What is CanLII and Why should I use it?
CanLII highlights
- CanLII is a FREE resource that contains nearly 400 databases of Canadian case law and many board & tribunal decisions as well
- All Provincial & Federal Legislation
- You do not need a password to use it!
- Same ease of access across case law & legislation that is often better designed than other platforms, such as e-Laws
- This familiarity makes it easier to use since it is the same layout whether you are searching for case law or legislation
- Allows for more sophisticated criteria filtering that is easy to use and can produce better search results
- Stable links (permalinks) to all resources (you can send a link that won’t break) to your requestor
- CanLII documents & links are court approved. See the Consolidated Practice Directions for the Superior Court of Justice for the use of CanLII in books of authorities and factums
- Commentary such as textbooks (Secondary sources) that is increasing in its breadth but has several key resources such as Wrongful Dismissal and Civil Procedure
- Remote Access – if lawyers are looking for case law, legislation and some secondary sources remotely, please recommend CanLII (they pay for CanLII as part of the LSO fees since it is funded by the Federation of Law Associations.
As part of our Learn with LiRN Curriculum, Jen Walker of County of Carleton Law Association created a customized session for LiRN about How to Use CanLII.
Jen’s power-point presentation about the Advantages/Disadvantages of CanLII and a helpful – Why should I learn to use it? She also did a live demo showing its ease of use searching for cases, legislation, noting up both and some of their secondary sources.
Check out the Recording of the CanLII session here
What is CanLII?
Case law & Tribunal decisions
- The CanLII.org website 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.org also contains decisions from many federal and provincial administrative tribunals.
- Noting up cases
- Can note up the entire case of just specific paragraphs
- Helpful jalapeno peppers indicate level of discussion about your case [Discussion intensity]
- Sidebar indicator displays key paragraphs that cited by your case
Legislation
- CanLII provides access to consolidated statutes and regulations as well as annual statutes for all jurisdictions in Canada. Each jurisdiction has a dedicated page detailing the specific coverage available for it.
- Legislation further information & help
- Noting Up legislation including by Section number
- Point-in-time databases provide you with access not only to a current, up-to-date version of the consolidated legislative text, but also to past versions. Moreover, the following search tools are available for these databases:
- Once a search query has been launched, the “All versions” sort option available in the “Legislation” tab.
- A versions comparison tool which allows easy identification of the parts of text that have been changed (see for instance the COMPARE button available in the “Version” tab of the Access to Information Act).
Commentary
- CanLII provides access to various types of secondary law materials, from law books, journals, articles, reports, and other resources. These materials are available electronically in CanLII.org’s Commentary section. Click here to browse this material.
- Includes Canadian university law reviews
- Peter Neumann and Jeffrey Sack’s eText on Wrongful Dismissal and Employment Law from Lancaster House.
- Noel Semple’s Civil Procedure and Practice in Ontario, 2nd ed
- Brent Anderson, Joven Narwal and Tony Paisana’s The Criminal Law Ebook
Citation Guide
Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide
The COAL Citation Guide originated with two primary drivers: the belief that we could create a citation guide that will better meet the needs of Canadian legal writers and researchers and the goal of creating a citation guide that will be accessible to everyone, via an open access publishing model.
Help by topic
- Legislation – Description of point-in-time databases and glossary
- Search – Search templates, query syntax and results pages
- RefLex – Technology, hyperlinks and headnotes
- CanLII Citation – How to cite documents published on CanLII
- FAQ – Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Guides including videos
- CanLII’s YouTube channel
- The Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide (formerly: Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research)
- The CanLII Primer: Legal Research Principles and CanLII Navigation for Self-Represented Litigants (NSRLP – Representing Yourself Canada)
- Learn with LiRN session on CanLII
Legal Information Institute’s global network
CanLII is part of a global research network promoting free, independent and non-profit access to worldwide law such as BAILII (British), US via Cornell and the grand dame: AustLII. More countries can be found on WorldLII
- Many of these resources were funded by academic resources to provide free access to case law and legislation.
- In Canada it is funded by Federation of Law Societies of Canada so lawyers in Ontario are paying for this great resource as an viable alternative to pricey resources like Westlaw, etc.
If you have not used CanLII – please give it a try!