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Case law can be found in both free and subscription online sources. The case law content should be the identical for both free and subscription sources.
However, subscription sources provide descriptive headnotes describing the case law, plus more robust value-added features such as tools for finding case law by topic or noting up a case. They also provide a deeper backfile of case law and other decisions.
Library guides
This page provides quick links to case law databases. For more in-depth help, please see these research guides:
Case law - Canada - Free sources
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CanLII -- Canadian case law and legislation
- For older cases not yet available in CanLII, try specific court websites, such as:
- Federal Court of Canada (1972 - )
- Exchequer Court of Canada* (1891 -) via the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs
- For older cases not yet available in CanLII, try specific court websites, such as:
* =predecessor to the Federal Court of Canada
Case law - Canada - Subscription sources
- Westlaw Next Canada -- contains LawSource, CriminalSource, and former BestCase content.
- QuickLaw -- Canadian law reports
Case law - International
- LII organizations for international case law
- For United States case law, please view our guide to US Legal Research