Criminology 330:

Legal Research at SFU Library

Yolanda Koscielski, Liaison Librarian for Criminology

September 2011ysk6@sfu.ca

Objectives:

1. Finding cases By known citationBy topic

2. Locating journal articles and commentaries (by lawyers and other writers) on your topic

3. Experience searching 5 legal databases

SFU Library Legal Research Guides

Legal Information guide http://tinyurl.com/3pm2sk3

“Research by Publication Type” legal research web pages http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/publication-types

Browse databases by subject area – Law http://tinyurl.com/3exwmlb

Case Citation

Style of cause = plaintiff and defendant This report can be found in the 69th volume of the

Dominion Law Reports on page 433 The "2nd" tells you that the DLR has been published in

multiple series; the second series was 1956-68 SCBC indicates this was a Supreme Court of British

Columbia decision

Case Citation

Wells v. Newfoundland (1997), 156 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 271, 483 A.P.R. 271, 5 Admin. L.R. (3d) 113, (N.L.C.A.)

The same citation as seen online in LawSource:

1997 CarswellNfld 199

Known Cases

The terms Case Law, Reasons for Decisions, Judgment (*no ‘e’!) are often used interchangeably

Reasons for Decisions = case law before officially published by a court reporter or legal database. Check court website.

Main content of published case law/judgments should be identical, regardless of reporter

Case Law/judgments available through both free and subscription sources

Case Law Sources

Free CANLii (Canada) (includes RefLex Record)

Subscription Law Source (includes KeyCite Canada) CriminalSource (KeyCite Canada) CriminalSpectrum BestCase (includes a noteup citator) QuickLaw (includes QuickCITE)

Demo: Wells v. Newfoundland (1997), 156 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 271,

483 A.P.R. 271, 5 Admin. L.R. (3d) 113, (N.L.C.A.)

Interpreting LawSource symbols

A red flag warns you that the case may not be good law, indicating that the decision has been reversed, or has not been followed within the same jurisdiction or by the Supreme Court of Canada.

A yellow flag warns that the decision has some negative history or treatment, but has not been reversed or overruled. (Or, it was recently added to LawSource, and it and has not yet been editorially analysed).

Note: If a decision has a red or yellow flag, any decision lower than it in the direct history chain will also have a status flag at least as severe assigned to it.

Examples of levels in Court in Civil Cases can be Provincial (BCSC), Provincial Court of Appeal (BCCA), and Supreme Court of Canada (SCC)

1. LawSource

Case Law Federal and Provincial Legislation Index to Canadian Legal Literature (ICLL)

Search the ICLL for secondary legal literature (e.g., journal articles)

Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (CED) Canadian Abridgment Digest (CAD) Words and Phrases Judicially Defined KeyCiteCanada citator

Case Law by topic

Use the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (CED) The CED will always point you to major cases which have established the legal points in question. The CED is available electronically through LawSource. It provides a comprehensive statement of the law (legislation + case law)

Use the Canadian Abridgement for summaries of case law. This is yet another resource which we have available online through LawSource.

See guide, Finding Legal Cases by Topic: http://tinyurl.com/5tbkhxl

1. LawSource Tips

Multiple products on one platform that can be browsed/searched separately

Browse functions on the left, search on the right

Browsing trees can be searched Click on LawSource (or CriminalSource) tab to

revert to main search screen Quirk: default search operator is usually “OR”,

not “AND”. Solution: use quotation marks to search by a phrase

or add the word “AND” between each search term

General Tips

Legal Databases have search or browse feature

Less can be more For instance, can enter the partial title of an

article Caution with numbers, symbols, colons (7,

-, :), etc. These may not be indexed, (giving you false less/no results)

Articles/commentaries by lawyers and other writers on your topic

Index to Canadian Legal Literature, aka ICLL (Available via LawSource)

Books/Textbooks (library catalogue) HeinOnline (database or indexed via Fast

Search) LexisNexis – International Legal Literature

– Canadian Law Journals and QuickLaw Criminal Spectrum Criminal Source

Legal Journals

Legal Ethics: Electronic Journals > Legal Ethics > Ingenta

platform for current access HeinOnline

Journal Articles & Databases > “H” > HeinOnline > Law Journal Library

Not sure if we have a journal @ SFU Library? Books, Journals, Media (Catalogue) > select

“Journal Title” from drop-down menu and search by journal title

Above method searches both print and online

2. CriminalSource

Case Law Canadian Criminal Legislation Canadian Sentencing Digest Criminal Reports Criminal Law Evidence, Practice and

Procedure Disclosure and Production in Criminal

Cases Watt’s Manual of Criminal Evidence Canadian Criminal Law Review National Journal of Constitutional Law

2. CriminalSource Tips

Busy interface! Note Search Templates for different products/info types on left, including All CriminalSource Content

Access law digests from the CAD from the bottom links (Carswell's Criminal Law Digest)

When keyword searching for specific titles, you do need quotation marks or AND in-between your search terms

Browse a particular source with left-hand option of “other commentary”; an empty search is possible if you’d like to browse issues by date

3. CriminalSpectrum

Key texts and journal content in Commentary section Criminal Law Quarterly Canadian Criminal Procedure Criminal Pleadings & Practice in Canada

Martin’s Criminal Code (in Commentary section)

Case law Criminal Legislation Includes NoteUp citator

3. CriminalSpectrum Tips

Search on the right, browse on the left

Browse individual books/journals (e.g., Drug Offences in Canada) in the Commentary section, left-hand side

Martin’s Criminal Code is found under Commentary>Criminal Legislation>Martin’s Criminal Code and Related Legislation

4. BestCase

Many law reports Canadian Criminal Cases (C.C.C.) Dominion Law Reports (D.L.R.)

Includes NoteUp citator

4. BestCase Tips

Search for cases by citation in the Case Law Section e.g., 258 C.C.C. (3d) 144 Note the prescribed format for case law searching

Search by for cases by style of cause E.g. R v. Punko

Search for cases by phrase in the case Catchline: searches topical classification & short,

telegraphic phrases Full-text: searches “matches in the body of the decision”

5. QuickLaw

Case Law Legislation Legal Journals

Commentators Citator: QuickCITE

By LexisNexis

5. QuickLaw Tips

Note Quick Search boxes E.g., Find a case by name, find a case by citation

Note Tab Searching option E.g., Legislation, Journals, etc.; brings up search

templates Need to search within a particular book,

journal, or other title? Enter keywords of source title in the quick search

box, “Find a Source”, found on the main page Many ways to get to the same content in

QuickLaw