Finding and Researching Cases

The Canadian legal system uses both legislation created by Parliament and the provincial legislatures and cases decided by judges as important sources of law. Formal decisions of judges can be published in printed law reports. These decisions will often provide an interpretation and application of the legislation.

Court decisions may also be referred to as judgments, reasons for judgment, or reasons. These are different than court orders which are generally only available directly from the court that issued the order and not available online. Not every decision is reported or formally published, some are delivered orally.

Reasons for judgment can be delivered immediately or reserved, when reserved the matter will be considered before the judge issues the judgment.

Written court decisions may be found in a few places; freely online, through paid databases and/or in print law reports. 

For most provinces, decisions from about the late 1990s onwards are available online for free.

Canadian Decisions

Most cases are assigned a unique neutral citation by the courts. It consists of the year, province abbreviation, court level and a sequential number. (ie. 2018 ABCA 102)

For print case reporters, visit our subject-specific guides or search our catalogue.

E-Resources

Federal

AB

Alberta

The official version of the reasons for judgment is the signed original or handwritten endorsement in the court file. If there is a question about the content of a judgment, the original court file takes precedence

BC

British Columbia

B.C. Human Rights Tribunal Decisions
This website includes the Tribunal decisions from 1997 to the present.

Court of Appeal and Supreme Court
This website includes decisions from 1990 to the present.

CanLII – Provincial Court
This website includes decisions from 1999 to the present.

British Columbia Reports
This website includes decisions from 1867-1948

Unreported B.C. Decisions
Using this index you can search unreported B.C. decisions held in the Vancouver Courthouse Library.

MB

Manitoba

CanLII – Manitoba Court Decisions
The Manitoba government does not maintain its own database of court decisions, but CanLii includes decisions from Manitoba courts, and some administrative tribunals, from 1998 to the present.

Manitoba Human Rights Commission
This website includes the Commission’s decisions from 1997 through the present.

NB

New Brunswick

CanLII – New Brunswick Court Decisions
The New Brunswick government does not maintain its own database of court decisions, but CanLII includes decisions from New Brunswick Courts, and some administrative tribunals, from 1990 to the present.

NL

Newfoundland and Labrador

CanLII – Newfoundland and Labrador Court Decisions
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador does not maintain its own database of court decisions, but CanLII includes decisions from Newfoundland and Labrador Courts, and some administrative tribunals, from 1993 to the present.

Labour Relations Board Decisions
This website includes decisions rendered by the Board from 1975 to the present.

NT

Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories Court Decisions
This bilingual website includes decisions from 2006 to the present. The database also includes brief digests for some older decisions, where the full-text is not available online.

NS

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia Court Decisions
This website includes decisions from various Nova Scotia courts, 2003 to the present, together with some selected older decisions.

CanLII – Nova Scotia Court Decisions
Includes decisions from Nova Scotia courts and various administrative tribunals from 1945 – present, the coverage of the decisions varies with each court or tribunal. Canlii also includes cited decisions from the Nova Scotia Reports (NSR) form 1970 – 2016.

NU

Nunavut

CanLII – Nunavut Court Decisions
The government of Nunavut does not maintain its own database of court decisions, but CanLII includes decisions from Nunavut courts from their creation in 1999 to the present. (Note that prior to 1999, Nunavut was part of the Northwest Territories.)

ON

Ontario

Decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario
This bilingual website includes decisions from 1998 to the present.

CanLII – Ontario Court Decisions
CanLII includes decisions from Ontario Courts and various administrative tribunals, mostly from 2002 to the present.

Ontario Land Tribunal

Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal

PE

Prince Edward Island

CanLII – Prince Edward Island Court Decisions
CanLII includes decisions from Prince Edward Island Courts and some administrative tribunals, from 1993 to the present.

QC

Quebec

Décisions des tribunaux du Québec
This French-language website includes decisions of various Quebec courts and administrative tribunals, from 1987 to the present.

Centre d’access a la information juridique (CAIJ) – a natural language tool for searching Quebec caselaw and doctrine (Law Collection – Ecole du Barreau)

Selected decisions, 2004 to the present, have been unofficially translated into English.

SK

Saskatchewan

CanLII – Saskatchewan Court Decisions
The government of Saskatchewan does not maintain its own database of court decisions, but CanLII includes decisions from Saskatchewan courts, and some administrative tribunals, from 1994 to the present.

Saskatchewan Case Digests
This database contains case digests of Court of Appeal, King’s Bench, and a selection of Provincial Court judgments from 1987 to the present.

YT

Yukon

CanLII – Yukon Court Decisions
The government of Yukon does not maintain its own database of court decisions, but CanLII includes decisions from Yukon courts from 1996 to the present.

Unreported and Oral Decisions (Canadian)

Unreported decisions  are the written decisions of a judge that have not been published in a case law reporter. Alberta Law Libraries has a collection of Unreported Decisions from 1954-2009. All unreported decisions after 2009 are available on Canlii. For decisions prior to 2009 please visit the library or use our Ask a Law Librarian service to find out if we have the Unreported Decision you are seeking.

Oral decisions have no written reasons as the decision was given orally in court.

Jury trials also have no written reasons. To determine the outcome of a jury trial you can try looking for newspaper or journal articles on the case.

Alberta

Alberta Law libraries maintains a collection of unreported decisions from 1954-2008. This collection contains a few oral decisions as well.  Many of these decisions can not be accessed remotely, except for those that are now on CanLII.

Oral decisions:

  • Order a Court of Justice or Court of Kings’s Bench transcript online.
  • Transcript management keeps cases for 10 years.
  • There is a fee for this service based on the size of the document.
  • If they no longer have a copy of a decision and the decision went to appeal the transcript of the oral decision is part of the appeal book and a copy may be requested through the registry at the Court of Appeal. There is a fee for this service.
  • Older decisions and all of the court documents relating to those files may be available through the Provincial Archives of Alberta if you are unable to locate them elsewhere. They typically don’t receive materials until they are between 42-80 years old depending on the type of case. 

British Columbia

Saskatchewan

Quebec

  • SOQUIJ Translations of selected decisions of the Court of Appeal of Quebec, Superior Court of Quebec and the Court of Quebec
  • SOQUIJ RRS Feed If you would like notification of newly translated decisions

Citing Cases

Properly and uniformly citing cases allows readers to easily locate and retrieve documents. This section introduces some basic principles for citing cases and points you to websites and tools for legal citation in general. This guide is not exhaustive. For detailed information about legal citation, always refer to the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 10th ed. often referred to as the McGill Guide.

Alberta Courts

The Court of King’s Bench of Alberta officially adopts the most recent edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 10th ed.

See also:

Last revised: April 15, 2024

Parts of a Citation

Style of Cause

  • The style of cause consists of the names of parties to an action.  It is a short version of the title of the case.
  • A v or a c separates the names of the parties (the letter v means the decision is in English and the letter c means the decision is in French). If the decision is bilingual and you are writing in English, use v.
  • Italicize the names of the parties and the v or c that separates their names. If more than one person is on either side of an action, use the name of the first party listed.
  • Refer to section 3.3 Style of Cause in the McGill Guide
  • Examples:
    • 689799 Alberta Ltd v Edmonton (City)
    • R v Vader (The “r” refers to the Crown, or government, in criminal cases)

Neutral Citations

  • Neutral citations are assigned by the courts and consist of the year, an abbreviation for the court and a sequential number.
  • The neutral citation should always be provided first if you are listing multiple reporters.
  • Refer to section 3.5 Neutral Citation in the McGill Guide
  • Examples (The bolded section is an example of a neutral citation):
    • R v Alwan, 2024 ABCJ 72 
    • ATCO Energy Solutions Ltd v Energy Dynamics Ltd, 2024 ABKB 162

Official Reporters

  • If the case was reported in an official reporter, place the official reporter citation directly after the neutral citation.
  • Official reporters are published by the King’s Printer. The McGill Guide lists three official reporters:
    • SCR or RCS (Canada Supreme Court Reports / Recueil des arrêts de la Cour suprême du Canada)
    • FCR or CF (Federal Court Reports / Recueil des arrêts de la Cour fédérale du Canada)
    • Ex CR or RC de l’É (Exchequer Court of Canada Reports / Receuil des arrêts de la Cour de l’Échiquier)
  • Refer to sections 3.7 Online Database Services and 3.8 Printed Reporter of the McGill Guide
  • Examples (The bolded section is an example of an official reporter):
    • Ernst v Alberta Energy Regulator, 2017 SCC 1, [2017] 1 SCR 3
    • Secure Energy Services Inc. v. Canada (Commissioner of Competition), [2023] FCA 172

Semi-Official Reporters

  • If the neutral citation and/or official reporters are not available, provide a citation from a semi-official reporter
  • Find a complete listing of semi-official reporters in Appendix C-2 of the McGill Guide
  • Example (The bolded section is an example of a
    • Schitthelm v. Kelemen, 2013 ABQB 42, 557 A.R. 151

Other Sources

Other sources include citations from electronic services and unofficial reports. Keep the following in mind when providing citations to other sources:

  • if there is a neutral citation, provide it.
  • provide sources in this order: neutral citation; official reporter; semi-official reporter; and lastly other sources
  • choose other sources carefully and consider their accessibility to readers (for electronic services, preference is given to databases that are widely accessible, for example CanLII.
  • printed reporters that cover a large geographic area and are readily available are preferred
  • consult the McGill Guide to figure out which sources to cite based on what is available for a given case.

Pinpoint References

A pinpoint reference refers to a specific paragraph or page number. Keep the following in mind when making pinpoint references.

  • place the pinpoint reference after the main citation. If there is a neutral citation, always refer to paragraphs.
  • cite paragraphs using ¶, para or paras
  • place the abbreviation for “and following” (ff) immediately after the page or paragraph number to indicate a general area
  • separate consecutive page or paragraph numbers with a hyphen (Example: 30-40)
  • if referring to paragraphs or pages that are not in sequential order, separate the paragraph or page numbers with a comma (Example: 128, 190)
  • Refer to section 3.6 Pinpoint in the McGill Guide

Last revised: April 16, 2024.

Resources

Last revised: April 16, 2024

Terminology

  • Style of Cause – refers to the parties involved in the case.
  • Headnote – summary of a case provided by a published case decision either online or written
  • Neutral citation – refers to the unique citation given to a case by the court. They usually appear in the following format:  (year) 2021 (Provincial abbreviation) AB (Court Level) QB (number) 122 – e.g. 2021 ABQB 122
  • Transcript – refers to the orally transcribed reasons for a decision

Fatality inquiries

Judicial Consideration (Noting-up)

Noting up a case involves researching its appeal history and the judicial consideration it has received in subsequent decisions. Judicial consideration refers to a decision being followed, distinguished, overruled or considered by a later decision. Searching for judicial consideration may help you determine if the case has been influential, locate similar cases, and see how the law has evolved in terms of a particular legal principle.

Print

E-Resources

You can note up your case using:

When noting up watch the case treatment indicators to determine how the case was treated. ie positive, negative, cautionary etc.

International Cases

Commonwealth

American

  • Legal Information Institute (LII) The LII collection of state legal materials gathers, state by state, Internet-accessible sources of the constitutions, statutes, judicial opinions, and regulations for the fifty states, plus D.C., and the U.S. territories and affiliated jurisdictions.
  • Historic Supreme Court Decisions American
  • HeinOnline – Includes early American case law and the U.S. Supreme Court Reports.

International

Additional Sources

Disclaimer: As law librarians, we are pleased to provide you this resource for information and research purposes only – It is not a substitute for professional legal advice. We strive to bring you quality and current information in this resource, but we make no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, accessibility, adequacy, or completeness of the information presented here. The sources featured are selected based on professional assessment and opinion, and do not constitute an endorsement, editorial, review, or guarantee.