This is general information, not legal advice, and reflects Ontario practice and CanLII's published terms as of October 14, 2026. CanLII says its limits may change.
What the sources say Search+ is
- What it does. It takes a plain-language question and converts it into a structured query, searching CanLII's own case law, legislation and commentary. Canadian Lawyer reported the launch on February 25, 2026, and the Law Society of BC carried CanLII's announcement on March 3, 2026.
- Who can use it. CanLII's own Search+ page says it is free and open to legal professionals, students and the public with a myCanLII account.
- The caps. Up to 4 analyses (25 documents each) and 10 search query generations per day, per CanLII's page. Uploaded documents can be added through myCanLII, but analysis only works on CanLII documents, per Canadian Lawyer.
- The warnings. CanLII flags a risk of errors and inaccuracies, says it is not legal advice, says only original legal documents are authoritative, and recommends not submitting personal or confidential information. It says queries are not used to train public language models.
Task-by-task fit for an Ontario practice
| Task | Fit | Why, and the control |
|---|---|---|
| Orienting on a general legal question (“how have Ontario courts treated X?”) | Good | A public question with no client facts. Treat the output as a lead list, then read the decisions. |
| Finding decisions and legislation from a plain-language question | Good | Answers come from CanLII's own database only, per Canadian Lawyer, so a result is a real document you can open. |
| Anything with client or matter facts (names, dates, amounts) | Avoid | CanLII recommends against personal or confidential input. Your confidentiality duty is yours, whatever the vendor says about training; see the LSO generative AI guidance explained. |
| Reviewing a large set of authorities in one sitting | Limited | Four analyses of up to 25 documents each is a hard daily ceiling. Plan the day's research around it, or use a different tool for bulk work. |
| Citing from the AI analysis in a filing | Never | CanLII says only the original documents are authoritative. Open and read each case, then follow your citation verification checklist and any court AI declaration rule in our Ontario tracker. |
| Relying on your search history staying private | Don't assume | Canadian Lawyer reported that search histories will be linked to user accounts in a future update. Check CanLII's current terms before relying on any privacy assumption. |
Where it sits next to paid legal AI
A free, closed-corpus tool and a paid research platform answer different questions. Search+ is a strong first stop when you want real CanLII documents fast and the question is public. A paid tool may offer more volume, drafting or workflow features, and brings its own vendor-risk questions. Our comparison of AI legal research software for Canadian firms covers that side, and whether AI legal research is privileged in Canada covers the confidentiality question. Research tools answer “what does the law say”; what happens to the matter afterwards is a separate job, which is the one practice automation is built for.
Sources: CanLII Search+ page (search-plus.canlii.org, read October 14, 2026); Canadian Lawyer, February 25, 2026; Law Society of BC, March 3, 2026.