“What Cases Become Case Law?”

I've been trying to figure out who decides what cases become listed on services such as CanLII. I see that the court publishes certain cases, and CanLII lists them. the CanLII FAQ says that they don't choose them, they just publish what the court publishes.

Can ANY past case be used as case law, or only the ones on CanLII and similar services. Who picks what becomes case law? How does that process work?

I've asked a few paralegals that I know (not people who go to court, but rather they assist lawyers) and they didn't know.

I'm very curious!

-PbFoot

PbFoot wrote:Can ANY past case be used as case law

This I do know: Yes. Any decided case is (more or less) case law.

Why the court decides to publish certain cases and not others, I don't know. CanLII seems to have some rather uninteresting cases but some of the really important ones that guided and instructed the Justices in those "uninteresting" ones are not in the database. Go figure...

Radar Identified wrote:

PbFoot wrote:Can ANY past case be used as case law

This I do know: Yes. Any decided case is (more or less) case law.

Why the court decides to publish certain cases and not others, I don't know. CanLII seems to have some rather uninteresting cases but some of the really important ones that guided and instructed the Justices in those "uninteresting" ones are not in the database. Go figure...

So, that you still have to pay the lawyers for something.........

Also keep in mind that higher courts set precedents. So decisions by the Supreme court on done become binding to lower courts. Only at the lowest level (cases that have JP's) are rulings not binding. So when looking for case law to make a defence, you want to ensure that you use rulings from the highest courts if possible (although lower court rulings are not irrelevant - just not binding).