Researching Case Law

CanLII (Canadian Legal Information Institute) is a free legal information website and is a member of the Free Access to Law Movement. CanLII provides access to court judgments from all Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, federal courts, and the courts in all Canada’s provinces and territories. CanLII also contains decisions from many federal and provincial administrative tribunals. If you are searching for recent Canadian decisions on a topic CanLII is a good website to search.

This example is searching for cases involving acceptance of contracts using emojis.

1. Go to the CanLII homepage.
2. Enter your keywords into the Document text field. This example is searching for the terms contract AND accept* AND emoji
   
   To assist with creating your search terms view the Search help operators table.
    
3. In the results list, select the Cases tab. The default sorting is by relevance, you also have the option to filter by jurisdiction, date or subject headings.
   
    
4. Click on the case names to view the full text.
   
    
5. You have the option to download the PDF for the full text of the judgment. You can also view the case analysis to examine subsequent judicial considerations of this case.
   
    
6. For further information about searching for cases in CanLII view the Search help page.
    

Note

AGLC4 rule 15 explains how to reference Canadian cases.

The Supreme Court of Canada website contains information about court hearings and judgments. This includes free access to the full text of the Supreme Court Reports. The Supreme Court Reports is the official reporter for the Supreme Court of Canada.
 

Case Example:

Crookes v Newton [2011] 3 SCR 269

In this example the name of the case is Crookes v Newton. The year of the case is 2011. The authorised law report citation for this case is [2011] 3 SCR 269.
 

Finding Canadian cases on the Supreme Court of Canada website

1. Go to the Cases section of the Supreme Court of Canada website.
2. To locate cases reported in the official law report series, Canada Supreme Court Reports, click on the link to Canada Supreme Court Reports.
   
    
3. Search for the party names, using AND as a connector, and press Enter.
   
    
4. On the results screen, click on the Decisions tab.
   
    
5. From here you can either click on the case name to view the full text of the judgment, or click on the PDF icon to download the original law report format.
   

Note

AGLC4 rule 15 explains how to reference Canadian cases.

The Federal Court Reports is the official reporter for the Federal Court of Canada. The Dominion Law Reports is the leading reporter series for national coverage of Canadian case law. Unreported judgments of the Federal Court of Canada are available on the Decisions section of the Federal Court website.
 

Case Example:

Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership v. Leo Ocean, S.A. [2015] 3 F.C.R. 712

In this example the name of the case is Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership v. Leo Ocean, S.A. The year of the case is 2015. The authorised law report citation for this case is [2015] 3 F.C.R. 712.
 

Finding Canadian cases of the Federal Court of Canada

1. Go to the Federal Court Reports database on the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada website.
2. Start typing in the case name, and select the case from the dropdown menu.
   
    
3. Click on the PDF icon to download the original law report format. The Full-Text Decision link only provides access to the unreported judgment version.
   
    

Note

AGLC4 rule 15 explains how to reference Canadian cases.

HeinOnline provides complete coverage of the official bilingual series of the Canada Supreme Court Reports. Cases include background information, statutes and regulations, authors cited, analysis and the decision. Canada Supreme Court Reports is a primary source for the key decisions of Canada's highest court.

Case Example:

Crookes v Newton [2011] 3 SCR 269

In this example the name of the case is Crookes v Newton. The year of the case is 2011. The authorised law report citation for this case is [2011] 3 SCR 269.
 

Finding Canadian cases on HeinOnline

1. Go to the HeinOnline database homepage via the Library A-Z Databases.
2. From the homepage, in Browse Databases by Category section under the search bar. Select Canadian Content and then click on Canada Supreme Court Reports.

3. Next, click on the Advanced Search option under the search bar.

4. Enter the case name into the Case Name field. Click on Search.

5. Click on the law report citation link to open the full text of the case, or click on the PDF icon to download a PDF copy of the case.

5. If you clicked on the link to the law report citation, you will be able to view the full text of the case online, by using the arrows to navigate to the next page.

6. Select the PDF version of the case, to download the full-text of the case.

Note

AGLC4 rule 15 explains how to reference Canadian cases. The CITE function in HeinOnline for Canadian cases is not always AGLC4 compliant.

Lexis Advance (US Research System) contains Canadian resources under the International content section.
 

Case Example:

Crookes v Newton [2011] 3 SCR 269

In this example the name of the case is Crookes v Newton. The year of the case is 2011. The authorised law report citation for this case is [2011] 3 SCR 269.
 

Finding Canadian cases on Lexis Advance (US Research System)

1. Go to the Lexis Advance (US Research System) database homepage via the Library A-Z Databases.
2. Scroll down to Explore Content and click on the International tab and then select Canada.

3. Select All Canada Cases under the Cases heading.
   
    
4. Scroll through the alphabetical list and click on Supreme Court Reports.
5. Enter the law report citation in the Find by citation field.

5. In the results screen click on the case name to view the case in full text.

6. From this page you can download the full text of the judgment or access the Citing Cases link to view subsequent case considerations.

Note: Downloading this version will be in plain text format, as Lexis does not publish the official Supreme Court Report Series.

Note

AGLC4 rule 15 explains how to reference Canadian cases. Using from Lexis will not produce an AGLC4 citation.

Thomson Reuters Westlaw contains Canadian resources under the International Materials section.

Case Example:

Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership v Leo Ocean, S.A. [2014] FCA 231

In this example the name of the case is Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership v Leo Ocean, S.A. The year of the case is 2014. The medium neutral citation for this case is [2014] FCA 231.
 

Finding Canadian cases on Thomson Reuters Westlaw 

1. Go to Thomson Reuters Westlaw database homepage via the Library A-Z databases.
2. Under Browse, select International Materials from the All Content tab.

3. Select the Canada link under the Jurisdictions section.
4. Then select All Canadian Cases and Board & Tribunal Decisions.
5. Next select Federal Court of Canada.
6. Scroll down to the Document Fields section and at the Citation field type the case citation and press Enter.

7. In the results list click on the case name.

8. From the full-text screen you can download the PDF of the original unreported judgment version. Or you can click on Citing References to view subsequent case considerations.

Note

AGLC4 rule 15 explains how to reference Canadian cases.