Noting up
Checking how a case, statute, or section has been treated by later courts to confirm it is still good law before relying on it.
Noting up is the process of checking the subsequent history and judicial treatment of a case or statutory provision. For a case, this means finding out whether it has been appealed, affirmed, reversed, overruled, distinguished, or followed by later courts. For a statute, it means finding cases that have considered the provision and checking for amendments.
Noting up is an essential quality-control step in Canadian legal research: citing a case that has been overturned or a repealed provision can be fatal to an argument and embarrassing before a court. Research platforms provide citator tools that list every later decision citing your case, often with treatment flags. The general rule of practice is simple: never rely on an authority you have not noted up.