Criminal lawyers are often solos — which means no one to share the costs of professional publications. If you can’t spare tens of thousands of dollars to stock your own private library, come learn about our vast criminal law collection.

CLBC’s subscriptions include CriminalSource (from Westlaw Canada), with 18 major criminal law texts and annotations (in addition to 13 criminal law periodicals, newsletters, and bulletins). These titles alone would cost over $14,000 if bought directly.

We also offer Lexis Advance Quicklaw’s criminal law package, which features the latest The Practitioner’s Criminal Code, 2022 Ed. by Alan D. Gold. This package also includes NetLetters on precise topics, case digests, and texts from prominent authors. Then there are the books in print. Over 220 books on Canadian criminal law have circulated on loan from our collection since the beginning of 2021.

And, as always, more journals, ebooks, and other tools (e.g., Rangefindr) are available for free through our Remote Access to Subscription Databases service. Go to courthouselibrary.ca, select Remote Access to Subscription Databases (under the How We Can Help tab) and activate your free Courthouse Libraries BC account. You’ll see that Irwin Law (over 150 ebook titles) uses a new platform called vLex, which makes searching and printing excerpts more simple than ever.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just ask us for help. Our librarians can be reached by phone at 1-800-665-2570, or anytime by email via librarian@courthouselibrary.ca.