begin by selecting Canada as the jurisdiction from the men at the center of the page.  Then select the desired work area (practice area).  
• Thomson Reuters Practical Law - Canada U.S. academic subscribers to Westlaw may access this online resource, which provides practitioner-written guidance on Canadian law for selected practice areas.  Content includes practice notes, checklists, and tool kits, plus standardized forms and document templates.  
• Global Legal Monitor - Canada (Law Library of Congress) This free resource provides analysis and commentary on significant developments in Canadian law, including the enactment of important new legislation and the issuance of landmark judicial decisions.  Links to primary sources are almost always provided.  Use the filters on the left to narrow by date and by topic.  

Research Assistance

If you need assistance with Canadian legal research, visit the Research Help page of the Georgetown University Law Library's website. Or contact the Law Library's International and Foreign Law Department by phone (202-662-4195) or by email ( [email protected] ).  Georgetown Law Center students may schedule a one-on-one research consultation with a librarian.

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Supremecourtbc.ca

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Identify the Issues

The first step in legal research is to identify all the questions you need answers to. Almost certainly you will have more than one issue. For example, you may have a procedural question (What Court do I need to file this with?), an evidence question (Can I rely on my recording of a conversation with the defendant?), and a substantive question (Can I get money if the other side lied to get me to sign a contract?). Before you start your research, try to think of all the issues you are unsure of.

Search for relevant Cases

Researching case law is hard and time consuming. However, it is a necessary part of good research.

You should have two goals in searching for relevant cases.

• Find the most important, leading, cases in the area: There are certain cases that come up again and again, because they set out the key ideas in an area of law. They are often going to be decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada or the British Columbia Court of Appeal. If you see a case that is mentioned many times when doing your research, you should think about reading that carefully.
• Find cases with facts similar to your: You also want to see what has happened in cases that are most similar to your. Think about what makes your case unique. Then look for cases with a similar situation. 

CanLII is a free case law database you can use. When searching for cases on CanLII or another database, you will need to use a specific way of entering in search terms. For example:

• Phrase search ("") : To search for a phrase, you can group words by typing them between quotes, for example: "Duty of care". To search for a phrase with exact words – and avoid retrieving variations of the words contained in the phrase – use the EXACT operator: EXACT ("Duty of care").
• Boolean search (AND, OR, NOT) : To perform a search that combines or excludes terms, use the AND, OR and NOT operators, between your query terms (Or ET, OU and NON – the operators work in both languages), for example: warranty AND sale OR buy NOT car.

The University of Ottawa has prepared a helpful guide on how to do Boolean searching which is available here . CanLII has also prepared a guide aimed at helping use its search function, which is available here . 

Read the Relevant Statutes and Regulations

If there are statutes or regulations that cover your case, review them carefully. Often more than one section of a statute or regulation will matter. If you read only one part of the statute, you may miss something important. It may not be possible to read every word of a dense and long statute, but at least look through the table of contents to make sure that you are aware of what is in there.

Keep Notes of Your Research

Take notes as you go. It is hard to remember all of the important things you come across during a long legal research process. Further, you may want to write down the books and resources you have reviewed. It is possible that your court case may take a very long time, and you may forget where you got information from when it comes time to present it to the Court.

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Student Guide for Legal Research

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Welcome to the Great Library’s practical research guide for students*. Whether you are working as a summer, articling or LPP student, legal research is going to be a big part of your job.

Research in the practice environment may present challenges not encountered in law school – tighter time and cost constraints, unfamiliar areas of law, possibly fewer research resources at hand, higher expectations and the need to keep your research and writing tightly focused on your client’s problem.

This guide provides an overview of the research process and the best current research tools. As well, it offers tips and reliable strategies for productive and efficient legal research.

*This guide is intended primarily for Law Society of Ontario licensing candidates and summer students working at Ontario law firms. However, we believe the guidance and tips it contains will be of use to students in any Canadian jurisdiction.

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• Last Updated: Jul 9, 2024 11:44 AM
• URL: https://greatguides.lso.ca/c.php?g=717830

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• Step 2: Primary Sources of Law: Canadian Case Law

Introduction - What is Case Law?

The law in Canada is made of two parts:  Case law and Legislation. Both are primary sources for Canadian law.

• Case law is made up of the written decisions of judges in court cases and tribunals. Case law comes from all levels of courts in Canada. 
• In the common law in Canada, judges must follow the principle of stare decisis, which requires that judges follow the previous rulings (i.e. precedents) of other judges in higher courts in their province or territory and the Supreme Court of Canada on the same issue. Decisions from the same level of court or other provinces or jurisdictions may assist judges in reaching a decision. The body of case law is comprised of these decisions.
•   Leading cases are those decisions that have been cited and followed in subsequent cases. In Canada decisions of the Supreme Court are binding on all other Canadian courts unless distinguished.
• The use of stare decisis and precedent in Canadian law promotes the principle that the law should be applied consistently throughout Canadian Courts.
•   Prior to 1949, Canadian Supreme Court decisions could be appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (J.C.P.C.) in the United Kingdom, and decisions from J.C.P.C. up until 1949 can still be binding on all Canadian courts.
• Case law from other Commonwealth jurisdictions can also have persuasive authority, particularly those from the English House of Lords or Court of Appeal, and the Australian High Court.
• Decisions from non-Commonwealth jurisdictions may also have persuasive authority depending on the level of court of the decision, the reputation of the judge and the jurisdiction involved, decisions from the United States Supreme Court are one example.
• Administrative tribunals are not courts of law in the strict sense, and the doctrine of stare decisis does not apply to their decisions. These decisions can, however, be reviewed by the courts.

Researching Case Law

Ideally, references to case law can be located through secondary sources or finding tools.

• Textbook authors generally make reference to key cases that illustrate the points of law they are discussing.
• Journal authors often refer to important cases in the footnotes.
•   Encyclopedias are organized by topic, with articles or paragraphs that synthesize and comment on specific points of law. Citations to cases that support the principles discussed accompany each entry.
•   Topical case reporters contain indices organized by subject and case name.
•   Online legal databases enable full text searching of case law by keyword, subject or case name.
•   Digests arranged by topic provide summaries of important cases, with citations to full-text case reports.

Look for Leading Cases

  When searching for cases your object is to locate leading cases. Look for

• R ecent cases at the highest court possible for the jurisdiction
• C ases that have been discussed extensively in the commentary
• C ases that have been followed or considered in other cases

Finding Case Law using Digests

• A digest provides the most efficient means of locating cases as the editors of these digests have summarized, reviewed and classified each case, organizing them by topic with other "like" cases.
•   A typical digest entry includes :

Subject headings or subject key numbers Style of Cause or Case Name  Brief synopsis of the case What the judge decided The case citation or link to the full text of the case.

The Canadian Abridgment Online  

• Available on WestlawNext Canada . 
• Full text searches can be combined with searches for: Subject Title, Classification Number, Classification Phrase, Case Name, Citation or Year. Users can also browse the Table of Contents.
• The database is updated daily. Each digest provides a link to the full text of the case if it is available, as well as  link to all other digests within the same subject classification.

The Canada Digests

The Canada Digests are only available on Lexis Advance Quicklaw . There are 52 individual subject digests of cases which can be located via the browse function of the database.  Like the Abridgment, the titles in the Canada Digest can be searched or browsed via the table of contents.  Each digest includes a link to the full text of the case if available.  

Sources of Case Law: Reported Judgments

• Reported judgments are the judgments selected to be published (or reported) in one of the case reports (also known as case reporters or law reports).
• Cases are chosen for publication because they have an impact on or change the law in some way.
• You can usually tell that a case has been reported by its citation. The citation will generally include:  
• year of decision in parentheses (1974)  or year of reporter in brackets [1974]
• the volume number
• the abbreviated title of the reporter
• page number
• You will need to decipher the abbreviation by using one of the print abbreviation guides or by going to the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations .
• Print versions or reporters can generally be located by searching the library catalogue for their title.  

Sources of Case Law: Unreported Judgments

• Many decisions that do not get published in print or in case reports are unreported because they simply apply the law rather than adding anything new to the common law.  
•   Many cases are not chosen for publication; however, just because it is not published does not mean it is not valid important in the courts.
•   “Unreported” cases may be cited as authority and are found online in commercial databases, the court’s website or on CanLII .
•   Older unreported judgments are available in hard copy directly from the court.
•   Unreported cases will not have the type of citation listed above; instead,  for more recent cases you are likely to see a neutral citation. Neutral citations include:

  Year Court identifier Case number

• Older cases without a neutral citation will have

Date Judicial district Docket number Jurisdiction and court

• ·        Unreported cases in commercial databases will have their own unique database identifier as well.

  Sources of Case Law: Commercial Legal Databases

• LexisNexis/Quicklaw   and Westlaw Canada , have full-text reported and unreported judgments that are searchable by citation, keyword, subject or case name. Be sure to evaluate the importance of all decisions as there may be different decisions on different points of law that have not been adjudicated  by a superior court.
• Note: Also evaluate the importance of an unreported decision as part of your legal research. Online commercial publishers include all of the decisions provided to them by the court regardless of their possible importance to the judicial community.

Sources of Case Law: Legal Information Institutes

These sites provide an excellent source of free access to case law from countries throughout the world including Canada.

• World Legal Information Institute
• Australasian Legal Information Institute
• British and Irish Legal Information Institute
• Canadian Legal Information Institute
• Hong Kong Legal Information Institute
• Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute
• (United States) Legal Information Institute

Legal Research for the Public Researcher

• Step 1: Secondary Sources Introduction
• Step 1: Secondary Sources - Books
• Step 1: Secondary Sources - Legal Encyclopedias
• Step 1: Secondary Sources - Journals and Journal Indexes
• Step 1: Secondary Sources - Dictionaries, Words and Phrases, Abbreviations
• Step 1: Secondary Sources - Other Sources
• Step 2: Primary Sources of Law: Canadian Legislation
• Step 3: Noting Up - Cases
• Step 3: Noting up - Legislation
• Legal Citation
• British Legal Research
• Accessibility
• Comments or Questions?

Bora Laskin Law Library, University of Toronto 78 Queen's Park, Toronto, ON M5S 2C5 Tel: 416-978-1073

Smallclaimsbc.ca

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Legal research is about learning and understanding the law. Legal research is the process of identifying and recording information necessary to support legal decision making. You can develop a stronger, more convincing case by understanding the law that relates to your case. 

In BC, the law includes two elements:

• Legislation:  written laws decided by government (for example, the Small Claims Act )
• Case law:  decisions made by judges in other cases 

Legislation

First thing’s first, you’ll want to see what the legislation says about your legal rights. All laws in BC can be found online at www.BCLaws.ca . For federal laws see Justice Laws Website .

Each law has a table of contents to help you navigate its content. This is a great place to start if you are unsure what section of the law applies to your case. You may find that the main legislation that affects your case is the Small Claims Act and the Small Claims Rules .

Applying the Law Worksheet

If you want to find a lawyer try the Lawyer Referral Service or Access Pro Bono

Legislation from Courthouse Libraries

The second element of the law is case law. These are the previous decisions of judges. Legally, this is when a decision made by a judge becomes the standard for how other judges make decisions. Case law helps to guide judges on how to interpret the law and make decisions in a case.

Imagine there is a law saying: You cannot ride your bike on major roads without a helmet. If the law doesn’t define what “major” roads are, a judge must decide. Now, imagine that a previous judge wrote a decision saying that: Roads with 4 or more lanes are major roads. Other judges making decisions about bike helmets and roads will use this judge’s 4 lane definition to make decisions.

The key to using case law is to be sure to use cases that support your claim. To do this, you need to be able to research past cases. When you are representing yourself in court, this kind of legal research is very important.

Choosing the Right Case

Having the right case law that supports the outcomes you want is very important. There are 4 keys to success for choosing the right case. 

Similar Facts

You’ll want to take a look at the facts of different cases. You want to find cases that have facts or issues that are similar to those in your case. If you find these cases, you can use them in court and ask the judge to decide your case in a similar way. Present cases where the facts are similar to your case and the decision is the same as the outcome you want.

The Best Outcome

Consider each issue and what you want the court to decide. You need to find cases that relate to the outcomes you want. For example, if you want the court to award you 6 months of pay in lieu of notice after being fired, you will search for cases that awarded around 6 months of pay in lieu of notice.

Select cases where the outcomes of the cases are the same as the outcomes you want. Do not ignore cases where the outcome is not what you want as these could be used by the other party. Try to explain why your case should be decided differently instead. 

Consider the level of the court and the location. In Canada, higher level courts can change the decisions made by lower level courts. Decisions from higher level courts are binding on lower level courts - which means they have to follow them. Decisions from the same level of court may be very convincing but do not have to be followed.

The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) is the highest court in Canada. In BC, the order of the courts from highest to lowest is: the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and then, Provincial Court. 

Ideally you should try to find cases from the BC courts or to the Supreme Court of Canada. If you can’t find a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada or from a BC court, you can search courts from other provinces. However, decisions from different provincial courts are not binding on BC courts. Those decisions may or may not be followed.

When searching for case law, select decisions from the courts in this order:

• Supreme Court of Canada
• BC Courts: Appeal, Supreme, Provincial Court
• Courts from other provinces (higher is better)

The date of the decision is the final consideration when selecting cases. Keep in mind that each of the other three points is a higher priority than this one.

What happens if you find two decisions from the same level of court with similar facts and outcomes? Look at the date. Select cases where the decision is most recent. A judge will consider a decision from last year more than a decision from the 1990s.

Make sure the decision hasn’t been overturned. When a decision is overturned, it means that a court has ruled that the decision is no longer followed by other courts. Over time, our society changes and so does the interpretation of laws. Be careful when using any case that is more than 20 years old. The law may be out of date and the interpretation of the law may have been overturned.

Case Law Worksheet to help you research case law for your case

Legal Research Principles and CanLII Navigation for Self-Represented Litigants from CanLII

Courthouse Libraries BC provides access to library staff, print resources, and digital tools to access legislation and case law

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The Ultimate Guide to Canadian Legal Research, 4th Edition

Based on the highly successful legal research text, Legal Problem Solving: Reasoning, Research and Writing, 8th Edition and written by the same experts, this resource directs you step-by-step through any legal problem – from identifying keywords to conducting electronic searches.

Softcover | 40 pages

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Product description

A single comprehensive checklist to use for any Canadian research problem – fully updated and revised! Based on the highly successful legal research text, Legal Problem Solving: Reasoning, Research and Writing, 8th Edition and written by the same experts, this resource directs you step-by-step through any legal problem – from identifying keywords to conducting electronic searches. Also included are brief descriptions of each of the various sources and research aids – from secondary materials and commentaries to statutes and regulations. No researcher should be without this handy yet critical tool.

Features include:

• An author team which brings a wealth of knowledge of legal research and problem solving
• Simple checklist to ensure all aspects of legal research are explored and addressed
• Expert commentary on making an efficient and effective research plan
• Addresses how to approach and navigate legal commentaries, cases and legislation

New in this edition The updated version of The Ultimate Guide to Canadian Legal Research, 4th Edition contains:

• Contains updated information and checklists on how to conduct legal research using paid and free resources and repositories
• Information about Canlii’s new feature: CanLII Docs
• Discusses new legal online database LawArXiv including how to use the free source to find Canadian case law and how to use the paid subscription to access additional resources
• Replaces information on how to conduct searches on LexisNexis Quicklaw to how to conduct searches on Lexis Advance Quicklaw following LexisNexis’ the migration to Lexis Advance Quicklaw
• New section on emerging artificial intelligence and predictive analytics databases and emerging tools available such as Loom Analytics and Blue J Legal Tax Foresight

A companion text Purchasers of the textbook Legal Problem Solving: Reasoning, Research and Writing, 8th Edition will automatically receive The Ultimate Guide to Canadian Legal Research, 4th Edition as a companion volume. Together this combination provides a complete and detailed guide to legal research and the legal problem solving process, as well as a pocket checklist.

Featured Authors

Maureen f. fitzgerald.

Maureen F. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., LL.M., J.D., B.Comm. , is the author of 11 books and a former lawyer. She taught Legal Research and Writing at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia for several years and practiced law for more than 20 years in Toronto and Vancouver. Dr. Fitzgerald has a business degree, a JD degree, a masters of laws degree with merit from the London School of Economics as well as a doctorate degree from the University of British Columbia. She now dedicates her time to writing powerful books for positive change and speaks to audiences across North America. You can find her at maureenfitzgerald.com .

Susan Barker

Susan Barker is the Digital Services and Reference librarian at the Bora Laskin Law Library, University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She holds a Master of Information Studies from the University of Toronto and a Diploma in Library Techniques from Seneca College. She is the former Editor of the Canadian Law Library Review and teaches Legal Literature and Librarianship at the University of Toronto iSchool. She is also the co-author of Researching Legislative Intent: A Practical Guide (Forthcoming).

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No-cost Canadian legal research tools

• March 26, 2018

Legal research is often a necessary investment, to meet ethical obligations, to discover and advance a client’s best options, and to assess the current state of the law on a subject. Legal research is also often time-consuming and costly.

But lawyers have excellent primary and secondary research material options available at no cost that suffice in many circumstances – and they are constantly improving.

CanLII enhancements

Early promises of the web included dissemination of useful information and wide availability of helpful professional tools. Lately, we’re witnessing much of the internet overtaken by less useful information, and content filtered through ever fewer lenses.

At the same time, the open law movement has been quietly flourishing: Witness the recent growth of CanLII. It cannot do everything the commercial legal databases can do, but its improvements in features and content are outpacing expectations. Even as I teach CanLII in successive terms, I must catch up on new content and feature updates.

The scope of CanLII’s primary law databases shows that, whereas much content still dates only to the turn of the millennium, a few courts have supplied cases dating farther back . And the Supreme Court of Canada case collection is complete.

What’s perhaps surprising is CanLII’s extensive coverage of board and tribunal decisions. The range and scope varies among jurisdictions. Nevertheless, to those looking elsewhere for a year or two, the breadth of content in this category will be welcome news. For instance, we have nearly 40 years of Canadian Human Rights Board decisions and, among Québec’s long list of tribunal content, we have twenty years of decisions of Conseil de la magistrature and over a hundred thousand decisions of the Administrative Tribunal of Québec .

Other CanLII features include a basic legislation noting-up feature by which a hyperlinked section number links to cases that cite that section. Legislation includes other tools and information , such as versions at previous points in time, links to regulations ( or enabling statute ), and a note-up template. Cases offer pdf presentation, a “headnote” feature showing case history, links to cited cases and legislation, and other cases that cite the one you’re looking at.

Secondary content in CanLII

Other enhancements begin to move CanLII beyond a primary law source. A small collection of ebooks and other secondary content link to primary law in CanLII. But a growing venture is CanLII Connects , a source of summaries and comments linked to cases, and linked from case headnotes. CanLII Connects itself led to a new initiative to invite users to flag negative treatment of a case by a later one. These features aren't comprehensive – far from all the case law in CanLII has a summary, a comment, or a treatment flag—though the collection is growing. For the lawyer contributors, CanLII Connects offers an opportunity to demonstrate knowledge in a field while contributing to public legal information.

Research management

A tool I use regularly is Lexbox . Formerly available as a browser extension, it’s now built into the CanLII pages. A user can create a free Lexbox account, set up folders, and add cases and legislation along with personal annotations. Lexbox features include options to save and rerun search queries, and to set alerts of new results from the query.

Lexbox isn’t exclusive to CanLII: It’s compatible with the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Courts and Tax Court, and Ontario’s and BC’s legislation sites. Interestingly, CanLII recently acquired Lexum , the creator of Lexbox. Lexum has a prominent place in Canadian legal information technology: Before it developed the CanLII platform, it devised the Supreme Court of Canada decisions site and it now works with other bodies in Canada and beyond. Besides search and document display tools, Lexum is engaged in partnerships and machine learning projects, suggesting more is on the horizon for CanLII.

The Canadian Law Blogs List , also known as lawblogs.ca, is a comprehensive directory of Canadian legal writing on the web. Lawblogs.ca is well organized and sorts blogs by substantive area, jurisdiction, and industry categories. Because lawyers can see which firm, lawyer, or professor is the owner or author of blog, we can evaluate various perspectives, even where substantive subject is the same . Though we must use blogs with caution, lawyers and academics do literally put their reputations on the line when they blog.

No-cost content available to members of Bars

Many lawyers have available to them, without direct cost, an excellent secondary content collection. Several jurisdictions (including BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario) offer Bar members access, often by remote login, to HeinOnline’s licensed legal journals. The ability to search journal archives, save and rerun searches, and set alerts can assist research process mapping and effectiveness.

HeinOnline collections also carry mostly complete digitized primary law from Canadian jurisdictions; this digital availability can largely replace paper-based legislative history tracing.

Some law society or courthouse libraries offer digital editions of good quality legal books, such as those published by Emond or Irwin Law. In some jurisdictions lawyers can access these remotely.

When a commercial legal database is necessary, many lawyers are able to access Lexis Advance Quicklaw or WestlawNext Canada through law society or courthouse libraries. Availability varies again across jurisdictions and often includes day and after-hours on-site access.

Lawyers should check with their respective law society or courthouse libraries system for availability and access instructions.

Legal literature in online repositories

Legal academics often feature work on the L egal Scholarship Network of SSRN , which contains hundreds of thousands of full text articles, downloadable without charge .

Some academics prefer to send their scholarly output to non-commercial repositories. LawArXiv is one newer non-profit open legal scholarship repository. This site is worth bookmarking, though at this stage it hasn’t yet built up much Canadian content.

Finally, many university library systems host general research repositories which may contain legal scholarship. Lawyers can check a directory of open access repositories to find relevant sites, but be aware that few Canadian university repositories collect exclusively law papers.

Kim Nayyer is Associate University Librarian for the Law, Legal Research & Writing Program at the University of Victoria’s School of Law

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• Research Guides

Canadian Legal Research Manual

• Introduction
• Tips (Before You Start)
• Topic Definition
• Exploratory Research
• In-Depth Secondary Sources
• Legislation
• Finalize Research
• Legal Research Checklist
• Interactive: Legal Research Checklist
• Introduction to Secondary Sources
• Legal Encyclopedias
• Textbooks, Treatises, and Other Books
• Journal Literature
• Legal Dictionaries & Words and Phrases
• Non-Traditional Secondary Sources
• How Does GenAI Work?
• Creating Prompts for Legal GenAI
• Critically Assessing AI-generated Content
• Using and Citing AI-generated Content
• Introduction to Legislation
• The Legislative Process
• How Laws are Published
• Researching Bills
• Researching Statutes
• Researching Regulations
• Noting Up Legislation
• Introduction to Case Law
• How Cases are Published
• Finding a Known Case
• Finding Cases on a Topic
• Noting Up Case Law
• Introduction to English Law
• Secondary Sources
• English Legislation
• English Case Law
• English Legal Research Guides
• Introduction to American Law
• US Federal and State Legislation
• American Case Law
• American Legal Research Guides
• Introduction to International Law
• Primary Sources
• International Legal Research Guides
• Introduction to Foreign Law
• Foreign Legal Research Guides
• Canadian Legal Research Guides
• Indigenous Legal Research Guides
• Empirical Legal Research Guides
• Other Legal Research Methods
• Legal Citation

This section of the Manual covers key background information about Canadian case law, as well as research strategies for finding cases. 

Tables of Contents

• Finding Cases on a Topic
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Case Law: Main Access Points

• Last Updated: Oct 7, 2024 3:50 PM
• Subjects: Law
• Tags: case law , common law , jurisprudence , law , legal research , legal skills , legislation , regulations , secondary sources , statutes