Researching a known case means tracking down the full-text of a decision that has been referenced in another place, such as from another case, a secondary source, or a person (like a supervising lawyer or professor).
This is easiest when you have a case citation (with or without the style of cause). E.g:
In some instances, however, you may only have some pieces of information about the case such as the parties, court, and year. For example:
This page describes how to find the full-text of a case, with and without a citation.
When looking for a known case, a citation is a valuable piece of information. It is the easiest way to find a case because it is a unique identifier. Other pieces of information are not unique—for example, multiple decisions can share the same style of cause.
►See How Cases are Published for more information on case citation.
Use the dropdowns below to learn how to find a case using its citation.
If you do not have a citation, use as much information about the case as possible to track it down.
This is easiest to do via an "Advanced Search" form in a case law database, since the alternative—conducting a full-text search across an entire legal research platform and its many databases—often retrieves thousands of results.
Take careful note of what information you have about this decision:
Then, consult CanLII, Lexis, or Westlaw to search for the case.
