Library Guides: Canadian Law: Finding cases on a topic

Finding Canadian cases on a topic

The following three strategies will help you find cases on a topic.

1. Secondary sources

To find significant/leading cases on a topic, use the following secondary sources:

Library catalogue
Find Canadian print and ebooks on the topic by using the catalogue.
Finding journal articles on Canadian Law
Find journal articles on the topic by using the journal indexes listed on the Journals tab in this guide.
Halsbury's Laws of Canada
Find commentary on the topic by using Halsbury's Laws of Canada.

2. Case digests

The following digests are arranged alphabetically by topic and contain case summaries, which link to the full text of the cases.

Westlaw Next Canada
• The Canadian Abridgment Digests on contains summaries of most Canadian reported cases since 1803, and every reported or unreported case since 1986, with the exception of Quebec civil law cases.
• The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (CED) includes commentary, cases and legislation on your topic.
The Canada Digest on Lexis+ Australia (UniMelb staff & student access)
Contains summaries of cases from all jurisdictions including Quebec. It includes cases from the Supreme Court, Federal Court and federal and provincial administrative boards. Coverage: from 1893 to current.

3. Case databases

To look for leading cases, use:

Recent cases at the highest court possible for the jurisdiction
Cases that have been followed or considered in a significant number of other cases.

To search more extensively for all cases on your topic, use keyword searches in one of the following Canadian databases which contain the full text of all available reported and unreported decisions from Canadian courts and tribunals.

Cases and Decisions
Cases and Decisions on WestlawNext Canada (UniMelb staff & student access). Searches can be narrowed by jurisdiction and topic. A sophisticated Advanced Search feature allows very specific searches.
What's in LawSource
For more information on the content and coverage of this database (dates, courts and report series), see WestlawNext Canada's 'What's in LawSource'. Individual cases link to the topic in the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (CED) and the Canadian Abridgment Digests, so you can find more cases on your topic.
'What's in Law Source - Tribunals'
Canadian Court and Tribunal Decisions
Go to Lexis+ Australia. Change the jurisdiction from Australia to Canada > Click on Search: Everything > Content Type > CA Cases. As well as adding your search terms, you can filter the search by eg: court, date and/or legislation judicially considered. TIP: use the catchwords/summary box for more targeted searching, rather than the free text box.
CanLII (open access)
Can be browsed by jurisdiction, court and year - or searched by keyword, and narrowed by, for example, jurisdiction.
Scope of Databases
For information on the content and coverage of the CanLII databases (courts and tribunals, date ranges etc).
Online Legal Research Course
An interactive tutorial by the Courthouse Libraries BC, Online Legal Research Course, demonstrates how to locate Canadian cases on a particular point of law.