View source for Recommended Secondary Resources

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==Clicklaw website==

'''Clicklaw website''' is BC’s primary resource for legal information. It links to a large collection of legal information resources for the public. See the handout [https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/sites/default/files/inline-files/2017_clicklaw_detailed_handout.pdf How to Use Clicklaw]. 

Clicklaw also includes [https://wiki.clicklaw.bc.ca/index.php/Main_Page Clicklaw wikibooks], which are a series of over 20 legal guides that are fully searchable, and can be downloaded in print or ePub formats. A good place to start is with the wikibook, Legal Help for British Columbians, which provides first steps for over 40 common legal problems.

==Legal Dictionaries and Glossaries==
*[http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/resource/4407 Multilingual Legal Glossary]. Lists 5000 Canadian legal and court-related terms in English plain language, and their equivalents in eight other languages (Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Farsi, Korean, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese). 
*[http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/resource/1493 BC Supreme Court Terms]. Provides brief definitions of commonly used legal terms to assist self-represented litigants with civil, non-family claims in the Supreme Court of BC.  
*[http://wiki.clicklaw.bc.ca/index.php/Terminology JP Boyd on Family law - Terminology]. Offers JP Boyd’s plain-language definitions of common legal words and phrases in family law.
*[http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/content/complete/statreg/?xsl=/templates/browse.xsl BC Laws Glossary]. Found in the Statutes and Regulations on bclaws.ca, this glossary offers further explanation of terms used in the legislation.
*[https://www.irwinlaw.com/cold Irwin Law’s Canadian Online Legal Dictionary]. A dictionary of terms defined in the glossaries of Canadian law books published by Irwin Law. 
*[http://thelawdictionary.org/ Black's Law Dictionary Free Online Legal Dictionary] 2nd Ed. An American resource, but can be helpful for universal legal terms. 
*[http://newtobc.ca/bc-libraries/ Public libraries] and [https://www.courthouselibrary.ca Courthouse Libraries BC] have legal dictionaries available in print.

==Research Resources at Courthouse Libraries BC==

===Guides===
*[https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/how-we-can-help Courthouse Libraries BC: How We Can Help]. Describes how our information services and staff can help you do your legal research.
*[https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/sites/default/files/inline-files/findingcourtdocs2015.pdf A Brief Guide to Finding Court Documents]. Contains a series of questions and answers written for public librarians to help their patrons look for court documents.
<!--*[http://www.courthouselibrary.ca/docs/default-source/lawmatters/resources-to-help-with-notice-of-civil-claim---legal-basis.pdf?sfvrsn=2 Resources to Help with Notice of Civil Claim - Legal Basis].  Describes how to find information to write a legal basis for your case, including case law, BC legislation and BC Supreme Court Rules. DW's note: the PDF was taken off the website even before the new site was launched, so need to check with Megan Smiley if this resource is still accurate. Lesley sent me the PDF file.-->

===Website tools===
*[https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/how-we-can-help/learn-use-legal-digital-research-tools Video tutorials]. Includes [https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/how-we-can-help/learn-use-legal-digital-research-tools/finding-cases-point Legal Research Essentials: Finding Cases on Point], which demonstrates how to effectively conduct case law research.
*[https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/how-we-can-help/legislation-case-law/guides Guides]. These include BC legislation and federal legislation, and recent changes to the law.
*[https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/how-we-can-help/legislation-case-law/subscription-databases Subscription databases] and [https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/how-we-can-help/legislation-case-law/about-our-databases databases created & maintained by CLBC]. These are available on computers at [https://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/helpmap/service/1009 branches of Courthouse Libraries BC].  
*[https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/how-we-can-help/our-legal-knowledge-base Legal Knowledge Base]. A collection of handy references and hard to find answers to a diverse assortment of legal research questions.

===Recommended books & resources, in print only=== 

The online [https://lib.courthouselibrary.ca/library catalogue] of Courthouse Libraries BC will show you which of our libraries contain any of the titles listed below:
<!-- in these areas of law: 
*[http://www.courthouselibrary.ca/practice/CivilLitigation/CivilLitRecs.aspx Civil Litigation]
*[http://www.courthouselibrary.ca/practice/Familylaw/RecommendedBooksResources.aspx Family]
*[http://www.courthouselibrary.ca/practice/PersonalInjury/RecommendedBooksResources.aspx Personal Injury]
*Other recommended texts: DW's note: these links are no longer available; they were from the old practice portals and merely captured tagged information from other pages. -->
*''Written Advocacy''. Includes sample precedents of pleadings (statements of claim, defences and counter-claims) and how to write an effective legal argument.
*''Bullen & Leake & Jacob's Precedents and Pleadings''. Discusses how to draft pleadings and includes sample pleadings in areas such as defamation, employment law, judicial review, personal injury and privacy.
*''McLachlin & Taylor or British Columbia Court Forms''. Comprehensive textbook that discusses drafting pleadings and provides precedents.
*''Civil Trial Handbook''. Offers information about trial preparation and strategy. It combines legal and procedural material and gives practical information that includes objectives, pointers, and strategy.  
*''Sanagan’s Encyclopedia of words and phrases, legal maxims, Canada''. Can help you find the meaning of legal words as defined by Canadian courts, and provide references to statutes or cases where words or phrases are defined.
*''Canadian Encyclopedic Digest''. Comprehensive encyclopedia of Canadian law, which includes references to relevant statutes and case law.
*''Halsbury’s Laws of Canada''. Describes over 100 legal topics, with references to relevant statutes and case law.

==Online Guides to Legal Research==
These are written for law students and lawyers to help them prepare for a case.
*[https://learnlsbc.ca/node/521 Legal Research Essentials: Finding Cases on Point] from the Law Society of BC. This online course of videos and quizzes was developed by Courthouse Libraries BC.
*[http://legalresearch.org/ The Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide] (formerly the Best Guide to Legal Research) by CanLII. Includes a link to [http://legalresearch.org/essentials/process/commentary/texts/suggested-textbooks/ Suggested Textbooks].
*[https://library.law.utoronto.ca/legal-reseach-tutorial/legal-research-process Legal Research Process] from the Bora Laskin Law Library (Ontario).

{{REVIEWED | reviewer = [[Courthouse Libraries BC]] staff, October 2015}}

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