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CanLII research tips roundup
June 15, 2020
You may have noticed some new features on CanLII.org to help you conduct legal research more easily and effectively. We’ve rounded up these features below, along with some other tips for using CanLII that could come in handy.
Recent features on CanLII
Preview the areas of interest in a court or tribunal decision, then jump to those paragraphs. If you look to the right side of any sufficiently cited decision on CanLII, there is a blue “heatmap” sidebar. Hover over the sidebar to see which paragraphs have been cited. The darker the blue, the more a paragraph has been discussed. Clicking on the sidebar will take you to a specific paragraph, where you will also see the number of documents citing it.
Discover a list of decisions that cite a specific paragraph in a case. Just click on the speech balloon (
) next to the paragraphs that have been cited. Clicking on the speech balloon also gives you the option to copy the text, copy a bibliographic citation of the text and email the paragraph. If you have a Lexbox account, you can also save it to your account folder.
See at a glance how a case has been cited. When you search for a particular case, CanLII brings your attention to the cases that discuss your searched case most extensively, using a varying number of blue jalapeños (
). This new noteup feature helps you identify cases that contain the most extensive discussion of a previous case.
Research in dark mode. If you prefer to do your research in the dark, CanLII has recently introduced a dark mode, which is said to help save pixels, extend battery life and reduce eyestrain. Activate this at the bottom of any page on CanLII.org.
Other useful tips
Use CanLII’s drop-down filters to narrow your search results. For example, you can filter versions of legislation by federal/province, by type, and by version (when it was/is in force).
Link to a specific paragraph in a case. By adding # and the paragraph number of a case in your URL, you can link to the exact paragraph you want to share. e.g. http://canlii.ca/t/1fqr3#par35. You can also use the speech balloon feature explained earlier to share a specific paragraph.
Use Boolean operators to refine your search. If you’re finding that your search results aren’t specific to what you were looking for, use the operators table on this page to target your search.
Save searches using Lexbox on CanLII. If you are a Lexbox user on CanLII, you can set up alerts for specific content, see your recent history on CanLII and upload your own documents. You can access Lexbox at the footer of CanLII.org, under tools.
Check out CanLII’s scope of databases page. If you are unsure what is covered by CanLII’s primary law collection (case law and legislation), and the dates of continuous coverage provided, a quick scan of this page will help you. As noted in a recent post on Slaw Tips, understanding the difference between annual and consolidated statutes can be helpful in your search.
Do you have a favourite CanLII research tip to share? Leave it in the comments below or tweet us @CanLII. We may add it to this list!
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