CANLII Search Enhancements

The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CANLII) has announced a number of major search enhancements.

• Decisions can now be found based on case law citations from 29 frequently cited printed reports. This means that a search for a case can use any of its parallel citations. The example given on the CANLII listserv is R. v. Sharpe, [2001] 1 S.C.R. 45. That case could now be found using the citations (2001), 194 D.L.R. (4th) 1; [2001] 6 W.W.R. 1; (2001) 150 C.C.C. (3d) 321; (2001), 39 C.R. (5th) 72; (2001), 86 C.R.R. (2d) 1; (2001), or 88 B.C.L.R. (3d) 1.
• Cases can be found using a combination of partial citations, dates, and/or terms from the style of cause or the full text. The example given is for a search based on the combination of C.R.R. from the case citation and Lalonde from the case name. This will find all the decisions in the Canadian Rights Reporter that contain Lalonde in the style of cause.
• The note-up function has now become available for all provincial statutes and regulations, sections of federal statutes and regulations, decisions, and RefLex records. When a decision reported in one of the frequently cited reports used by CANLII is not available on CanLII, a RefLex record is published instead. It offers information such as date and style of cause, and a list of parallel citations for locating the case in print reporters.