Canada
Canada Court Records: How to Search Every Province and Territory
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is there one national website to search Canadian court records?
No. The Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal each run their own free public case-search tool, but there is no single search covering every province and territory's courts. Each province and territory runs its own system, ranging from fully public online search to no online portal at all.
Which provinces have no online court-records search at all?
Saskatchewan has no public online court-records portal at any court. Prince Edward Island's status could not be confirmed either way: a page titled 'Supreme Court Docket' turns up in search results, but it could not be reached to confirm what it shows, so its only confirmed search method is an in-person terminal. Nova Scotia posts partial dockets and a decisions database but has no case-file search. Yukon has a docket-retrieval tool, but it sits behind a login whose scope could not be confirmed.
Can I search Supreme Court of Canada cases online?
Yes. The SCC's case-search tool at scc-csc.ca lets anyone search by case number, case name, or lower-court file number for free, with no login, and links to docket information, party and counsel names, and a case summary.
Can I search Federal Court or Federal Court of Appeal cases online?
Yes. A single search tool at fct-cf.ca covers both courts by last name, corporation name, ship name, or file number, and shows docket entries and case history. Actual document downloads are more limited, generally available online only for matters filed on or after September 12, 2022 in four specific practice areas; older or other matters still go through the Registry.
Can the public access a young person's court record anywhere in Canada?
Not as a matter of course. The federal Youth Criminal Justice Act closes access to a youth record by default in every province and territory, opening it only to a specific list of people, such as the young person, their counsel, and the victim, for a limited access period. A separate publication ban further restricts identifying a young person even where a record is technically accessible to someone permitted to see it.
Does finding a court record online mean I can publish what it says?
No. A publication ban restricts what may be published or broadcast about a case regardless of whether the underlying record is accessible. Breaching a publication ban is an offence, and the responsibility for knowing about and complying with one falls on whoever accesses or repeats the information.
Is a court-records search the same as a criminal record check?
No. A court search looks up a specific case by name or file number in the court system. A criminal record check is a separate, police-issued product built for employment and background-screening purposes, drawing on police and RCMP databases rather than court files.
Updates
Independently fact-checked against the cited primary sources
Sources and References
- Supreme Court of Canada - Open and Transparent(scc-csc.ca).gov
- Sherman Estate v. Donovan, 2021 SCC 25 (decision)(scc-csc.ca).gov
- Supreme Court of Canada - Access to Court Records Policy(scc-csc.ca).gov
- Supreme Court of Canada - Search Case Information(scc-csc.ca).gov
- Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal - Court Files Search(fct-cf.ca).gov
- Federal Court - Notice: Pilot Project, Online Access to Court Records (Sept 7, 2022)(fct-cf.ca).gov
- Federal Court - Court and Registry Fees (Tariff A)(fct-cf.ca).gov
- Justice Laws Website - Youth Criminal Justice Act(laws-lois.justice.gc.ca).gov