This page aims to offer a guidance on where you can locate sources of Canadian cases with various categories of resources, including:
*Since there are large number of courts under each state and various under the Federal, only key materials will be mentioned in this page.
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Supported by Westlaw Canada, this platform offers access to all court decisions, judgments and orders from 1825. Cases published in the esteemed law reports of the country, such as the Canadian Criminal Cases and Dominion Law Report, with the popular case citator The Canadian Abridgment Digests, are also available on this platform.
Collections of Canadian law reports are available via the LAHK, including cases of the federal and different provinces. You may filter by content type, jurisdictions and legal topics to minimize your results. Besides, searching with keywords, such as terms within the text or parties’ names, is always feasible.
HeinOnline offers access to several materials related to the Supreme Court of Canada, including Collection of Notes of Unreported Cases and Practice of the Supreme Court of Canada. You can also find full-text of the Supreme Court Reports from 1876 – 2019, where browsing by volumes and years, or search via keywords, is available.
Authorized Law Reports
Currently, there are two official reporter series in Canada, the SCR and FCR. Both titles are published in English with headnotes and other editorial enhancements included.
Supreme Court Reports [SCR]
Federal Courts Reports [FCR]
Exchequer Court Reports [ECR]
Published in 1877 - 1971, the ECR was once an authorised law report series in Canada. The Exchequer Court of Canada was replaced by the Federal Court of Canada in 1971. Hence, the reporting agent was being replaced as a result.
Major Law Reports
Other than official reporter series, a number of esteemed law reports are available in the country. Below only listed a few titles. You may visit our subscribed databases and browse for more law report titles on different subjects and jurisdictions.
Canadian Criminal Cases [CCC]
As from its title, the CCC covers significant criminal cases in the country.
Dominion Law Reports [DLR]
This reputable title covers all aspects of law in Canada.
The Canadian Abridgement
The Canadian Abridgment serves as an important tool in legal research, for locating a case by its legal issue in an efficient way. The title includes a collection of case digests or summaries, issued by the Canadian court and administrative tribunals. To know more about how it works, in print and via BestCase Library, you may check out this Guide by Westlaw Canada.
Canada’s Court System (click to visit)
Maintained by the Department of Justice in Canada, this website offers brief background information on how the court system works in Canada and other relevant topics.
Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada (click to visit)
This Office was established in 1978 to handle federal judicial affairs with support to federally appointed judges. Here, you can find the Federal Courts Reports in full-text dating back to 1870s to the present, which are the official reports of the decisions issued under the Federal Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
Supreme Court (click to visit)
Served as the highest court at the federal level in Canada, the Supreme Court can be noted as the final court of appeal in Canada. Decisions are published in the official report titled Supreme Court Reports. Documented judgments, bulletins of proceeding and reports available on this site can be traced back to the 1870s; while access to Court Records are upon request that abide by set policies.
Federal Court of Appeal (click to visit)
The Federal Court of Appeal generally hears appeals from the Federal Court and the Tax Court of Canada. Decisions displayed on this site can be dated back to 1988, with more comprehensive collections available starting from 1997 and onwards. Selected decisions may be issued in French, depends on the language used in the court.
Federal Court (click to visit)
In general, the Federal Court conducts hearings and provides decisions in disputes across the country. Decisions issued by the Court can be found on this site, dating back to 1972, with more comprehensive collection available starting from 1996 and onwards.
Tax Court (click to visit)
In general, the Tax Court deals with disputes regarding tax issues. Decisions issued by this Court can be found on this site, dating back to 1996, with a more comprehensive collection available starting from 1997 and onwards. You may search by the case citation, case name or subject (i.e. which Act the case is relevant to).
Below are listed some quick access links to official court websites of each province in Canada (arranged in alphabetical order):
| Alberta | British Columbia |
| Manitoba | New Brunswick |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Northwest Territories |
| Nova Scotia | Nunavut |
| Ontario | Prince Edward Island |
| Quebec | Saskatchewan |
| Yukon |
Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) (click to visit)
Supporting the free access of legal information, an extensive collection of legal materials are available via CanLII. Here, you can access full-text of cases by browsing by jurisdictions (i.e. federal or provinces) and select the level of court under Courts; in which the coverage of each court would differ and depend on each court. You may search in French or English, but please note that most cases are reported in English.
