Westlaw Canada’s LawSource: Making A Case
SERVICE UPDATE: Please note that in 2021, we stopped our subscription to LawSource and can no longer provide access to this resource online or in our branches. We apologize for any inconvenience.
The decisions of judges pertaining to particular matters brought before the courts create legal precedents and contribute to defining common law. Such legal precedents appear in case law and are published in law reports. LawSource, by Westlaw Canada, is an excellent source of Canadian case law and legal precedent . . . and LawSource offers other information – more on that in a moment.
Of course there is a caveat: for a non lawyer, conducting legal research into cases can be intimidating. To state the obvious . . . not having a background in legal terminology, principles, actions, procedures, and history, will be a barrier to understanding. Still it seems natural for anyone involved in a legal matter, to want to find out as much as possible on the subject before talking to a lawyer, or especially, if representing themselves.
So what then, is the best way to proceed? There are two dedicated computers within TPL that offer LawSource through IP authenticated electronic subscriptions: one is at the Toronto Reference Library in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department, and the other is at North York Central in the Business Department. Note: there is no remote access to LawSource through Library systems. LawSource is only at these two workstations and is offerred on a first come first serve basis – there are no signup sheets.
You may seek reference assistance from staff – for example, in formulating a search strategy – but staff do not have legal training and are not qualified to answer any questions that involve the interpretation of legal points or to evaluate and results from your searches.
The main components of LawSource include:
- Legislation – Statutes and Regulations (Federal and Provincial)
- Case Law (From Carswell and non-Carswell reporting services)
- Canadian Abridgement Case Law Digests
- Other decisions from Canadian courts and tribunals
- Canadian Encyclopedic Digest – with 255 subject titles on aspects of Canadian Law
- Law Report Articles and Journals and Law Reviews
- KeyCiteCanada updates cases, statutes, and rules
- Index to Canadian Legal Literature – a Canadian legal bibliography
For a detailed list of contents, click here.
Searching for the first time can be a bit challenging, so LawSource offers a wide range of educational resources on online at eLearning Centre that can help. You may need some patience to learn how to search and know how the content is organized in order to be rewarded with optimal results. With this in mind, it would make sense to view some above tutorials even before coming to the library.
We would be interested in knowing if and how LawSource has helped you in the past and/or present . . . please leave a comment at this post . . . Thank you.
Update statement added on May 26, 2022.
4 thoughts on “Westlaw Canada’s LawSource: Making A Case”
LawSource: Search Cases
Use Custom Search Template: Cases
Step 1: Enter your search terms:
Search full text for: e.g., product liability
The results must contain: e.g., This phrase
Search the following fields:
Year: e.g., 2011
Step 2: Limit Results (optional)
By Jurisdiction: e.g., Ontario
Click on Go [blue button]
Your search has been completed.
Your database is CAN-ALLCASES
Your query is:
((“product liability”) & (YE(2011))) & (JUR(Ontario))
27 document(s) satisfy your query.
Note: To determine whether you need to edit your query, you should browse the first few documents for relevancy.
Choose: View Result or Edit Search
Step 3: View Result, e.g., Doc 3: Voutour v. Pfizer Canada Inc.
Step 4: To capture the result of your search:
Option A: Save your search to a USB flash drive (a.k.a. memory stick)
• Insert a memory stick into the USB port
• Click on Print [blue hyperlink on top right corner]
• Select Format, e.g., PDF
• Click on Print [blue button at bottom of Dialog Box]
• From the menu bar, click File > Save As [to] TRAVELDRIVE (E:)
• Name your file, e.g., voutour v pfizer
• Click on: Save
To test your download:
From the menu bar, click File > Open > Browse [TRAVELDRIVE (E:)]
Click the down arrow to select Files of type: All Files from the drop-down list
Highlight the document voutour v pfizer
Click Open > OK
There you have it, the document Voutour v. Pfizer Canada Inc. in full text.
Option B: Email
• Right click: Select All
• Copy [CTRL+C] selected text
• Log in to your email account
• Paste [CTRL+V] text into a new email template
• Email document to yourself*
*If the text size exceeds the number of characters allowed, you may want to email the document as an attachment:
• Right click: Select All
• Copy [CTRL+C] all contents of the page
• Start Microsoft Word
• Paste [CTRL+V] highlighted selection into the Clipboard
• Click the Office Button Save As
• Save the file as a Word document with a different name (e.g., voutour v pfizer) to the Local Disk (P:)
• Log in to your email account
• Send email with attachment
• Before you exit,
i) log off email
ii) delete item(s) from the Local Disk (P:)
Option C: Print the document
• Click on Quick Print [blue hyperlink on top right corner]
• Click on Print
• Print Manager Dialog Box pops up. Name your file, e.g., Voutour
• Click on Print
Print your document at the Print Station.
THE METHOD FOR SAVING THE DOCUMENTS AS YOU DESCRIBE HERE, AND AS IS DESCRIBED IN THE USER MANUAL AT THE TORONTO REF LIBRARY, DOES NOT WORK AS DESCRIBED. EVEN WHEN YOU SELECT, SAVE AS PDF, OR SAVE AS WORD FILE, OR OTHER FORMAT, IT WILL ONLY SAVE THE FILE AS A “MHTML” format, AND THIS format CANNOT BE PRINTED OUT, because it apparen’tly requires a key code from the WESTLAW web site, that is only given if you are a WESTLAW paid subscriber. SOMEONE SHOULD REMEDY THIS, SO THAT FILES CAN BE SAVED normally, and in a format that can be PRINTED OUT normally, without need for a special key code, available only to subscribers. PLEASE FIX THIS, GOOD LIBRARIANS AT TORONTO REF LIBRARY.
THIS METHOD as described here on this blog, and in the USER MANUAL at the TRL unfortunately, DOES NOT WORK, despite what the USER MANUAL at the TRL instructs, and despite what RICHARD FOR MABEL, below, earnestly tries to instruct. – Thanks “Richard for Mabel” but it just does not work, this way.
WHEN YOU TAKE HOME YOUR USB memory stick, that you think has correctly saved in PDF or WORD format, the content of saved pages from WESTLAW, you will find that it is saved only as MHTML.
For the LIBRARIANS AT TRL, please realize that you must test this by taking your USB MEMORY STICK, with saved content, TO A COMPLETELY SEPARATE COMPUTER – NOT JUST TEST IT AT THE WESTLAW COMPUTER TERMINAL.
GO TO A SEPARATE COMPUTER, not attached to the TRL system, to be able to witness the problem of not being able to SAVE as PDF, or WORD, any of the WESTLAW content.
ONLY “MHTML” format is saved, and this does not support either DISPLAY on any other computer terminal, or capability to PRINT. – only a garbled mish mash of characters will appear.
It DOES NOT SAVE EITHER AS PDF, nor as WORD document, on a USB flash memory stick – no matter what you try to do.
All efforts failed, many hours of frustration, to get it to work at the WESTLAW computer terminal, 3rd floor, ( just opposite the elevators ) at the TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY .
Can the LIBRARIANS at the 2nd floor legal information desk, please TRY TO REPAIR THIS FAULT in the WESTLAW computer terminal, so that PDF and WORD format can be saved on a USB memory stick, and permit DISPLAY or PRINTING on a separate computer
Hello Good Law:
The LawSource user guide has been vigorously tested. Most importantly, it works for our searchers. It has been a proven success.
In response to your feedback, I test-drove it once again this morning. It worked!
To capture the results of your search, there are 3 options: A: Download to a Memory Stick, B: Email, and C: Print. In this email, I’d like to talk about Option A and Option B only.
If you use Option A: Save your search to a USB flash drive:
1. Insert the USB stick into the computer’s USB port (2nd slot). It should be the TRAVELDRIVE (E:)]
2. You can check your download using another computer. But you have to leave the LawSource workstation to find another computer in the library, which could be difficult sometimes.I checked the download without leaving the LawSource PC.
If you use Option B: Email:
Up to a month ago, if you want to send a long document that exceeds a certain number of characters via email, you may have to email it in several parts.
Just two weeks ago, Microsoft Word was installed on the LawSource PC so that the searcher can copy and paste a lengthy document on Word and email it as an attachment. The document is saved on the Local Disk (P:).
I don’t know why it did not work for you when you searched LawSource in TRL. You may wish to book a “Book a Librarian” session so that we would have a chance to find out.
Thanks.
Mabel
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