Search Canadian Court Dockets Online: Where to Look

What to take away

Federal court dockets and the public ledger

The Federal Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal keep separate registries. A docket search starts with the court registry where the case was filed, not a central online search. The Department of Justice explains where court records can be located, including registry offices and online sources. Some federal court decisions appear on CanLII, but the full docket sheet, which lists filings and orders, often requires a registry request.

A federal registry request follows a simple order.

Supreme Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada publishes its own case information online: you can look up a file by docket number, style of cause or counsel, and follow scheduled hearings and judgments from the court's website. The Tax Court of Canada keeps a separate registry for tax appeals; docket details come from that registry, and the court's decisions are published on CanLII.

Federal and provincial courts are not interchangeable, and the court that holds the file decides which registry you search. A federal matter under a statute such as immigration or patents sits in the Federal Court, tax appeals sit in the Tax Court of Canada, and family, small claims and most criminal matters sit in provincial court, with larger civil claims in the superior court. The same division of powers shapes Federal vs Provincial Bill procedures. Knowing the split saves time before you pay a search fee.

Provincial docket lookup by province

Provincial and superior courts run their own systems, and no single index covers them. For each jurisdiction, start with the registry of the court that holds the file, and expect court lists or indexes rather than full file contents online.

For family, small claims and most criminal matters, the provincial or territorial court registry holds the file instead. Where a court does not post a list or index online, the search starts with the local registry, in person, by mail, or by phone.

What is online is usually the court list or index, not the full file contents. Court files are opened under each court's own public access rules, not under access-to-information law, which covers government departments instead; How FOIA requests work explains that separate U.S. route.

Before you search, collect:

Typical search fees and cost drivers

A basic search budget covers lookup time, per-page copies, and certification if needed. Search, copy and certification charges come from the fee schedule or tariff each court publishes, and those schedules change periodically, so check the current one for the court that holds your file before you pay. In practice, a search runs from $20 CAD for a simple online index lookup to $150 CAD for a paper file with certified extracts.

Cost breakdown by line item

Registry search fees pay for a clerk to locate a file. Photocopy fees cover paper or electronic reproduction. Certification adds a court seal and signature. A commercial subscription replaces multiple registry trips, but it is optional. A federal access to information request costs $5 to file, as listed on Canada.ca, but that route is for administrative records, not for most court files.

Fixed and variable costs

Fixed one-off costs are the search fee and certification. Variable costs are per-page copies and any courier or rush service. Recurring costs appear when you monitor a file over months or run many searches. Decide whether you need a single docket or ongoing tracking before you pay.

What the tools do not include

Court websites and search tools do not include full evidence, sealed documents, youth records, or documents covered by publication bans, so the public docket is always thinner than the file itself. Privacy rules are what draw those lines in Canada; for how they compare with the U.S. approach, see cross-border newsrooms. A docket search is still not a background check: criminal record checks run separately through police or the RCMP.

Example: A first Ontario search

A reporter wants one Superior Court civil file in Toronto. The daily court list shows the file number and next hearing date. The reporter asks the registry to inspect the file, then orders copies of three key documents. A sample budget: $0 for the online list, $25 for registry search, $4.50 for three pages at $1.50 each, and $20 certification of one order. Total: $49.50 CAD, before parking or courier.

Where budgets leak

Copying an entire file without narrowing the request can add $10 or more per page batch. Rush fees and courier charges often appear only at the registry counter. Asking for certified copies when a plain copy would do also raises the total. One other leak: paying a commercial service for information you can pull from a free court list or an index view. The U.S. federal courts' PACER Docket Search shows how per-page fees add up; Canadian index searches generally do not work that way.

Common questions