Service

Court Records Search — Canada

Short answer

A Canadian court records search reveals civil lawsuits, judgments, liens, and bankruptcy filings connected to a person or company. Coverage is uneven by province: British Columbia and Québec publish searchable party-name dockets, while Ontario and Alberta are largely counter-based. Sleuthify searches what is online and tells you exactly which courthouses would need a manual retrieval.

Draws on 8 record sources, each named below with the statutory basis we rely on. See the list.

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The open court principle, and its limits

Canadian courts operate on the open court principle — proceedings and their records are presumptively public, which is why court records are one of the five categories PIPEDA treats as publicly available. But 'public' means 'a member of the public may inspect them', not 'a member of the public may search them online by name'. That gap between the principle and the plumbing is the single most misunderstood thing about Canadian records research.

Province by province, what you can actually get

British Columbia's Court Services Online is the best in the country: genuine party-name search across Supreme and Provincial Court, civil and criminal, for about six dollars a file. Québec's plumitifs, through SOQUIJ, are comparably good. Ontario has no consolidated public civil docket — coverage is court-by-court and frequently requires attending the registry in person. Alberta is similar. CanLII covers reported decisions nationally, but a reported decision is only the small fraction of matters that produced a written judgment; the vast majority settle and leave no trace there.

Court records are not a criminal record check

This distinction gets people sued. A criminal court record shows that a charge was laid in a specific courthouse and what happened to it. A criminal record check is a police product, issued by the RCMP or a local service against fingerprints and with the subject's consent. They are different artifacts with different coverage and different legal uses. Anything a records search turns up in a criminal docket is reported as exactly what it is, and never as a record check.

What you receive

In the report

Civil actions where the subject is plaintiff or defendant, where dockets are searchable
Reported decisions naming the subject, nationally, via CanLII
Registered judgments and writs of execution
Bankruptcy and insolvency filings from the Superintendent of Bankruptcy
Liens and PPSA security registrations against the subject
Regulatory and securities enforcement proceedings
A per-jurisdiction coverage note stating exactly what was and was not searchable

Honest limits

What canadian court records search will not tell you

Every item here is a structural limit of the Canadian record, not a paywall. Anyone promising you these is either misrepresenting what they have or describing something unlawful.

Ontario and Alberta lack consolidated online civil docket search
Sealed files, publication bans, and young offender matters are excluded by law
Family law files are restricted and generally not publicly searchable
Settled matters usually leave no published record at all
This is not and cannot be a criminal record check

8 connectors

Sources this search queries

Each source carries the paragraph of the Regulations Specifying Publicly Available Information that permits collecting from it without the subject's consent.

CACanLII — Canadian Legal Information Institute
Federation of Law Societies of Canada
Lawful basisCourt or tribunal recordSOR/2001-7(d)
API · No search fee
BCBC Court Services Online — Civil and Criminal Search
BC Ministry of Attorney General
Lawful basisCourt or tribunal recordSOR/2001-7(d)
Browser session · 6.00 CAD per search
QCPlumitifs — Québec Court Dockets
Société québécoise d'information juridique (SOQUIJ)
Lawful basisCourt or tribunal recordSOR/2001-7(d)
Paid account · 9.00 CAD per search
ONOntario Superior Court — Civil Claims Online
Ministry of the Attorney General
Lawful basisCourt or tribunal recordSOR/2001-7(d)
Analyst request · No search fee
ABAlberta Courts — Civil Claims and Judgment Search
Alberta Courts
Lawful basisCourt or tribunal recordSOR/2001-7(d)
Analyst request · No search fee
CAFederal Court — Court Files and Dockets
Courts Administration Service
Lawful basisCourt or tribunal recordSOR/2001-7(d)
Public web form · No search fee
CAOffice of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy — Insolvency Records
OSB Canada
Lawful basisStatutory public registrySOR/2001-7(c)
Paid account · 8.00 CAD per search
ONOntario Writs of Execution Search
ServiceOntario / Ministry of the Attorney General
Lawful basisStatutory public registrySOR/2001-7(c)
Paid account · 11.00 CAD per search

Every source we operate, with fees and coverage

Figures

Numbers worth quoting

Each figure carries its source and the date it was current.
Measure	Value	Source	As of
Cost of a full court file search through BC Court Services Online	$6.00	BC Ministry of Attorney General	2026

Registry fees and coverage change. Figures are stated as of the date shown, not as a standing guarantee.

Questions

canadian court records search — common questions

How do I find out if someone has been sued in Canada?

It depends on the province. In British Columbia, search Court Services Online by party name. In Québec, search the plumitifs through SOQUIJ. In Ontario and Alberta there is no equivalent public online search, so you check CanLII for any reported decision and then either attend the relevant courthouse registry or have someone do it for you. Sleuthify runs the online sources and identifies which courthouses to visit.

Are Canadian court records free to search?

Reported decisions on CanLII are free. Docket searches generally are not: British Columbia charges roughly six dollars per file through CSO, Québec's plumitifs are fee-bearing through SOQUIJ, and Ontario writ and PPSA searches run eight to eleven dollars each. A thorough multi-source search costs real money in per-search fees, which is why the free scan tells you where the hits are before you pay for the contents.

Can I search Canadian criminal records online by name?

There is no public national criminal record database in Canada. British Columbia's CSO includes criminal court records searchable by name, and Québec's plumitifs cover penal matters, but these are courthouse records, not criminal record checks. A real criminal record check comes from the RCMP or a police service, requires the subject's consent, and is usually verified by fingerprints. Any website claiming to search Canadian criminal records for you is misrepresenting what it has.

Will a court records search show family court or divorce files?

Generally no. Family law files are subject to access restrictions in every province, and while divorce judgments exist, they are not publicly name-searchable. A central divorce registry search is available only to the parties or their counsel. Sleuthify reports the financial and property records relevant to a family law matter rather than attempting to retrieve the family file itself.

How far back do Canadian court records go?

Online coverage typically starts in the late 1990s or 2000s depending on the court's digitisation. Older files exist in paper or microfiche at the courthouse or in provincial archives and require a manual retrieval. Every Sleuthify report states the date range each source actually covered rather than implying the search was exhaustive.

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