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ules. There are also separate rules for the Federal Courts and the
Supreme Court of Canada, with annotated versions available as well.
If your matter is proceeding in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia,
the Supreme Court Family Division, or the Court of Appeal, you will
turn to the Nova Scotia Civil Procedure Rules. Whether using a hard
copy looseleaf version, the online version from the Barristers’ Society
or the Courts of Nova Scotia, or both, there is added research value in
the case annotations, practice memoranda and tables of concordance.
(The Judicature Act is a handy companion here as well.)
#4: Case law
This article has warned against proceeding directly into case law
keyword searches the moment you have a research problem. But once
you have canvassed background sources and then reached the stage of
searching for case law, how can you stay cost-effective and efficient?
Three free sources will be reviewed here: CanLII, Maritime Law
Book’s Raw Law, and the Nova Scotia Courts’ Decisions Database.
First, CanLII: This free Canada-wide online legal research tool
contains statutes, cases, commentary (on CanLII itself and on
CanLII Connects), and links to
international research sites.
CanLII has a federal database
along with a database for each
province, which contain further
subcategories. When keyword
searching, CanLII lets you sort
your results by “document
relevance”; “most recent”; “most
cited”; and “court level” – play
around with the filters to find what works best for your question.
Click on the “show headnotes” option when you find a relevant case,
for links to the cases and statutes cited in the case; links to Supreme
Court of Canada decisions on leave to appeal (if available on CanLII);
and to CanLII Connects for commentary.
As with any resource, be mindful of CanLII’s limitations: there is
an approximately two-day lag for newly released decisions; historical
coverage is not the same for each province / court (e.g., at present,
continuous SCC coverage goes back to 1907, but continuous NSCA
coverage only goes back to 1990); and you may not get perfectly
comprehensive results when noting up your case to see whether it has
been appealed and how it has been treated in subsequent cases.
When you’ve come up against the limits of CanLII’s historical depth,
turn to Maritime Law Book’s Raw Law for free access to the Nova
Scotia Reports (2d)—that’s back to 1970!—and National Reporter
System cases, as released by the Courts.
The search functionality of this site is not as forgiving as CanLII; select
database(s) to limit by jurisdiction, and use the search tools to limit
searches to words in the headnote or style of cause, or to statutes noticed.
The search syntax can be picky; to “find case by MLB citation” enter a
reported citation exactly as shown—77 N.S.R. 2d 113—in the search
box. Ensure you select “Raw Law Version of Case (no headnotes)” in
your results or you may be prompted to pay for access. If your firm runs
disbursement software, you may see pay prompts where you needn’t;
clarify access with your firm librarian or appropriate staff.
CanLII is freely accessible, but is it
free? No! It’s funded by Canadian
law societies’ annual fees – about
$35 per practitioner year.
If the decision you’re seeking was released that same day from the Courts
of Nova Scotia, you won’t find it in any other free or fee sources: check
the Courts’ Recent Decisions webpage for a link under Today’s releases,
and / or follow the Courts’ Twitter feeds. The Courts also maintain
a Decisions Database providing nearly comprehensive coverage of
decisions from 2003, selective coverage from 1992, and some unique
coverage (among free online sources) within these time periods, as well.
#5: Articles and commentary
Journal and periodical articles are especially helpful when you are
researching new, emerging or rapidly changing areas of law. Locating
one good, recent article on your topic can save you hours of research.
Licensing an online research tool like Quicklaw or WestlawNext
equips you with access to a wide variety and number of Canadian (and
potentially international) journals and newsletters. Or, depending on
your research topic and your location, this may be a time to make a
trip to a Barristers’ library in Halifax, Kentville or Sydney to access
WestlawNext (30+ Canadian journals) and HeinOnline (1,700+
U.S. and international journals, 75+ Canadian). In addition, it may
be worth subscribing to a print journal or two coinciding with your
main practice areas.
Thanks to the scholarly open
access movement, a number
of reputable, authoritative law
journals are freely available
online: the McGill Law Journal,
Osgoode Hall Law Journal,
Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies
and many more—consult the list
maintained by the Western Journal
of Legal Studies (ir.lib.uwo.ca/uwojls/about.html). Many Canadian
legal authors and academics also submit papers to the Social Science
Research Network (SSRN).
For tips and websites to get you started with international legal
research (#6), as well as further suggested free online sites for legal
commentary, citation guides and tools (#7), site-specific assistance,
and an overview of research techniques for tracing legislative history
and coming into force, please see the slides of our Annual Meeting
presentation available at www.nsbs.org/archives/CPD/81565.pdf.
Sources to help you stay in the know
• Free or inexpensive webinars (many law firms put these on)
• Papers and PowerPoints from professional development
conferences
• Legal magazines (like this one!)
• CanLII Connects
• Blawgs
- Canadian law Blogs List: www.lawblogs.ca
- Slaw: www.slaw.ca & MLB-Slaw Selected Case
Summaries: cases.slaw.ca
• Law society websites
• Twitter (follow the Society’s updates @NSBS)
• LinkedIn
• See Keeping Current on the Society’s website for more
sources and tips to get started (nsbs.org/keeping-current)
Fall 2014 37