Anaya Nolan
The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) is a website that provides access to court decisions and legislation from all Canadian provinces and territories. CanLII's search engine allows users to search for case law using a variety of methods, including by citation, case name, or a combination of information such as the docket number, date, or the name of a party, judge, or lawyer involved in the case. Users can also search within specific jurisdictions, courts, or tribunals, and further refine their searches using filters for dates, document types, etc. To search for case law on CanLII, users can utilise the search templates available on the site or navigate through the website's tree structure, selecting the relevant jurisdiction and database. Additionally, CanLII offers features such as saving searches and setting up alerts, with paid accounts offering expanded functionality.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Search by decision citation | Enter the CanLII citation, neutral citation, or citation of a law report supported by RefLex in field 2 of the search template |
| Search by case name | Enter only the important words, as case names may vary from one publisher to another |
| Search by docket number | Enter the docket number in field 2 of the search template |
| Search by date | Enter the date or period in which the decision was rendered in the date field |
| Search by name of a party, judge, or lawyer | Enter the name in field 1 to perform a full-text search |
| Search for common expressions | Place the expression between quotation marks, e.g., "duty of care" |
| Search for exact terms with common words | Combine operators, e.g., EXACT("duty of care") |
| Search by jurisdiction | Choose the federal, provincial, or territorial jurisdiction from the left menu |
| Search by court or tribunal | Select specific jurisdictions, courts, or tribunals using filters |
| Search by date | Enter the date or period in the date field |
| Search by type of document | Specify the type of document in your search query |
| Search by relevance | Sort results by relevance, which is calculated using metrics on search terms and normalized text in CanLII's document databases |
| Search using special characters | Special characters are considered generic, and words connected by a special character will be treated as a phrase |
| Search using punctuation in citations | The syntax is not sensitive to punctuation in legal citation acronyms and abbreviations |
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What You'll Learn
Using search templates
The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) is a free resource that provides access to case decisions from every level of Canadian courts. It offers a variety of search templates to help users find relevant case law.
To find a document on CanLII, it is recommended to use one of the many search templates available on the site. Users can navigate to the federal, provincial, or territorial jurisdiction they are interested in and select a legislative or case law database. The legislation is organised alphabetically, while the decisions are organised chronologically.
If you know the decision's citation, you can enter it into field 2 of the search template. For example, to find "McMahon v. Canada (Attorney General), 2005 FCA 33 (CanLII)", simply enter "2005 FCA 33". If you only have the case name, enter the important words, such as "mcmahon canada". It is advisable to use only the most pertinent words since case names may vary across publishers.
Additionally, the docket number can be entered into field 2, and the date or period of the decision can be specified in the date field. If you know the name of one of the parties, a judge, or a lawyer involved, you can enter this information in field 1 to perform a full-text search.
When using search templates, it is important to note that the syntax is case-insensitive, meaning that searched terms can be typed in uppercase or lowercase without affecting the results. However, the operator "NOT" should always be capitalised to be recognised as a search operator. Special characters, such as dashes or apostrophes, are considered generic and replaceable unless they connect two words.
CanLII's search engine is a powerful tool that allows users to access documents quickly and efficiently. By utilising the search templates and filters, users can easily navigate and refine their searches to find the most relevant case law information.
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Search by jurisdiction
When searching for case law on CanLII, you can select specific jurisdictions using the Cases, Legislation or Commentary filters. To do this, first launch your initial search query. Once you have done this, you can use the filters to restrict the scope of your query. The All Jurisdictions filter can be used to select a specific jurisdiction, such as British Columbia.
CanLII is the Canadian version of LII, which is also available in other countries. It is a good resource for Canadian case law, but for decisions from other jurisdictions, such as the U.S., you may need to use a different resource, such as Google Scholar.
If you are searching for legislation, you can enter terms found in the title of the statute or regulation, or its year of enactment and chapter number. You can also use the left menu on the homepage to choose the federal, provincial or territorial jurisdiction for which you want to access documents.
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Search operators
The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) is a free resource that allows users to search for case decisions from every level of Canadian court. CanLII has powerful search capabilities, and users can refine their searches using search operators.
CanLII also supports the use of Boolean search operators, which can be used in the ''Document text' search box to create successful searches. For example, you can use the AND, OR, and EXACT operators to specify the relationship between your search terms. The AND operator will narrow your search results to only include documents that contain both of the specified terms, while the OR operator will broaden your search results to include documents that contain at least one of the specified terms. The EXACT operator will ensure that the specified term is included in the results, but it is optional.
Additionally, CanLII allows users to use brackets to indicate the most important part of their search and proximity operators to specify that certain terms should be within the same sentence. Quotation marks can also be used as search operators to limit results to documents that include a specific phrase or variant of that phrase.
By using these search operators, users can refine their searches on CanLII to quickly and efficiently find the case law information they are looking for.
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Search by citation
If you know the citation of the case law document you are looking for, you can enter its CanLII citation, neutral citation, or a citation of a law report supported by RefLex in the second field of the search template. For example, to find the decision McMahon v. Canada (Attorney General), 2005 FCA 33 (CanLII), you should start by entering only the citation without the case name: 2005 FCA 33. If you only have the case name, enter only the important words, for instance, "mcmahon canada". It is better to enter only the important words because the case name may vary from one publisher to another.
The CanLII citation is always posted clearly in the header of every decision published on CanLII and provides an easy way to refer to decisions on the platform. If you are searching for a statute or regulation, it is more efficient to use the search engine. However, if you know that your search is limited to federal, provincial, or territorial law, you can navigate directly to the search template for the corresponding database of legislation. If you know the text's citation, input a few terms appearing in the title and, if applicable, its year of publication or chapter number in the second field of the search template. For example, to find the Energy Efficiency Act, SNB 1992, c E-9.11, start by entering its alphanumeric citation: SNB 1992, c E-9.11.
If you are looking for a specific case law document, you can navigate to the page of the court of tribunal that is of interest to you and type the beginning of the name you are looking for in the second field of the search template, followed by the wildcard character (*). For example, on the Supreme Court of Canada's page, you can enter "cha*" in the second field and then launch the search. You can further refine your search by specifying the approximate period in which the decision was rendered by entering the year in the third field of the search template.
When searching by citation, it is important to note that the exact form of a citation depends on the source of the case. The standard Canadian legal citation style guide, commonly called the "McGill Guide," shows how to format different case citations, whether they are published online or in an annual or series print law reporter. When searching for a case by its citation on CanLII, do not include the case name. Only include the information after the comma. For example, if you are searching for the case Dickson v Royal Bank of Canada, 1975 CanLII 148 (SCC) [Dickson], you would only enter "1975 CanLII 148 (SCC)" as your search query. Additionally, almost all Canadian courts assign a neutral citation to their cases now, but this is a more recent development, so you will not find neutral citations for cases that are over 20 years old.
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Search by date
The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) is a free resource that allows users to search for case decisions from every level of Canadian courts.
To search for case law on CanLII by date, users can follow these steps:
- Navigate to the page of the court or tribunal that you are interested in.
- On the search template, enter the beginning of the name you are looking for in the "Statute name / case name / citation / docket number" field. Enter at least three letters, followed by the wildcard character (). For example, to search for cases related to "cha", enter "cha" in the field.
- Sort the results by date to narrow down your search.
- If you have too many results, refine your search by specifying the approximate period in which the decision was rendered. You can enter the decision year in the corresponding field of the search template. For example, enter "2005" for a specific year or enter a range, such as "2001" and "2004" for a longer period.
- Additionally, you can use the Cases, Legislation, or Commentary filters to further restrict the scope of your query. These filters allow you to select specific jurisdictions, courts, or tribunals, among other options.
- You can also enter the date or period in which the decision was rendered in the date field if you know the specific timeframe.
- To keep up with a court's recent decisions, consider subscribing to its RSS feed through your preferred reader or aggregator.
By following these steps, users can effectively search for case law on CanLII by date and utilize the platform's search capabilities to find relevant information.
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Frequently asked questions
To search for case law on CanLII, you can use one of the many search templates available on the site. You can also navigate towards a document from the home page by following the tree structure of the website: in the left menu, choose the federal, provincial or territorial jurisdiction, then choose a legislative or case law database, and then select an alphabetical (legislation) or chronological (decisions) list to help you find the text of the document.
If you know the decision's citation, enter its CanLII citation, neutral citation, or a citation of a law report supported by RefLex in field 2 of the search template. For example, to find the decision McMahon v. Canada (Attorney General), 2005 FCA 33 (CanLII), you should begin by entering only the citation without the case name or "style of cause": 2005 FCA 33. If you only have the case name, enter only the important words, e.g., "mcmahon canada".
If you are looking for an expression that contains a very common word, you can place the expression between quotation marks, e.g., "duty of care". You can also combine both operators at once to limit the search to exact terms and include common words, e.g., EXACT("duty of care").
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