Legal Research – Page 20 – Know How, the blog of the Great Library

Legal Research Survival Guide, Part 10 – Lifelines and Last Tips

In this last installment of our Legal Research Survival Guide, we’d like to leave you with some final tips and advice for surviving, and thriving, during your time as an articling, LPP or summer student.

Divorce Act & Bill C-78 – Unofficial Consolidation

Now available: an unofficial consolidation of the Divorce Act & Bill C-78.

A handy unofficial version of the Divorce Act that incorporates the pending changes in Bill C-78 is now available for free. The consolidation was created by B.C. family law arbitrator and author, John-Paul Boyd and announced on Slaw this week.

While commonly referred to as “The New Divorce Act”, Bill C-78 is officially cited as “An Act to amend the Divorce Act, the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act and the Garnishment, Attachment and Pension Diversion Act and to make consequential amendments to another Act”, S.C. 2019, c. 16. The act significantly amends, but does not replace the current Divorce Act.

Boyd’s consolidated version will fill an important research need until the Bill C-78 changes take effect and are incorporated into the official consolidation of the Divorce Act on Justice Laws. Currently these amendments are listed separately following the text of the Divorce Act, under the heading “Amendments Not In Force”.

Yes, the Words are Important!

Doing some online research and getting no results? Are you using the right words?

When we did research using print sources, the right terms weren’t as essential as they are today. In the print sources you could browse the table of contents and index, review a relevant chapter, and sometimes even open the book to the exact page you need (serendipity – it has happened, honest!).

Doing research with print provides a context; you’re starting with Waddams’ The Law of Contracts, or Brown on Insurance Law in Canada. As you read you discover other relevant terminology and learn more about the area of law. But with online searching you’re sending words into a void with the hope that the results contain the answer you seek.

So how can you avoid wasting time? Begin with the right words. For example, searching for a precedent for a “motion for rectification” instead of an “application for rectification” will return zero results. If you’re not sure of the right words, first do some research in secondary sources such as Perell & Morden’s The Law of Civil Procedure in Ontario, the C.E.D. (print or through WestlawNext Canada) or books on wills and probate. Secondary sources are your friends!

If your online search still doesn’t pull up relevant results, tweak your search. Instead of using a phrase such as “application for rectification”, try broadening the search and do a proximity search instead: application /5 rectification. Be sure to use the correct connectors for the online source since they aren’t always consistent.

It may seem like a waste of time to begin with some preliminary research to gain context and an understanding of a topic, but in the end it may save you time – because the words are important.