Canadian Legal Research Manual

At this point in the process, you are likely to have at least one case citation (a "Known Case") on your research topic from one of the following:

• From your assigning lawyer/instructor or your introductory sources in the Exploratory Research Stage,
• From secondary sources you found in the In-Depth Secondary Sources Stage,
• Or from noting up the applicable legislation in the Legislation Stage. 

In the Case Law Research Stage, if possible, you will start your research with those cases that you have already identified:

1. Locate and Assess Known Cases
2. Note Up Known Cases
3. Conduct Supplementary Case Law Searches

First, locate any known cases on a legal research service like CanLII, Westlaw, or Lexis; or from the courts themselves.

►See Finding a Known Case for more information about how to locate cases.

Then, evaluate each case's utility for your particular research problem:

• Is it legally relevant to your research?
• What is the court level?
• Is it binding, persuasive, or neither?

►See The Hierarchy of the Courts for more information on the Canadian court system.

Read the cases carefully, making note of how your particular legal concepts are articulated. As you read, you will develop a better sense of how your concepts will emerge in a case and refine your search strategy. Make note of:

• Synonyms, related words, and phrase variations that capture your legal concepts. Adjust your keyword list to reflect these new terms, or add syntax to capture variations.
• Subject classifications or other finding tools that can help you find additional cases on this legal topic.
• Citations to other potentially relevant primary or secondary sources.

The next step is to note up these cases.

Once you've determined a case is useful and relevant for your research purposes, you need to note it up.

Noting up is a two part process:

1. Check the case history to see the ruling in your target case has been modified or overruled on appeal by a higher court.
2. Look at how subsequent cases have treated your target case.

This is a process you must do for every case you rely on in your research. The second step may also point you towards additional relevant case law that you can use in your research. 

►See Noting Up Case Law for more information on how to complete this step.

After reading and assessing the cases you discovered in earlier stages of your research, you will likely still need to conduct additional case law research.

This is especially true if your initial cases were discovered via traditional secondary sources, since the publication process means most books and articles may not reflect the most current state of the law.

You will need to address this gap by finding more recent case law on your own. Your known cases may have already provided you with an entry point to additional and/or more recent case law. For example, from:

• Finding cases that have been cited by your known case. 
• Noting up your known case to find additional relevant cases that have cited your known case.
• Finding secondary sources that discuss your known case and provide additional references to relevant case law. 
• Finding subject classifications that have been assigned to your known case and can be used to find additional cases.

These are all starting points to conducting a more in-depth case law search. You can also start from scratch by conducting a case law keyword search, or use keywords in combination with the above strategies.

►See Finding Cases on a Topic for more information.