you will use the CanLII search engine to locate a case decision and then provide a two-to-three page memo about the case.

CanLII

The easiest (and free) way to find Canadian case law is by using a website called "CanLII" (https://www.canlii.org/en/). CanLII.org is a website funded by Canada's lawyers and notaries which provides the public free access to legal cases and information.

CanLII's search works similar to Google in that it uses Boolean operators (" ", AND, +, OR., etc.) to connect words. If you would like a summary of how to search, there are two sample videos available at:

https://tips.slaw.ca/2017/research/database-video-tutorials/

https://www.howtoseparate.ca/7-building-your-case/75-researching-cases-canlii

Additional CanLII search resources are noted below.

Finding An Appropriate Case

Cases on CanLII are identified by a legal citation which tellsyou the type of case. In our class, we only cover "civil" law topics (i.e. torts, contract, employment law, etc.), however, CanLII reports on a wide variety of legal topics like criminal and administrative law. For your case report, you should be reporting on a civil decision. The following is an example of a civil case citation:

Civil Case Citation: Malette v. Shulman (1990), 67 DLR (4th) 321 (Ont CA)

You must not use any of the following types of cases:

R. v. Person or Person v. R.o These are criminal law cases. For example: R. v Mathieu, [2008] 1 SCR 723.

Do not use any decisions which are from the following tribunals or agencies:o Human Rights Tribunalo Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunalso Privacy Commissionerso Labour Relations Boards.

Therefore, you are looking for a case with a citation like Professor v. Student from any of the following court levels:

SCC BCCA	Supreme Court of Canada Court of Appeal
BCSC	Supreme Court of British Columbia
BCPC	Provincial Court of British Columbia
BCCRT	Civil Resolution Tribunal of British Columbia

The BCPC and BCCRT typically have the easiest to read cases and so you should try looking through those court levels first. Ultimately, you may need to read through quite a few cases before you find an appropriate case for each report.

Completing a Case Report

To report or brief a case, you must first carefully read the decision to gain an overall understanding of the facts of the case, the decision rendered by the court, and the reasoning behind the court's decision.