How To: Use Find By Topic

Find By Topic

So far you have been retrieving documents from the SCC Online database using various other search methods such as keyword search, citation search and find by section as well as the browse functions.

However, sometimes it may be more convenient and appropriate to lookup precedent cases by topic.

In order to help you do this, we have reintroduced an improved version of our topic guide, which contains an alphabetically arranged list of topics that can be used to conduct a search. The list serves an index to the information contained in our database, and performs a function similar to that of the contents list of a journal or law report, like our Yearly Digest.

To access this list, go to SCC Online Dashboard and then click on Find by Topic tile.



Clicking the tile brings you to the Topic Guide page where you find a list of all the topics. You can manually scroll through the list of topics using the scroll bar on the right of the list.



Just select the desired topic of research and click the "Go" button at the bottom right of the page. Immediately, SCC Online Web Edition will commence a search of this topic heading in it’s database. As soon as the search is complete, the search results screen will be displayed with the Digest Notes/Judgments on the said topic.

A faster way to select the required Topic heading.

Scrolling through the list manually can be a time consuming process and you can use the search bar at the top to refine the list of topics.
Just type the heading that you are looking for in the search box. As you start typing the heading, the system will begin to auto suggest some topics.



After selecting the topic, you can then choose between two search types:

Search Everywhere
Search in Digest Notes


Selecting Search Everywhere will return references of the selected topic from the entire database (Digest Notes, Judgments, Statutes, Bills, etc)
Selecting Search in Digest Notes will search and return the references of selected topic only in the Headnotes/Digest Notes

We hope these new features enhance your SCC Online experience and make your legal research Quicker, Easier and More Effective!

Updated on: 24/03/2020