Legal Research

Research Tip: Ontario Labour Agreements

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

This legal research tip comes from In Session, the monthly newsletter of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL). Check it out:

Finding a copy of a collective agreement in Ontario is now easier than ever before! All collective agreements in Ontario are now available online through the Ministry of Labour’s Collective Agreements e-Library Portal. They are searchable by full text and also categorized by industry type. Collective agreements are available as downloadable pdf documents. A full list of all employer and union relationships in the province is also available through the Portal.

For further questions, contact Collective Bargaining Information Services: cbis@ontario.ca.

Here are some other frequently difficult to find labour resources:

Ontario Union Bargaining Certificates: Use the OLRB certificates database, a collection of certificates from 2007 to date. For older certificates from 1962 contact the Ontario Workplace Tribunals Library 416-314-3700 or owtl@wst.gov.on.ca. They will email .pdf copies free of charge.

Ontario Labour Arbitration Decisions: For unreported decisions contact the Ministry of Labour Arbitration Services at 416- 326-1300 or mol.arbitrationservices@ontario.ca. (CCLA Note: for reported decisions, Quicklaw has the best coverage, with a complete run from 1992 to the present as well as over 2700 significant decisions from 1949 to 1991.)

Ontario Education Relations Commission Decisions (ERC): Contact Ministry of Labour, Collective Bargaining Information Services at 416-326-1260 or cbis@ontario.ca.

Research Tip: CCLA Conference Papers Database

Posted on by Brenda Lauritzen

It’s not surprising we get a lot of requests for conference papers from our own four annual cornerstone conferences: Family Law Institute, East Region Solicitors’, DCAO Criminal Law, and Civil Litigation Updated.

What more people don’t know is that we post the papers on our website in CCLA Conference Paper Database afterwards! So even if you aren’t able to attend, you can check out what sessions were held and keep up to speed on the current issues in the profession. They are also useful for specific practice directions for the East Region, or summaries of recent local cases and precedents.

The easiest way to search is by author. For example, I’m looking for Justice Mackinnon’s papers here:

When I hit search, I’ll get a results screen with all of her papers:

confpapers2

And now I can browse and download whichever ones I am interested in by clicking on the link next to the PDF icon. If I do not know the author, I can also search by subject. Additionally you can search by specific conference and year by clicking on the “Advanced Search” button on the main search screen.

It’s a great way to keep apprised of the work of the local bar!

As always, we’re here to help, so let us know if you have any difficulties finding papers from our events and we’ll see if we can send them to you. The database goes back to 2001, but we are often able to scan and send papers from prior to that as well!

 

How to Find Unreported Decisions

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

“I can’t find this case. I think it might be unreported.”

We get a lot of requests at the library for help in finding a specific case. Here are the steps to figuring out if the case is unreported, and what to do about it:

1. Have you checked CanLII, Quicklaw, and Westlaw? 

There is no one complete source for reported decisions. Finding decisions would be much easier if there were, but unfortunately there are some cases that Quicklaw will have, and Westlaw won’t, and vice versa. As the CCLA Library has both Westlaw and Quicklaw, you can always check with us to see if the case is available on any of these services. As always, there’s no charge for this. Sometimes the source you see noting the case will say it’s unreported – it’s still worth it to check. Cases have a way of showing up online well after they were declared “unreported,” and it’s an easy enough check to make before you go into the next steps.

2. Is it foreign? Only available in a print reporter?

This next step is another where it’s good to run it by us at the Library. Often times, people are actually looking for British cases and don’t realize it. Or, the case might be available, but only in old print reporters. We can quickly and easily check on these options for you.

3. The decision is truly unreported.

In the event that the decision you’re after is truly unreported, there are a few options:

  • Contact counsel from the case
    • This is an option that skirts the following process with the courts, if you’re comfortable doing this.
  • For Ottawa decisions:
    • The Ottawa Courthouse retains case files until the matter is closed. Contact the correct court (civil, family, or criminal) and request a copy.
    • After a period of time, case files are sent to the Records Centre of the Ministry of Government Services in Cooksville. The court here will recall that document for you – you cannot go to them directly.
    • You will need to pay a recall fee (currently $61.00) at the courthouse to bring the file back. There is also a viewing fee (currently $10.00) to look at the file once here. If you were a party to the file, you can view it for free (but still have the pay the recall fee). You may make a photocopy of the file at the counter (bring change: their copier accepts coins).
  • For decisions from elsewhere in Ontario:
    • The retention schedule for other courthouses may vary. If you need to get in touch with a courthouse in another area, you can find their phone numbers here.
    • The Ottawa courthouse cannot recall these files for you.

4.  Bonus! “I don’t know where this case was heard originally.”

This definitely comes up from time to time – a case is unreported, and you’re not sure where the decision was actually handed down, thus not being able to contact the courthouse. If you don’t know already and can’t figure it out from what you’ve been told or the context you found the case in, you can also come to us for help. Here is what we would check to see if you had available:

  • Judge’s name
  • Counsel’s name
  • Any news stories that might shed light on the location or other identifying information
  • Details from the Higher Court decision (if looking for the unreported Lower Court decision)

Related, here are a few links relevant to carrying out legal research with hard to find documents:

 

 

From Your Library: WestlawNext CriminalSource

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

Criminal lawyers – this is for you! We here at the library are very excited to announce that our library subscription to Westlaw now includes the CriminalSource package.

CrimSource

 

Loads of looseleaf titles that you’ve come to rely on over the years are now easily searchable and printable from any of the seven computers in the library, as well as numerous newsletters, journals, and other goodies. Here’s a sample of some of the contents:

  • Ewaschuk’s Criminal Pleadings & Practice in Canada
  • McWilliams’ Canadian Criminal Evidence
  • Gibson’s Canadian Criminal Code Offences
  • Mack’s Criminal Law Bulletin
  • Criminal Law Quarterly
  • Nadin-Davis: Canadian Sentencing Digest

And so much more. Also included in the subscription are PDF scans of cases from the original law reporters. We get requests for those quite often, so this will be an enormous time-saver for you when you’re getting ready for court.

To help get you going with this product, we will be hosting a training session on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 12:00 PM in the CCLA Library. Our local Westlaw trainer will show you how to use CriminalSource quickly and efficiently. There is no charge for this session, and it is eligible for one hour of substantive CPD for 2016. So we know how many people to expect, and as space is limited, please click here to RSVP. Also: we’ve been told the Criminal Bar likes pizza. There will be pizza.

Come in, check out the new product, and let us know how you like it!

Research Tip: American Case Law

Posted on by Brenda Lauritzen

American case law is sometimes quite difficult to track down, as most of the time our basic Canadian database subscriptions do not cover other jurisdictions. (That’s why we added British case law database JustisOne to our subscriptions; check out our introductory post if you haven’t had the chance yet!)

So where can we find free access to American Case Law?

1. Google Scholar is always the first place we look. With a clean interface and a large collection of cases from state and federal courts, it’s a fantastic place to start. From the main search screen, select “Case Law” (or articles/patents if you are looking for those), and enter your search terms. Your results page should look quite familiar to you; you can click through to open a case. Note that you can also click on the “How Cited” link at the top to see any articles or cases that refer to it. Often times even if Google Scholar does not have the case you are looking for, it will still contain a reference to the case as well as alternative citations that you can try elsewhere.

googlescholar

2. Findlaw houses a lot of case law as well, as well as commentary and links to the state and district courts. To search for case law, you can enter a party’s name in the “Search for a Case” box, or alternatively, click on “Advanced Search” to enter in any other information you know. (This is where docket numbers can come in handy!) Results will bring you to a summary page, where you can click on the “Read” button to be linked to the full decision, although sometimes this will be behind a paywall.

3. Justia also offers free access to online American case law, as it brings together decisions from the Federal Courts and many of the district courts websites as well. You can search using the bar at the top right, or browse through the different courts below.

4. Casetext is the CanLIIConnects of the United States, as it features case law and added commentary by members of the legal community.

5. If you happen to know at what court the decision was made, you can often head directly to the State or District Court website to browse a database of their own decisions. Often times these are also included in the databases mentioned above.

6. Let us know! We have access to other libraries and their collections as well, so if we can help track down the case(s) you’re looking for, send us an email!

JustisOne: New British Case Law Subscription

Posted on by Brenda Lauritzen

One of the most frequent services we provide here in the library is the locating of old case law, quite often old British cases that are not available on the basic Lexis or Carswell subscriptions. We have been keeping our eye out for an affordable solution to having to trudge through and scan the old British case reporters, and after demoing JustisOne for the past month we are pleased to announce it as a new subscription available for use here at the CCLA library!

JustisOne

With JustisOne we now have electronic in-library access to a wealth of British case law and legislation, including noted up links to Canadian case law as well.

Beyond the access to British materials, JustisOne also re-envisions the case law search, eliminating boolean searching in favour of a category searching system that gives more applicable and refined search results. Some of my other favourite features include the Precedent Maps, which visualize how the case law has been treated, and the Key Paragraphs, which eliminates the guesswork of noting up by directly linking to the paragraphs that have been quoted in subsequent decisions.

JustisOne-s

We’ve greatly enjoyed playing around with this new software, and we are excited that it is now available for library users as well! If you need access to British materials you can feel free to come and try it out yourself, or as always you can get in touch with us and we will be happy to send them to you.

From Excelling at Articles 2015: 20 Legal Research Sites in 20 Minutes

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

On Friday, August 28, I was happy to present at the OBA’s 2015 Excelling at Articles and the LLP seminar here in Ottawa. This is the third time that either Brenda or I have been asked to present, and we love using this opportunity to give a run down of 20 great sites for articling and LPP students to keep in mind (or even better, keep bookmarked on their toolbar) for when they’re carrying out research.

To take a look at the presentation from this year, follow this link: 2015-Excelling-at-Articles

From Your Library: Westlaw FamilySource

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

As part of our subscription to WestlawNext, we also have the FamilySource product. This add-on makes up a separate area within Westlaw where materials specifically of interest to family law practitioners are kept, easy to find and use in your research.

When you access WestlawNext from the library computers, the portal to FamilySource is on the right hand side (see below). Clicking on the words “FamilySource” will take you to main page, which includes links to online versions of several popular looseleaf titles (that you can search, print out, or email from). This is also where you can find the Epstein “This Week in Family Law” newsletter, and you can even start a case law search within just family law cases.

FamilySource

As with all of our electronic products, there is no end cost to you when you use this product in the CCLA Library. The CCLA Library staff have been finding FamilySource to be quite useful when researching, so we encourage you to take a look the next time you’re using Westlaw at our library.

 

Chat Service Now Available!

Posted on by Brenda Lauritzen

Research made even easier! We are pleased to announce that you can now contact the CCLA Library through our new chat service. Simply click on the “Chat Now” button to connect with one of our Library Staff.

chatNow during regular office hours (8:30am – 5:00pm, Monday to Friday), you can chat with a Librarian and get case searches, precedents, historical legislation, secondary sources, document retrieval, and more, all free of charge.

So make sure to bookmark this page for the next time you need legal resources!