Canadian Primary Legal Sources

This entry provides an overview of Canadian primary legal resources, including Canadian case law and legislation.

Canadian Case Law

Canadian case law is one of the most important sources of legal information that you will use during your career as a law student and lawyer. It is therefore essential that you become acquainted with how to research Canadian case law. Outlined below is information on the types of case law that exist, along with instructions for locating and noting up Canadian case law.

Simply put, Canadian case law refers to the body of decisions written by Canadian judges or administrative tribunals. These decisions have the force of law, and can be used to enforce legal rights as far-ranging as the right to collect damages for breach of contract to the right to have a government official issue a particular license.

It is important to realize that not every court case or hearing before an administrative tribunal results in a written decision. In may cases, the judge simply makes a ruling without providing reasons and the lawyers for the parties involved draft a court order reflecting the judge’s ruling. The court order is then signed by the judge and placed in the court file. Such orders are generally not believed to form part of Canadian “case law” since there is no easy means to access such information within a law library.

There are many categories of Canadian case law. Below is an overview of some of the most important of these categories.

Unreported Judgments

In those cases where a judge does issue detailed written reasons in support of his or her ruling ( i.e., a judgment), the majority of these judgments are never published in case reporters. Such judgments are considered to be “unreported” and available only online through QUICKLAW or Lexis-Nexis, or by ordering (for a fee) copies of the case through the publishers of digest services such as the All Canadian Weekly Summaries , which obtain the full-text of unreported decisions directly from the courthouses. Most judgments do not get published, first, because of the sheer volume of judgments being rendered, and second, because not every judgment is legally significant or of national interest. In addition, the market in Canada for the purchase of print case reporters is relatively small and it is very expensive for legal publishers to produce written case reporters.

Official Reporters

Cases that are significant may be published in official or unofficial reporters. Simply put, official reporters are reports published pursuant to statute by the official government printer, in connection with a particular court. In Canada, the official print reporters are the Supreme Court Reports and the Federal Court Reports. There are no official provincial case reporter series.

Unofficial or Semi-Official Reporters

Unofficial or semi-official reporters are a major source of published full-text court decisions. These reporters are produced by commercial publishers, hence they are sometimes called commercial reports. The Ontario Reports is an example of a semi-official reporter; it is published by Butterworths under the authority of the Law Society of Upper Canada.

In recent years in Canada, the distinction between official and unofficial case reporters has become less important since the majority of judgments being submitted by lawyers to the courts or administrative tribunals in support of their arguments are found in either unofficial reporters or are unreported decisions being downloaded from online services such as QUICKLAW or Lexis-Nexis.

Geographic Case Reporters/Reports from Particular Courts

Another way full-text court decisions are organized is by geographic region. National reporters cover the broadest region.

The only general Canadian law report series reporting cases in all subject areas from the two federal courts as well as from all provincial courts is the Dominion Law Reports, cited D.L.R.

Noting Up Canadian Case Law

A critical step in legal research is checking how the cases you find have been judicially considered. Not only will this research tell you if the original judgment is still relevant or if it has been overturned, but the analysis of the case in later judgments will give you different perspectives on the issue. This process – called noting up – is done for two primary reasons: to check a case’s judicial history (to confirm the case has not been reversed on appeal) and to check a case’s judicial treatment (to determine whether subsequent courts have followed your particular case or otherwise commented on it).

Canadian Case Law Online

The advantage of electronic versions of legislation, whether on the Internet, CD-ROM or online databases, is that the text of the legislation is much more up to date as the amendments are incorporated directly into the text of the original act or regulation as soon as they are available. This minimizes the need to manually update print versions through various annual volumes.

Main Canadian Primary Sources in Legal Research

To skip to a specific section of this resource guide, click on a link in the outline below.

• Case Law
• Canadian Constitution
• Statutes
• Regulations
• Treaties

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Secondary Sources

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This entry was last updated: April 24, 2016