Top Three Tips for the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal Sentencing Digest (Tip of the Week)

January 15, 2016

By Alan Kilpatrick

Having trouble searching the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal Sentencing Digest (CASD)?  The CASD is an extremely powerful and robust resource.  However, if you are not familiar with the CASD’s numerous features, you may be missing out on its full potential.

Here are my top three tips for searching the CASD:

1. The CASD is a searchable database containing summaries of sentence appeals heard by Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal. It’s the best resource to consult when searching for sentencing ranges in Saskatchewan because it provides sentencing guidance from the province’s highest court.  Understand that the Court of Appeal doesn’t always issue written reasons for sentence appeals.  As such, many of the summaries found in the CASD will not be found in other online sentencing resources.

2. When searching the CASD, keep in mind that simpler is better. The CASD search screen provides several different search fields: charge, statute and section, also convicted of, keywords, case name, and citation.  The search may not return any results if too many of these search fields are filled in.  Try limiting the search to one or two of the available search fields.  This should produce better results.

3. When searching for a Criminal Code section, simply enter the section number in the statute and section field. For example, enter 348 in the field to retrieve all sentence appeals for section 348 (break & enter).

When searching for a section and subsection, make sure to place the section and subsection in quotation marks.  For example, enter “348(1)(b)” in the field to retrieve all sentence appeals for section 348(1)(b).

If you have any questions, ask a Law Society Librarian. We are pleased to provide high-quality legal research services to Saskatchewan members in person, on the telephone, or by email.

Email reference@lawsociety.sk.ca
Call 306-569-8020 in Regina
Toll-free 1-877-989-4999
Fax 306-569-0155