Choosing the Right Case 

1) The best outcome

Consider each issue and what you want the court to decide. You need to find cases that relate to the outcomes you want. For example, if you want the court to award you more than half the value of the family vacation home, you will search for cases that awarded nextmore than half the vacation home to an applicant.

This is the most important criteria for choosing the right case. Select cases where the outcomes of the cases are the same as the outcomes you want.

2) The facts

Next, you’ll want to take a look at the facts of different cases. You want to find cases that have facts or issues that are similar to those in your case. If you find these cases, you can use them in court and ask the judge to decide your case in a similar way. Present cases where the facts are similar to your case and the decision is the same as the outcome you want.

3) The court

The next most important consideration is the level of the court and the location. In Canada, higher level courts can change the decisions made by lower lever courts. Decisions from the same, or a higher-level court, are binding on lower level courts.

The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) is the highest court in Canada. In BC, the order of the courts is: the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and then, Provincial Court. If you can’t find a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada or from a BC court, you can search courts from other provinces. However, decisions from different provincial courts are not binding on BC courts. Those decisions may or may not be followed.

When searching for case law, select decisions from the courts in this order:

1. Supreme Court of Canada
2. BC Courts: Appeal, Supreme, Provincial Court
3. Courts from other provinces (higher is better)

4) The date

The date of the decision is the final consideration when selecting cases. Keep in mind that each of the other three points is a higher priority than this one.

What happens if you find two decisions from the same level of court with similar facts and outcomes? Look at the date. Select cases where the decision is most recent. A judge will consider a decision from last year more than a decision from the 1990s.

Also, make sure the decision hasn’t been overturned. When a decision is overturned, it means that a court has ruled that the decision is no longer good law. Over time, our society changes and so does the interpretation of laws. Be careful when using any case that is more than 20 years old. The law may be out of date and the interpretation of the law may have been overturned.

How to Read a Case Name 

When you are searching, you will see case names and abbreviations that may make little sense to you. Learning how to read those case names will make your searches a lot easier.

Pettkus v. Becker, [1980] 2 SCR 834, 1980 CanLII 22 (SCC)

The last names of the parties involved in the case.

The year when the case was published.

The court that decided the case.

Tips to Find Case Law? 

1. Identify your legal issue – What is being disputed? Narrow it down to keywords. If you are fighting for a share of a family vacation home that was purchased before the marriage started, then you keywords might be:

Divorce, Property division, Vacation home, Before marriage

2. Narrow results by jurisdiction and court level – Jurisdiction (such as province) and court level matter when we are trying to find binding case law. 
3. Read the headnote – Some cases come with these summaries. They are called headnotes, and they usually appear before the actual decision. If you decide that the case is relevant based on the headnote, you should read the entire decision.
4. Modifying your search terms – After reading a couple of headnotes, you might realize that the results are not really what you are looking for. At this point, you might decide to modify your search terms.