I welcome this development as well, but share some of many of your concerns: only the neutral citation is necessary for CanLII cases, lawyers should be encouraged to use CanLII versions of cases, and it's unnecessary to add the date a decision was accessed to
an electronic database citation.
I would still vastly prefer a print citation to a proprietary commercial
electronic database citation.
Not exact matches
However, it would be in my view a huge mistake to include only a
citation to an
electronic database, since those
citations only work reliably if you have access to the
database in question, and do not work at all for automated indexing of
citations since no
database (including CanLII) currently allows automated lookups of references.
While counsel are required to cite a reported series where available, the Civil & Criminal Practice Directive entitled «
Citation of Authorities» states that copies provided to the Court may be reproduced from an alternate electronic database provided the reported decision contains numbered paragraphs and the paragraph numbering is the same in the electronic source (slightly different instructions apply where the citation is to the Supreme Court R
Citation of Authorities» states that copies provided to the Court may be reproduced from an alternate
electronic database provided the reported decision contains numbered paragraphs and the paragraph numbering is the same in the
electronic source (slightly different instructions apply where the
citation is to the Supreme Court R
citation is to the Supreme Court Reports).
I also agree with the rationale for including a parallel
citation to an
electronic database such as CanLII or Westlaw.
The practice direction from the Ontario Superior Court is similar to that of the BC Court of Appeal, with the added requirement that «Parties citing decisions from
electronic databases should provide the
citations for any paper versions of the decision in addition to the
citation of the
electronic database.»
Online
databases and «
electronic citations» have not been treated in the same manner.
Collaborative outsourcing hasn't yet been tried in legal publishing and may be suitable for for many different kinds of
databases as well as for
electronic citations.
Practice Direction Regarding Filing of Judicial Decisions from
Electronic Databases, and Regarding
Citation of All Judicial Decisions Practice Direction
Parties citing decisions from
electronic databases should provide the
citations for any paper versions of the decision in addition to the
citation of the
electronic database.
«While
citations must be to a reported series where available, copies provided to the Court may be from an alternate
electronic database.
(c) A registrant of the College of Physicians and Surgeons resigned from the College, with a commitment to never re-apply, after the issuance of a
citation, having admitted to altering medical records and creating fictitious entries in his
electronic medical record
database for patients he had not seen, and fraudulently billing MSP for patients he had not seen.
The following
electronic databases will be searched: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC and the first 200
citations only of Google Scholar.