Elements of a CaseBase® Document

This article describes the different sections that might be displayed within CaseBase® documents. Any given document may contain some of these sections but not others. CaseBase® documents also contain signals for a visual quick reference to the treatment of a case, for more information see CaseBase® Signals & Annotations.

The following is an example of a CaseBase® document. Many of these elements are found in the document map shown on the left-hand side of the page, entitled Search Terms (note that you can expand or collapse these search terms).

The following descriptions are a list of the elements you might find within a document under each of the following tabs:

 

Summary Tab

You will find the following information under the Summary tab in a CaseBase® document.

This section displays details of the primary case such as the case name, citations, judge, court, judgment date and popular name. Subscribers to reports and/or unreported judgments can access the full text of the decision by selecting the relevant link from the case citation. Unreported judgments can be accessed via the hyperlinks on media neutral citations (where available) and BC numbers, e.g. BC9900223.

 

 

On the left-hand side of the document, there is a document map or a table of contents (TOC) named Search Terms; you can expand it and collapse it as needed. It allows you to quickly access a section of the document you might be interested in, such as a specific case or footnotes.

Click on a search term on the left to take you to that section of the document.

 

An abstract, available for legally significant and high-profile cases handed down since July 2009, appears at the top of the CaseBase entry and draws attention to notable features of those cases.

 

The catchwords appearing in bold text identify the main areas of law dealt with and provide the legal context of the primary judgment or article. The digest component states the legal issues considered and summarises the decision of the court or the argument of the article. Where a case or article deals with more than one major issue, a different set of catchwords and digests may be used for each issue.

 

 

Particular words or phrases considered in a case are displayed under the Summary tab of the citation document.

 

The CaseBase® signal is a visual representation which usually displays before a case name. It indicates the overall treatment of a case, with the colour and symbol indicating whether the case decision has received positive, negative, cautionary or neutral treatment in subsequent judgments. For detailed information about the meaning and calculation of CaseBase signals and annotations, see CaseBase® Signals & Annotations.

 

 

Litigation History Tab

Listed under the Litigation History tab is both the prior and subsequent litigation history of the primary case. The annotations included in the table below indicate whether the primary case is an appeal against an earlier decision, whether the primary case has itself been affirmed, varied or reversed on appeal and whether any judgments that are part of the same litigation are available.

The cases appearing in the litigation history tab are displayed from the newest case to the oldest.

Annotation Description
Affirmed The decision in the primary case is upheld on appeal or the primary case itself has affirmed an earlier decision.
Reversed The decision in the primary case is overturned on appeal or the primary case itself has overturned an earlier decision.
Varied The decision in the primary case is only partly reversed or partly affirmed by the subsequent case, or the primary case itself has partly reversed or partly affirmed an earlier decision.
Related The decision in the subsequent or earlier case relates in some way to the primary case, but the court in the primary case is not assessing the merits of the related decision.
Special Leave Granted Special leave to appeal the decision in the primary case to the High Court or Privy Council has been granted or the primary case is a decision granting special leave to appeal against an earlier decision.
Special Leave Refused Special leave to appeal the decision in the primary case to the High Court or Privy Council has been refused or the primary case is a decision refusing special leave to appeal against an earlier decision.

 

Cases referring to this case Tab

Listed under this tab is all the subsequent cases that have considered the primary judgement. The list of cases is displayed below the graph. By default, the cases are listed by judgment date from most to least recent. You can list the cases in a different order by selecting a different sorting option from the Sort by drop-down list. Above the list of cases you will find graphic filters you can use to narrow the list of cases. There are three available graphical filters for this table:

  • Paragraph Filter (default)
  • Court Filter
  • Year Filter

The filters do not display if there is only one citing judgment.

The filter is a set of rows and columns. Each row in the filter identifies one of the four possible case treatments (negative, cautionary, positive, and neutral) and is represented by a unique colour (red, orange, green, or blue). Each column identifies the court or year in which the cases were decided. To choose whether you want the columns to identify courts or years, select either Court or Year from the Court/Year selector above the filter.

Cells appear at the intersections of each treatment type row and each court or year column. A number in a cell identifies the number of cases in the corresponding court or year that have received the corresponding type of treatment.

Use the filter as follows:

  • To limit the list to only the cases with a specific treatment type, select the name of the treatment type in the filter’s left margin. All cases for that treatment type remain in or are restored to the list, and all cases with different treatment types are filtered out of the list.
  • To limit the list to only the cases associated with a specific treatment type and court or year, select the cell where the desired treatment type row intersects the desired court or year column. Those cases remain in or are restored to the list, and all other cases are filtered out of the list.
  • To reset the list to its default state, where all cases are listed, select the Reset link below the filter.

The list of cases appears in a table below the filter. By default, the cases are listed by judgment date from most to least recent. You can list the cases in a different order by selecting a different sorting option from the Sort by drop-down list.

The CaseBase®signals appearing in the Signal column indicate the type of judicial treatment each of the decisions has received. Selecting a signal opens the CaseBase® entry for the corresponding decision. Subscribers to reports can select the relevant citation link below the case name, if it is available, to open the full text of the decision.

Each entry in the Annotation column indicates how the corresponding case was treated. The list below describes the annotations that can appear in this column and their meanings.

Annotation Description
Applied

A principle of law articulated in the primary case is applied to a new set of facts by the court in the subsequent case.
Approved

The court in the subsequent case has approved the way the court in the primary case, being a court of inferior jurisdiction, has articulated a principle of law.
Cited The primary case is merely cited by the court in the subsequent case, without comment.
Considered The legal principles articulated in the primary case are considered or discussed by the court without adverse reflection or definitive application in the subsequent case.
Disapproved

The decision in the primary case is criticised by the court in the subsequent case.
Distinguished The court in the subsequent case holds that the legal principles articulated by the primary case (usually otherwise persuasive or binding authority) do not apply because of some essential difference between the two cases in fact or law.

Explained

 The decision reached in the primary case is justified by the court in the subsequent case, drawing attention to some feature of the primary case that may not be immediately obvious on its face.
Followed The principle of law established in the case (or the dictum referred to) has been applied in the instant case.
Not Followed The court in the subsequent case has declined to apply the principles of law articulated in the primary case.
Overruled The legal principles articulated in the primary case are held to be incorrect by the court in the subsequent case, which is a court of superior or equivalent jurisdiction.

Questioned

 The court in the subsequent case has expressed doubt about the decision in the primary case, but does not actually determine that the principles of law in the primary case are incorrect.

 

Note: Different principles in the primary case may be treated differently in the subsequent case, so that combinations such as Applied/Distinguished are possible (indicating that one principle was applied and another distinguished).

 

A search field is displayed just above the list of cases in the tables of "Cases referring to this case" and "Cases considered by this case". This is the Search Within filter. By entering relevant terms in the search field, you can filter the case list to show only the citing or cited judgments that mention your terms. This allows you to quickly cut down the list to only judgments that are relevant to the issue you are researching. The search targets the text of documents mentioned in the table (both full text cases and CaseBase records).

After entering a search term, you will notice a Narrow By: row appear just above the case list, with a tile displaying the term that you have entered. You can enter as many search terms as you want.

  • To narrow further by using another term, simply enter another search term in the search field.
  • To remove a search term, click on the ‘X’ in that tile.
  • To reset the case list to its default state, where all cases are listed, select the Reset link below the filter.

 

The Paragraph filter is a graph that lists the paragraphs of the primary judgment on the horizontal (x) axis, and the number of subsequent cases citing those paragraphs on the vertical (y) axis. Each column represents the number of times a paragraph is cited by subsequent cases. When hovering the mouse over columns of the graph, a pop-up appears, providing information on the paragraph number and the number of citing cases.

See for more information on using the Paragraph filter, including detailed information on:

  • Scope
  • Using the graph as a Filter
  • Judge Names
  • Using it with the Show only cases that don’t cite specific paragraphs option
  • Using it with the Search Within Filter

 

 

Publications referring to this case Tab

Publication articles considering the primary case are listed under this heading. Selecting on the CaseBase®signal appearing after the citation of an article will take you to the CaseBase® entry for that article. Publication subscribers can access the full text of an article (where available) by selecting its citation.

 

Cases considered by this case Tab

This section of the CaseBase®document lists all cases that were referred to or considered by the primary case. Above the list of cases is a graphical filter you can use to narrow the list of cases by the types of treatment they have received and/or by the courts or years in which they were decided.

The filter is a set of rows and columns. Each row in the filter identifies one of the four possible case treatments (negative, cautionary, positive, and neutral) and is represented by a unique colour (red, orange, green, or blue). Each column identifies the court or year in which the cases were decided. To choose whether you want the columns to identify courts or years, select either Court or Year from the Court/Year selector above the filter.

Cells appear at the intersections of each treatment type row and each court or year column. A number in a cell identifies the number of cases in the corresponding court or year that have received the corresponding type of treatment.

Use the filter as follows:

  • To limit the list to only the cases with a specific treatment type, select the name of the treatment type in the filter’s left margin. All cases for that treatment type remain in or are restored to the list, and all cases with different treatment types are filtered out of the list.
  • To limit the list to only the cases associated with a specific treatment type and court or year, select the cell where the desired treatment type row intersects the desired court or year column. Those cases remain in or are restored to the list, and all other cases are filtered out of the list.
  • To reset the list to its default state, where all cases are listed, select the Reset link below the filter.

The list of cases appears in a table below the filter. By default, the cases are listed by judgment date from most to least recent. You can list the cases in a different order by selecting a different sorting option from the Sort by drop-down list. Subscribers to reports can select the relevant citation link below the case name, if it is available, to open the full text of the decision. For more information on CaseBase signals, see CaseBase® Signals & Annotations.

The CaseBase® signals appearing in the Signal column indicate the type of judicial treatment each of the decisions has received. Selecting a signal opens the CaseBase® entry for the corresponding decision.

Each entry in the Annotation column indicates how the primary case was treated in the corresponding case listed. The following is a list of possible annotations and their descriptions.

Annotation Description
Applied

A principle of law articulated in the primary case is applied to a new set of facts by the court in the subsequent case.
Approved

The court in the subsequent case has approved the way the court in the primary case, being a court of inferior jurisdiction, has articulated a principle of law.
Cited The primary case is merely cited by the court in the subsequent case, without comment.
Considered The legal principles articulated in the primary case are considered or discussed by the court without adverse reflection or definitive application in the subsequent case.
Disapproved

The decision in the primary case is criticised by the court in the subsequent case.
Distinguished The court in the subsequent case holds that the legal principles articulated by the primary case (usually otherwise persuasive or binding authority) do not apply because of some essential difference between the two cases in fact or law.

 

Note: Different principles in the primary case may be treated differently in the subsequent case, so that combinations such as Applied/Distinguished are possible (indicating that one principle was applied and another distinguished).

 

Legislation considered by this case

Listed here are the legislative provisions referred to in the primary case.