Best’s Guide to Canadian Legal Research
Catherine Best is a research lawyer with the Vancouver law firm of Boughton Law Corporation. The main page is divided into four parts: Research Essentials, Electronic Research, Statutory Research and Other Jurisdictions. Each of these sections is logically broken down into various sub-headings, each of which can be clicked on for a step by step explanation of the topic. The Research Essentials section offers effective strategies for Canadian legal research, including finding and using secondary sources, finding and analyzing cases and updating your research. You can easily look up a specific research question or browse for more wide-ranging information.
Law Society of Upper Canada – Great Library
This
is a fantastic web site for legal research and for incidental bits of
practical information. In addition to the union catalogue of the Great
Library and all court house libraries in Ontario (AdvoCAT), this site
provides some very good legal research tools. One is the feature “Legal
Periodicals Online”, which provides a list of what’s available for free
online, complete with links. There are also links to a large collection
of legal research web sites under “Notable Legal Websites”. Pre and
post-judgment interest rates, since 1989 and 1985 respectively, can be
found on the main page.
Ted Tjaden’s Doing Legal Research in Canada
Ted
Tjaden is a lawyer/law librarian who is Director of Knowledge
Management at McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP in Toronto. His page is an
excellent online guide to doing legal research in Canada. It is divided
into six major sections which can each be clicked on or browsed through
as a whole. Alternatively you can click on the detailed Table of
Contents to access any one of over 75 specific topics.This page provides
a tidy and efficient way to answer many questions about legal research,
especially if you are addressing an unfamiliar topic.
LLRX.com
This
site, which is updated monthly, was created and is maintained by
Sabrina Pacifici, a law librarian in Washington, D.C. and an adjunct
professor at the University of Maryland Center for Information Policy
and E-Government Center. It is a web journal with articles about legal
research, information technology and internet issues. LLRX.com is
particularly useful for its guides to legal research in specific
countries. These articles can be accessed either by using the search
engine or by reviewing the article archives at the top of the page.