Westlaw Canada features
The trusted tool for researchers in the legal industry
Learn about the content and features that have made Westlaw Canada the most reliable legal research platform for generations
Advanced legal technology & tools
Westlaw provides you with the most up-to-date content and leading technology for your research
More relevant, inclusive search results
Canada’s most advanced legal search engine is designed to help you deliver the best results, quickly and with more confidence.
KeyCite® Canada - Case and Legislative Citator
Access a network of links from primary law to a wealth of supporting material to help you understand the law.
Better organized and connected content
Organize and share your research more efficiently. Create, favourite, and share folders for organized access to your firm’s legal research.
Integration
Cross Product Information provides you the added convenience of seeing search results and links to other resources such as eLooseleafs on Thomson Reuters® ProView and Practical Law.
Convenient filtering and re-sorting options
Focus on the information that is most important to you.
Custom Pages
Personalize your online legal research experience by creating a page that’s ideal for the way you work. Organize your favourite content and research tools and clear away the rest.
Drafting Assistant
Streamline the drafting process with comprehensive tools and information. Drafting Assistant Litigation is included in all Westlaw subscriptions.
Alert Management Centre
Ensure the right information is being delivered to the right people across your organization in a timely and efficient way.
Primary law sources
Westlaw offers the most comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date collection of legal information
Cases
Access to an extensive collection of important cases. You'll find coverage of unreported court decisions from 1986 forward and reported court decisions dating back to 1977. You can also view decisions that were published in Carswell's law reports from their inception and decisions predating 1977 from Westlaw's key courts and law report series.
Legislation
Pending Legislation appearing along with current legislation helps you anticipate amendments not yet in force. Concordances of Legislation let you compare similar legislation in other jurisdictions as an aid to interpretation and understanding.
The Canadian Abridgment
A comprehensive collection of over a million digests of Canadian case law organized by legal issue according to a single taxonomy (The Canadian Abridgment Key Classification System). This collection is exclusive to Thomson Reuters, and covers virtually every reported or unreported case received from the courts since 1986, with the exception of Quebec civil law cases.
Canadian Encyclopedic Digest
The C.E.D. is a great place to begin your legal research. It provides you with a clear overview of any legal topic and gives you context to cases and legislation relevant to your issue. Over 225 subjects are listed alphabetically, with sub-topics to pinpoint the area of law you may be interested in. You can also link to Canadian and international cases and equivalent topics in the Canadian Abridgment Digest.
Abridgment eDigests
Keep abreast of the latest developments in case law in a multitude of specific topics. The Abridgment eDigests are available as part of your subscription.
Tribunal Decision Coverage
Access tribunal decisions published in Thomson Reuters reports from inception of the report series, all decisions reported in other print reporters from 1997 forward, and the full text of all decisions reported in Labour Arbitration Cases since 1948. View the full list of tribunals for the federal jurisdiction and common law provinces.
Index to Canadian Legal Literature (ICLL)
The ICLL is Canada's only comprehensive legal bibliography, containing books, articles, government publications, audio-visual materials, continuing legal education materials, case comments and annotations (available in English and French). Westlaw provides linking from ICLL references to full text of cases and articles. References are also displayed in KeyCite Canada results.
Words and Phrases
The success of litigation and transactions can depend on the precision of your terminology. With Words and Phrases you can access over 70,000 judicial interpretations of statutory and common law terms and how they have been interpreted by the courts.
LawSource Case Notes Newsletter
Released 40 times per year, The LawSource Case Notes newsletter on Westlaw is a sample selection from the weekly summaries of notable civil and criminal court decisions published in Law Times newspaper.
Secondary sources
Westlaw Canada features exclusive content and tools covering major practice areas that other solutions simply cannot match
Top analytical resources
Access an unparalleled collection with resources such as the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest; our Topical Texts and Annotations collection; COA (Causes of Action); law reviews; journals and more.
ProView Federated Search
Discover Secondary Sources on Thomson Reuters ProView® with your Westlaw search. Experience the authority found across the entire ProView eLooseleaf collection in one easy search. Find answers faster by searching multiple resources on Westlaw and the ProView platform simultaneously. Discover invaluable commentary from nearly 300 looseleafs on the ProView platform that you might have otherwise missed.
O’Brien’s Encyclopedia of Forms
An extensive collection of forms and precedents covering a broad range of legal subjects, O’Brien’s Encyclopedia of Forms provides thousands of documents that can be easily customized to suit your individual needs. Each topical division includes authored commentary.
Additional content
Practice Area Newsletters
Practice specific newsletters provide timely commentary by experts, including analysis of current developments and highlights of important new case law and legislation across Canada.
International
Our international solutions help you understand and apply law from around the world. Get access to a customized collection of international solutions and content on Westlaw® Canada to help you grasp complex laws. More than 30 countries are covered including the Commonwealth jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Australia.
Litigation Materials
Access the most comprehensive online collection of litigation materials, including, pleadings, motions, memoranda, and other resources to use throughout all stages of the litigation.
Topical Texts and Annotations
Authoritative texts and annotations from leading experts. Westlaw’s powerful search capabilities, integrated content, research management tools, and exclusive editorial enhancements are accessible all in one place.
Human expertise
Behind the technology there is human expertise providing you with time-saving guidance
Lawyer-editors
Our team of bar-admitted Lawyer-editors analyze, categorize, and summarize the law, creating editorial enhancements to help you research more efficiently – and with greater accuracy.
Expert research support
The industry’s premier team of legal research support professionals are available 24/7 to keep your research moving forward.
What our customers are saying
Our customers trust Westlaw for up-to-date, authoritative and actionable content that gives them bulletproof confidence.
I rely on Westlaw to help me find helpful uncommon cases. In one recent sentencing hearing the judge commented that he was unaware of some of the cases I had cited. These cases clearly had a big impact on his decision, since he commented that “If your lawyer hadn’t done such excellent research and such an outstanding job, I would’ve given you 4 or 5 years.” To me, there is no substitute for thorough research, and for me that means Westlaw.
Lindsay Doucet, J.D.
Mainwood Legal Services
I became used to researching the law with hard-copy books … in the past few years, I’ve started using the leading online research system Westlaw …. It raises my confidence level that I’m totally on top of my game…
Bruce MacFarlane, Q.C.
In practice, I use it on a near daily basis whether it is for researching statutes and regulations for various corporate matters or case law research for immigration appeals, refugee hearings or judicial review proceedings. Westlaw is great because there is guidance material available to help develop research skills, better understand search techniques and shortcuts and I personally have found that the more I use it and discuss with other lawyers I am constantly finding unique uses for the technology.
Matthew O’Neil
Barrister and Solicitor
Technical specs
Supported operating systems
Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10
Mac® OS 10.5 or later
Internet browser
Internet Explorer® 11 or later (Windows only)
Mozilla Firefox current version or Extended Support Release version
Safari® 10.0 or later
Chrome current version
Microsoft Edge current version
Mobile apps
iPhone (iOS 10.0 or later, iPhone 5 or later)
iPad (iOS 10.0 or later, iPad 4th generation or later)
Android (4.0 or later, Android 4.0 or higher)
Other requirements
1024x768 or higher screen resolution recommended
Adobe Acrobat Reader® 9.0 or later (some print functionality is lost with older versions)
Question about Westlaw Canada? We’re here to support you.
1-800-387-5164
For help and product support, training and customer service, please contact us: