Non-traditional Legal Information Sources

 Print this Page

PDF version

Using traditional legal information sources, such as case law, legislation, textbooks and monographs, and journal articles, can provide the researcher with useful information. There may be times, however, when a researcher needs to expand their research to include non-traditional legal information sources, such as newspapers, magazine, websites, newsletters, etc.

Non-Traditional Legal Information Sources

1) Newspapers

Both legal and non-legal newspapers can provide excellent background information on your topic. As well, they may draw your attention to new areas of interest which you had not contemplated.

Some legal newspapers in Canada include The Lawyers Weekly and Law Times. We have back issues of both of these newspapers in the library and both are available electronically.

The Lawyers Weekly is available through its own website and through Quicklaw (QL). On their website (http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/), you can search articles back to 2005; on QL, you have access to articles back to 1990. To find The Lawyers Weekly in QL: Click on Source Directory; in the Find a Source textbox located on the right, type in The Lawyers Weekly News Articles; the link to The Lawyers Weekly will appear; click on it, then click ok and conduct your search. You can also find it by clicking on Source Directory > Legal News > The Lawyers Weekly News Articles.

The Law Times is available online at http://www.lawtimesnews.com/. It is, however, not easily searchable, and is only available from 2008. We have the Law Times in print from the last several months in the library; they are located in the periodicals reading room.

There are other legal news resources available in QL; just click on Source Directory > Legal News and chose the directory you want to search.

There are also several resources to search non-legal newspapers. In QL, click on Source Directory > News. From here, you can click on a resource listed or further narrow your search by clicking on the source subtype. Make sure you click on the ‘i’ button to see what is included in each directory.

To find the Globe and Mail, click on Source Directory and search for the Globe and Mail in the Find a Source textbox.

Westlaw Canada (WC) also has news resources. The best source for Canadian news is the database named CANADANEWS; for global news, go to the database named ALLNEWS. To find these, click on Directory at the top of the page; then type in the name of the database in the Search for a Database textbox. You can also look at the different tabs available to see if any of the news options work for you. To do this, click on Add a Tab located at the right-hand side of the page; click Add Westlaw Tabs. From here, you will see there are several different types of tabs to chose from.

 

2) Newsletters

Newsletters can be hard to find but they can be very helpful as they often discuss issues of importance to practitioners, as well as emerging areas of law.

In QL, click on Source Directory, then in the Find a Source textbox, search for the word newsletter. QL also has its own Netletters that it publishes. To find these, click on Source Directory > Legal News. Here you will find all of their Netletters (ex: LexisNexis® Class Actions NetLetter™ - Issues). You will also notice here that there is a Siskinds Class Action Netletter.

In WC, you can find many of their newsletters in the Source tabs; for example, in InsolvencySource you will find the Houlden and Morawetz Insolvency Newsletter. To find other Canadian newsletters, click on Directory > Westlaw Canada Database > Commentary > Newsletters. There are also newsletters located in the MAGSPLUS directory. Go to Directory and type in MAGSPLUS in the Search for a Database field.

There are also websites and search engines that will search for newsletters and newsfeeds that have been published by law firms. One is called Linex Legal (http://ca.linexlegal.com). You will have to register for this service, but it is free. Another website you can use is called Lexology (lexology.com). This site allows you to search for a topic by jurisdiction.

Mondaq (http://www.mondaq.com/) is another website that allows you to search law firm publications. There is also a law firm search engine called Fee Fie Foe Firm (http://www.feefiefoefirm.com/ca/). This searches only content found on Canadian law firm websites.

Please remember that information you find on a website as opposed to an academic database needs to be used with caution. Lawyers often publish papers on their law firm’s website—make sure you are aware of any biases the writer may have. The writer may be writing the paper in a way to attract clients. Make sure you critique any information found online.

3) Websites and Blogs

Please remember that information you find on a website or blog as opposed to an academic database needs to be used with caution. Most materials available on a website or blog are not academically based, and references and citations are not often provided. When you cannot check the author’s references, it makes it difficult to trust their work. The writer may be providing the information for a manner totally unrelated to academic research (for example, as a way to attract clients, to sell something, or to make sure their blog receives the most hits). Make sure you critique any information found online. That being said, you can certainly use websites and blogs for preliminary, exploratory research. An example of a good legal website is LLRX.com.

When it comes to blogs, you again have to make sure the information you are reading is reliable and valid. Many blogs exist purely to promote the author’s services. But there are some that are more objective and exist primarily to provide the legal community with information. An example of this is Slaw.ca. As stated on the blog, “Slaw is a Canadian co-operative weblog about any and all things legal.” The purpose is to bring those in the legal community up-to-date on issues in law, whether it be about practice, technology, or trends. Contributors to Slaw are listed and many of them are lawyers, professors, librarians, and law students.

Another reliable blog is Law21.ca. Of course, many more blogs exist; remember to critique them just as you would a website. A good way to find Canadian law blogs would be to look at Clawbies.ca. A law librarian began this blog to help people find Canadian legal blogs.

Other blogs I recommend:

• micheladrien.blogspot.com
• thecourt.ca

A good Twitter feed is: lawtweet.ca

Twitter feeds from lawyers, law students, law librarians, and others are fed here; I often find great tidbits of information.

Other useful search engines:

• Ted Tjaden's Blog
• Journal Google Search Engine
• Slaw's Blog Search Engine

 

4) Conference materials and working papers

Another excellent resource is conference materials and working papers; while these materials can be difficult to find, there are some resources you can use. See our guide on Working Papers for more details.

To find conference materials, you can use QL and WC. In QL, click on Source Directory > Legal Indices and Tables > Canadian Law Symposia Index. This lists papers that have been presented at conference, seminars, symposiums, and continuing legal education workshops. You could also find this by typing in Canadian Law Symposia Index in the Find a Source textbox.

In WC, you have access to the Sedona Conference Journal database; click on Directory and type in Sedona in the Search for a Database textbox. Click on the directory and start your search. Again, this will be mostly American materials, but it could be helpful.

5) Magazines

Legal and non-legal magazines may provide insight into your area of law. Canadian Lawyer is available online at canadianlawyermag.com. National, the Canadian Bar Association magazine, is only available on their website at http://cba.org/CBA/national/Main/. You can look at previous editions back to 2003. Lexpert magazine is also only available online through their website at http://www.lexpert.ca/magazine/ You have access to the table of contents and only a summary of each article. We have back issues of both the National and Canadian Lawyer in the Law Library; we do not have back issues of Lexpert.

Other magazines, for example the Economist and Maclean’s, are available to you through QL. In QL, click on Source Directory and type in the name of the magazine in the Find a Source textbox.

In WC, you can use the MAGSPLUS directory to search through magazines. Please note that most of the magazines in this directory are American. To find MAGSPLUS, click on Directory at the top of the page; then type in MAGSPLUS in the Search for a Database textbox on the left-hand side of the page. The directory will open and you can start your search.

6) Theses and dissertations

As a UNB student, you have access to theses and dissertations written by Masters and PhD students from around the world. From the Law Library homepage, click on e-Resources > Dissertations. From here, you can use the resources provided.

There are also theses and dissertation resources we do not have on the Law Library website. The Center for Research Libraries allows anyone to search for dissertations. They do not have the materials available in full-text, but you could order it via interlibrary loan (ILL).

7) Law Reform Commission Reports

Many of the law reform commissions in Canada post their reports and papers on their website. See Appendix I for a list of Canadian and foreign law reform commission websites. As well, we have a product called Manas Media which allows you to search several different law reform commission websites at one. From the Law Library homepage (law.unb.ca/library), click on e-Resources > Reference Materials in Electronic Format > Manas Media. Sometimes they do have access to full-text materials.

Two other resources you can use to find law reform commission reports are the WorldLII Law Reform Project and the Law Reform Database from the British Columbia Law Institute.

8) Law Society and Bar Association Publications

Many law societies and bar associations will post papers and reports. For example, in the Law Society of Upper Canada website, you can find some back copies of the Ontario Lawyer Gazette and you can conduct a search through their CLE material (you cannot see it full-text online, but you could request it via ILL).

Another example is the Canadian Bar Association website. Here, you can access publications as well as the National Class Action Database, which “is designed to give lawyers and the public easy access to court documents submitted with regard to class action lawsuits currently underway across the country.” So, you can look at documents that have been filed in recent class action cases.

9) Quest

We all know you can search Quest for books; but did you know you can also search for such things as reports? For example, looking for ‘report’ and ‘class action’ you will find a report from the Ontario Attorney General's Advisory Committee on Class Action Reform. Make sure you try several different words when conducting your search. Also, try searching by subject—this can lead you to many helpful materials on your topic.

 Print this Page