Resources for Lawyers
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Case Law
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Legislation
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Associations/ Organizations
The Advocates’ Society is the premier provider of advocacy skills training across Canada, with programs for all stages of your career. Our unique learning-by-doing programs keep your skills in check. Our publications such as The Advocates' Journal, provide helpful tips and in-depth analysis from practitioners who’ve learned on their feet and are happy to share their knowledge.
This site provides access to publications such as The National and to The Canadian Bar Review. The CBA also offers access to information on in-person conferences, online webinars, publications and other media formats that address topics relevant to various areas of practice and interest.
The CLA assists its members in every aspect of the practice of criminal litigation and is one of the largest legal organizations in Canada, with more than 1,200 members.
The Legal Information Network (LiRN) is the overseeing body of the county courthouse library system. This site provides information and links to supporting documentation, and details about each county courthouse library.
The Northumberland County website has useful information and links pertaining to the municipalities within the County of Northumberland and surrounding areas.
The OBA is a sub-branch of the Canadian Bar Association, with roughly 18,000 lawyers who seek to provide support from those working in the profession to the profession. This site has information pertaining to the various practice sections, upcoming CPD events and access to the publications catalogue.
Ontario Trial Lawyers Association
OTLA, with over 1500 members is an association of lawyers acting for plaintiffs. They are concerned with promoting access to justice for all Ontarians, and advocate for various safety initiatives.
Federation of Ontario Law Association Presidents (FOLA)
FOLA represents the interests of more than 12,000 practising lawyers working in communities across Ontario. Semi-annually, the Presidents and association representative meet in May and November plenary sessions to discuss, debate and form resolutions on issues affecting the profession.
Law Society of Ontario governs Ontario’s lawyers and paralegals and regulates, licenses and disciplines Ontario’s more than 46,000 lawyers and over 5,000 licensed paralegals. The Law Society offer services to the public such as: a complaints service, a referral service, which provides the name of a lawyer or paralegal who will provide a free consultation of up to 30 minutes, and the compensation fund.
The Real Estate Council of Ontario
Has a mandate which focuses on consumer protection and administration of regulatory requirements for Ontario’s real estate profession's complaint, compliance and discipline procedures.
Case Law and Courts
Case Law
AustLII
This site provides free access to primary source materials for Australia such as legislation, case law and selected secondary materials.
BailLII
This site offers free access to primary British and Irish legal information and allows for cross-jurisdictional searching of case law and legislation for England, Scotland and Ireland. Cases include links to cases and legislation both within the United Kingdom and internationally.
CanLII
Provides access to case law and legislation from courts in the federal jurisdiciton, provinces and territories. All decisions are now provided in both html and pdf format and all documents are clearly identified using neutral citations.
House of Lords Judgments Archive
This page lists HTML versions of all House of Lords judgments delivered from 14 November 1996 to 30 July 2009. Print versions of judgments since 2005 are available in PDF format from the top right hand side of individual judgment pages.
WorldLII
The WorldLII Catalog provides links to over 15,000 law-related web sites in every country in the world. WorldLII's Websearch makes searchable the full text of as many of these sites as WorldLII's web-spider can reach.
Provincial Courts
Ontario Courts
This site provides useful information about the Ontario Courts system including the Court of Appeal, Superior Court of Justice, and Ontario Court of Justice. Information such as Ontario Court Addresses, Notices and Rule Changes, or Ontario Statutes and Regulations are listed.
Ontario Court Forms
This site provides access to all forms under the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure. Each form is available on this website as a separate document.
Ontario Daily Court List
The Ministry of the Attorney General has created a new online service making it easier to find out where and when to go to court. This online version of the daily court lists allows court users to search for basic information about next-day court appearances, including the case number, the names of the parties involved and the time, location and reason for that appearance. The website gives court users a faster, more convenient way to access daily court list information, which until now could only be obtained by calling or visiting the courthouse in person. The site will be updated around 4:30pm each day and will hold that information for 24 hours.
Federal Courts
Department of Justice Canada
Federal Court of Appeal Decisions
This site provides information on Federal Court rules, reports and decisions.
Federal Court of Canada and Decisions
The Federal Court of Appeal has jurisdiction to hear appeals from judgments of the Federal Court and the Tax Court of Canada.
Supreme Court of Canada
This site provides information about the Court and its library, judgments from 1983, and services and information for parties and counsel, as well as links to the Charter collection.
Tax Court of Canada
The Tax Court of Canada is a superior court where individuals and companies may litigate with the Government of Canada. The bulk of the appeals to the Court relate to income tax, goods and services tax, and employment insurance. The Court also hears references from the Canada Revenue Agency.
Legislation
Provincial
E-Laws
The e-Laws web site offers comprehensive access to the consolidated laws of Ontario. This site's goal is to provide consolidated statutes and regulations that are up to date within 2 business days of enactment of a new law or amendment of an existing law.
Ontario Gazette
This site links into .pdf versions of the individual issues of the Ontario Gazette. The site carries issues from 2000 forward.
Ontario Legislative Assembly
The official site of the Ontario Legislative Assembly is the place to find information on bills currently before the legislature plus debates and committee reports. You can search bills by session and then by title or bill number. Other features of the site include full information on all the current members of the legislative assembly, the various committees, plus links to how to find your MPP.
Federal
Canada Gazette
The Canada Gazette, Part I contains all formal public notices, official appointments and proposed regulations. Part II contains regulations and other statutory instruments. Part III contains the Public Acts of Canada, and its purpose is to publish this new legislation as soon as possible after it receives Royal Assent.
Consolidated Statutes and Regulations
The Department of Justice's site is the source for official versions of all consolidated Acts and regulations and is updated on a weekly basis. The site also has a point-in-time feature that allows you to see versions of acts back to Jan 1, 2003 and regulations back to Mar 22, 2006.
Parliament of Canada
This site is maintained jointly by the House of Commons, Senate and Library of Parliament and includes the debates of the Senate and House of Commons, Journals, Order Papers and Notices, and Progress of Legislation. The site includes legislative summaries for each bill going through the House.
Research Assistance/Tools
Dictionaries
Duhaime's Dictionary of Law
Duhaime's Law Dictionary is referred to by the Oxford University law library (Bodleian), School of Law, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, as a recommended research resource for law students.
Irwin Law Canadian Online Legal Dictionary
The Canadian Online Legal Dictionary is collaborative dictionary comprised, initially, of terms defined in the glossaries of Canadian law books published by Irwin Law.
Tools
Acronym Finder
The Acronym Finder is a searchable database of abbreviations, initialisms, and acronyms relating to science, government, business, technology, medicine, telecommunications, slang & pop culture, and the military.
PracticePro - Practice Aids
This site provides practice aids in a variety of formats, including narrative form, as well as checklists and precedents. The checklists and precedents are available in electronic form which can be downloaded and customized.
Statistics Canada
Provides economic, social and census data, related publications, news, and education resources.
Other
The Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide
This guide can help you develop an effective Step-by-Step Legal Research Process, learn when and how to use particular resources, and better understand statutory research and electronic searching.
Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources
This site is a free searchable database of digitized versions of the debates and journals of the Senate and the House of Commons and includes all debates and journals from Parliament 1, Session 1 (1867) until coverage on parl.gc.ca begins. Debates and Journals for the Senate of Canada are available from the parliamentary website as of February 27, 1996.
Doing Legal Research in Canada
This site is an online guide to Canadian legal research and provides information and links to print and online resources.
First Nations Gazette
The First Nations Gazette officially launched on June 21, 1997 provides public notice of First Nation laws, by-laws, land codes, and other First Nation legislation, and serves as the authoritative reference for First Nation law in Canada.
Lederman Law Library
The Lederman Law Library at Queen's University has produced the Legal Research Manual which is an electronic research guide. The guide discusses where to locate primary and secondary sources; describes in detail the legislative process; and includes links to finding legal information on the web.
Merck Manual
First published in 1899 as a small reference book for physicians and pharmacists, the Merck Manual is available for free in digital format and provides information on medical topics, symptoms, drugs, procedures, and news.
Ontario Ministry of Labour
The Collective Agreement e-Library Portal houses public and private sector collective agreements in Ontario. The agreements are searchable by full text and also categorized by industry type. Collective agreements are available as downloadable pdf documents.
Ontario Workplace Tribunals Library - OLRB Certificates
Ontario Union Bargaining Certificates are available in the the OLRB certificates database. The collection of certificates dates from 2007 to date. For older certificates from 1962 contact the Ontario Workplace Tribunals Library owtl@wst.gov.on.ca. They will email .pdf copies free of charge.
Robeside Assistance - Legal Resources and Research
This blog is maintained by the library staff at the County of Carleton Law Association. It is a one-stop resource of information and resources for those practicing law.
Robichaud’s Criminal Law Precedents
Resources intended for lawyers and legal professionals licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada; you will find precedents, forms, and other resources which are provided as a helpful starting point to criminal law practitioners as a convenient and efficient means in developing their own templates.
Tribunals
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
The CHRT applies these principles to cases that are referred to it by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC). The Tribunal is similar to a court of law, but is less formal and only hears cases relating to discrimination.
Conservation Review Board (CRB)
The site holds the collection of Conservation Review Board Reports dating back to 1990. You can browse alphabetically by municipality.
Employment Insurance Jurisprudence Library
Searchable electronic library of all employment insurance jurisprudence, including CUB’s, Federal Court and Supreme Court decisions, as well as an increasing number of related Provincial Court and Human Rights Tribunal decisions. The site is searchable by Court or tribunal, keyword, decision number, or name.
Financial Services Commission of Ontario
Amalgamates the former Ontario Insurance Commission, the Pension Commission of Ontario, and the Deposit Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance. The site provides a useful source of full-text decisions searchable by date or title.
Immigration & Refugee Board of Canada
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) is Canada's largest independent administrative tribunal. It is responsible for making well-reasoned decisions on immigration and refugee matters, efficiently, fairly and in accordance with the law.
Information and Privacy Commission
Provides independent reviews of government decisions and practices concerning access and privacy, under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Landlord and Tenant Board
The site contains the relevant legislation, regulations, guidelines and rules of practice relating to the tribunal. You can access applications, forms and notices through the site. It is an excellent public service site for your clients as it lists the location of its various offices, provides links to its information brochures and answers frequently asked questions.
Ontario Human Rights Commission
The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) was established as an arm’s length agency of government in 1961 to prevent discrimination and to promote and advance human rights in Ontario.
Ontario Municipal Board
The e-decisions in this database go back to 2001 and can be searched by case name, counsel or key word. Information on preparing for a hearing, the forms required, a listing and outline of relevant statutes, and the usual links to other provincial ministries, agencies, associations and services.
Social Justice Tribunals Ontario
The tribunals of the SJTO are: Child and Family Services Review Board, Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, Custody Review Board, Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, Landlord and Tenant Board, Ontario Special Education (English) Tribunal, Ontario Special Education (French) Tribunal and Social Benefits Tribunal. The site includes access to relevant legislation and rules of procedure.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
This site provides access to a variety of materials and has different tabs that tailor information to workers, employers, and health care practitioners. The Operational Policy Manual is available here and updated policies are highlighted.