Neutral Citations
In 1999, Canadian courts began assigning neutral citations to their judgments (the start date varies depending on the court). The neutral citation is only a case identifier and does not indicate where a case can be found. It consists of three parts:
- year of decision
- abbreviation of the court
- an ordinal number
For example, Lovelace v Ontario has the neutral citation 2000 SCC 37:
- 2000 = year of the decision
- SCC = court (Supreme Court of Canada)
- 37 = ordinal number (37th case decided in 2000)
Key Question: Does the case have a neutral citation?
There are two possible patterns to follow when citing a case. The answer to the question, "Does the case have a neutral citation?," will determine which of the two case citation patterns to follow. These two patterns are explained in detail in the next two sections of this guide.
