Handy Resource – the Popular Case Name Table
When someone asks you for the Wagon Mound (1) Case, just where do you look? At the BC Courthouse Library Society’s Popular Case Name Table, of course!
Someone asked me to get a copy of the Wagon Mound 1 case. That was all they had for me. No proper case name. No citation. “Funny name for a case,” I thought, after I had them repeat it to me about three times. So I did a Google search and I stumbled upon this BC resource that lists the popular names of cases and their corresponding proper names and citations, including parallel citations. VERY COOL! It’s good to give the whole table a quick skim just to get some sense of what’s there. Having done this myself, I learned that there were many times this would have been handy.
My thanks to the BC Courthouse Library Society!
What a great site. Well done BC Court House Library.
Simon
They are indeed one of the jewels of the West Coast! :-) They’ve had some great leadership in recent years with Johanne Blenkin now, and previously with Sylvia Teasdale, who got many of the changes rolling.
Oh wow. Or, in the words of Michael Stephens, HOT!
That is just brilliant. Wish I’d seen that a long time ago. Thanks for pointing it out, Heather!
And here I thought that probably everybody else knew about this long ago. That’s one of the many cool things about our type of work. There’s something you can learn from absolutely everyone. I always learn interesting things just by watching how other people use their computers.
There are two other great things about the BCCLS website that I think are great as well:
1. They have a BC Legal Literature Index; and
2. Research guides for how to research the history of a federal or provincial act, which I haven’t yet seen on any other law library website.
These are all accessible off the same page as the Popular Name Table.
I DEFINITELY have to spend some more time on their site. Thanks, Neil!
Hi Neil,
I can tell you that the Law Society of Saskatchewan website has some good research guides, too. Check them out at http://tinyurl.com/danxh, where you’ll find the following (including how to find, update and note up federal and provincial legislation):
1. Legal Research Checklist
2. Databases Command Chart (print on legal size paper landscape)
3. How to Find Federal Statutes
4. How to Find Saskatchewan Statutes
5. How to Find Federal Regulations
6. How to Find Saskatchewan Regulations
7. Finding Case Law
8. How to Cite a Case Properly
9. Noting Up Cases
10. Electronic Citator Treatment Terms for Quickcite, Shepard’s and KeyCiteCanada