The Albert Sloman Library

Law: Finding UK Case-Law

Contents

Finding UK Case-Law

Introduction

Cases are the decisions of the law courts and are known as 'judge-made' law. Over 200,000 cases are heard annually in England and Wales and it is estimated that less than 2% (approximately 2,500) of these cases are actually published. All House of Lords cases are published, but only a small proportion from the Court Of Appeal, High Court and specialist courts. You may find transcripts of some 'unreported' cases but the remainder are not recorded at all.

Practically all reported case-law and some unreported case-law is available online but understanding how the printed reports are organised can help to understand the system of law reporting. There is no official series of law reports but the series known collectively as 'The Law Reports' which are published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting are considered as 'semi-official' because these reports are approved by judges. They are the preferred report to use in court,  contain arguments by counsel and are regarded as the most 'authoritative' texts. Other reports are published by commercial publishers such as Lexis/Butterworths or Sweet an Maxwell and these general and specialist (or topic based) series.

Many cases are reported in more than one series of reports; if you have a reading-list reference to, for example, the Weekly law reports but are unable to find the volume you require, you can often find other sources which will provide an identical report. There are two points to watch out for:

(a) Not all reports of cases give the full text of the judgement: those in, for example, the Times, the Solicitors' journal or the New law journal are merely summaries.

(b) If a case has been heard in more than one court, say in the High Court and then in the Court of Appeal, the various stages of the action may be reported in different series of reports, or in different volumes of the same series. Make sure that you have found the one that you really want.

1. Interpreting Case Citations

2. Finding Cases Using Electronic Resources

3. Finding Cases Using Printed Resources

4. Finding Older Cases (Prior to 1865)

5. Websites and Other Sources of Case-Law

6. Unreported Cases

Interpreting Case Citations

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Most citations to case reports (and also many law journals) are given in abbreviated form. There are two main systems of case citations.

Citations prior to 2001

Before 2001 most case citations were for a print series of law reports. These citations generally look as follows:
a. Vandervell v IRC [1967] 2 AC 291
b. R v Miller [1954] 2 QB 282

a. Is interpreted as the names of the parties concerned (Vandervell v IRC), the year the case was reported (1967), volume number (2), the abbreviated title of the law report series (AC = Appeal Cases), and page number (291).
b. Is interpreted as the names of the parties concerned (R v Miller - all criminal cases in the UK are 'The Queen' or Regina versus the defendant), the year the case was reported (1954), the volume number (2), the abbreviated title of the law report series (QB=Queens Bench), and the page number (282).

Citations post 2001

In 2001 the practice of citation was updated and this system is known as neutral citation, as it does not refer to any one series of law reports. This form of citation now takes precedence over the previous system although additional citations to law reports can be used. The new system of citation look as follows:

Attia v British Gas [1987] EWCA Civ 8

This is interpreted as party (or case) names (Attia v British Gas), year of judgement (1987), abbreviation of the court where the case was heard (EWCA Civ = England and Wales Court of Appeal, Civil Division) and a unique case number (8).

The neutral citation format no longer uses page numbers to take into account electronic forms of reports. Case citations instead include a paragraph number in square brackets and miss of the court description (Civ) as so:

Attia v British Gas [1987] EWCA 8 at [2]

To find out what the abbreviations mean there are two major reference tools:
Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
Raistrick, D Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations K 51

Finding Cases Using Electronic Resources

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Most case-law is available in electronic format either on a subscription service such as Lexis Library, Westlaw or LawTel or more recent cases are available via free websites such as BIALLI or the UK Court Service website.

Finding cases by citation

Both LNB and Westlaw provide the facility to search via citation just click on Cases and use the Find by citation field and just type in the citation you do not need square brackets or capitalisation.

Finding cases by party names

Westlaw - click on Cases and search using the Party Names field.
LNB - click on Cases and search by the Case Name field.

Tip: if you are unsure of the spelling of the names you can use a wildcard character to replace one or two letters you are unsure of e.g. bernst**n will find berntein and bernstien.

Finding cases by topic

Westlaw - click on Cases and choose Advanced search and either enter your terms in the Subject/Keyword field or choose terms from the List of Terms
LNB - click on Cases and enter your keywords in the Subject Terms field.

Tip: You can expand or reduce your results by using connectors, proximity searching or phrase searching.

Finding Cases Using Printed Sources

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When the full reference is not known

THE DIGEST: annotated British, Commonwealth and European cases. [formerly ENGLISH AND EMPIRE DIGEST] Law Ref KD 296.E5

Look in the consolidated table of cases. This will refer you to a particular volume and subject heading (for example, 22 Evid. = volume 22 "Evidence"). Find the volume referred to and look up the case again in the table of cases at the start of the volume: this will give you either a page number (in older volumes) or a case number. By checking this you will find the full references for all reports of the case. The Digest can also be used to trace cases reported after 1947 or before 1865, though the sources referred to in the preceding and following paragraphs are generally more convenient for this.

When you have the full reference or citation

The has a large collection of printed law reports, some of the main series are listed below and other more specialised series can be found by searching the library catalogue by periodical title using the title of the series or abbreviation. Alternatively if you are unsure of the title you can use the keyword search using the topic/subject and the words 'Law reports'.

The Law Reports Series:
The Law Reports: Appeal Cases (AC) KD 275.4
The Law Reports: Queens (Kings) Bench Division (KB or QB) KD 277.7
The Law Reports: Chancery Division (Ch or Ch.D) KD 276.3
The Law Reports: Family Division (Fam.) KD 279.3 (prior to 1971 this series was known as (The Law Reports: Probate Division (PD))
Industrial Cases Reports KD 279.4

Other general series:
All England Law Reports (ALLER) KD 288.A1
Weekly Law Reports (WLR) KD 282

Finding Older Cases (Prior to 1865)

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Since 1865 the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting has produced series of law reports in a standardised form. Prior to 1865 (between the mid-sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries) law reports were usually (though not invariably) known by the name of the reporter(s) or compiler(s) who produced them, e.g. Coke's reports, Durnford and East's reports. For this reason they are sometimes referred to as 'nominate reports'. The best source for pre-1865 English law reports is a modern reprint:

ENGLISH REPORTS. 178 vols. KD 270.E6 or HeinOnline and Westlaw

This series contains the text of all the major series of nominate reports. The volume a particular series may be appear in the English Reports can be found in Raistrick, D. Index to legal citations and abbreviations. 1993. Law Ref. K 51). In addition, a two-volume index (vols. 177-178) lists cases in alphabetical order.

Alternatively you can search via the case name or citation using the subscription service HeinOnline or Westlaw (see link above).

Websites and Other Sources of Case-Law

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British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILLI) 
Enter some of the words from the party names in the Search box and click on Search.  Or choose the Case Law search option. Or browse using the A-Z index or year.

BAILLI Open Law Project
This project aims to identify and add to BAILII a limited number of judgments that are important in the core teaching areas of law. The Open Law Project covers not only recent cases but also older judgements that are important but not necessarily freely available on the web. It covers the following subjects: Constitutional Law; Contract Law; Criminal Law; Criminal Law (Scotland); Employment Law; English Legal System; Family Law; Family Law (Scotland); Human Rights (ECHR); Immigration and Asylum; Land Law (Northern Ireland); Northern Ireland Legal System; Property Law; Tax Law; Tort Law; and Trust Law.

Her Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCS) 
Includes court guides and notices, practice directions etc.

House of Lords Judgements 
A very useful site for finding HL cases quickly if you know the date, the site contains judgements from 1996 to the present.

United Kingdom Supreme Court
The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases. It hears appeals in criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It hears cases of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population.

WLR Daily
Daily case summaries from the the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting.

LawTel
Daily updated index of unreported cases, with summaries back 20 years; index of articles from major UK legal publications; legislation and case citator; statute summaries and legislation tracking service (commencement and repeals, Bills and Command Papers) and jobs.

Old Bailey Online
Contains historical and legal background to trials at the Old Bailey as well as the accounts of criminal trials held at London's central criminal court from 1674 to 1913

Unreported Cases

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You may find transcripts of some 'unreported' cases but the remainder are not recorded at all. As stated above only it is estimated that less than 2% of case are actually reported.

Transcripts are sometimes on payment of a fee. A guide to what is available has been prepared by the Inner Temple Library.