This presentation goes through how to find case law via hard copy and online sources

1. Bodleian Law Library
Finding Case Law

2. Session overview
• What is Case law
• Doctrine of precedent
• Court structure
• Reported case law
• Law reporting pre and post 1865
• Law report hierarchy
• Deciphering citations
• Unreported judgments
• Finding case law
• Updating case law

3. What is case law?
• Record of the judgment given in each case
• Court recorder and reporters
• „Handing down‟ of the judgment
Why is case law important?
• Becomes part of the body of law
• Doctrine of precedent

4. Doctrine of precedent
• A court is bound by the decisions of
a court above it and usually, by a
court of equivalent standing
• Superior courts have the power to
overrule decisions of lower courts

5. Court structure
A case can go
to appeal to the
EU if it concerns
a point of EU
law
The highest
court in the
UK is the
Supreme
Court

6. Reported case law
• Only small proportion of cases decided by
courts are reported
• Cases are selected by law report editors –
not the courts

7. Reporting criteria
• To be reported a case must:
– raise a point of legal significance
– materially modify an existing principle of law
or settle a doubtful question of law
– may include questions of interpretation of
statutes and important cases illustrating new
applications of accepted principles

8. Law reporting before 1865
• Nominate reports 1571-1865
• Commonly referred to by the name of the
reporter of the cases
• Reprinted in the English Reports and in
the All England Reports Reprint series

9. Law reporting after 1865
• 1865 watershed
• Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
– Not for profit organisation
– Authoritative reports
• All England Law Reports
• Subject specialist reports
• Newpapers and reports in journals

10. The Law Reports
• Appeal Cases (AC) or (App Cas),
Chancery Division (Ch), Queen‟s Bench
(QB), Family Division (Fam)
• Most authoritative report series
• Law report decisions are checked by a
judge prior to publication

11. Authority of law reports
Most
authoritative
The Law Reports: Chancery (Ch),
Appeal Cases (AC), Family (Fam),
Queens Bench (QB)
The Weekly Law Reports
All England Law Reports
Specialist series
e.g. Lloyd’s law Reports, Fleet Street
Reports
Least
authoritative
Journals and newspapers e.g. The
Times, The Independent, New Law
Journal, Solicitors Journal

12. Deciphering citations: breakdown
of the citation
Horton v Sadler [2007]1 AC 307
Case CitationCase name
Party names of both sides of
the case separated by a „v‟
Year and
volume
number
Legal abbreviation for
law report series
Page
number

13. Case names
• Usually 2 party names:
– Claimant v Defendant
– Appellent v Respondent
• Have to be a „legal entity‟
– Individuals, firms/companies, organisations,
The Crown.
• Criminal cases The Crown is the claimant
– R v Smith
– Rex or Reg v Smith (older cases)

14. Case names (2)
• Unusual case names
– Attorney General‟s References A-G Ref (No. 90 of 2009)
– Ex parte X ex parte Y
– Ship names “The South Star”
– Bankruptcy cases Re company no. x2005
– Family Proceedings Re D (a Minor) 2008

15. Square and round brackets
• Round brackets ( ) when the year is
additional information
– Derry v Peek (1989) 14 App Cas 337
• Square brackets [ ] when the year is
the primary means of identifying the
case
– Lloyd v McMahon [1987] 1 All ER 118

16. Deciphering citations: Law report
abbreviations
• Raistrick, D. Index to legal citations
and abbreviations.
• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk

17. Anatomy of a law report
(1) Names of
parties, dates
of hearing,
judge(s)(2)
Catchwords
(3)
Headnote
(4) List of
cases cited

18. Anatomy of a law report (2)
(5) Statement
of pleading
and facts
(facts may be
contained in
the judgment)
(6) Names of
counsel and
in the Law
Reports a
summary of
their
argument

19. Anatomy of a law report (3)
(7) The
judgment –
usually
indicated by
the name of
the judge.
Cur Adv
Vult
indicates
that the
judgment
has been
reversed

20. Anatomy of a law report (4)
(8) The
judgment
decision or
order
(9)
Solicitors
for each
party
(10) The
reporter

21. Unreported judgments
• Transcripts are the unreported version of a
judgment
• Although judgments are “published” on web
sites, they remain “unreported” unless published
in a law report series
• Can often be cited with a „neutral‟ citation

22. Neutral citations
• 1999 onwards
• Unique judgment number
[YEAR] COURT CASE NUMBER
[2001] EWCA Civ 101
[2006] EWHC 101 Admin
[2003] UKSC 5

23. Finding case law: sources
Online resources
• Commercial databases
– Westlaw (selected full text and citator)
– Lexis Library (selected full text and citator)
– Justis (selected full text)
• Free resources
– Bailii
– Supreme Court judgments
– House of Lords judgments

24. Finding case law: sources (2)
Hard copy
• Law reports series (full text)
• Halsburys Laws (index)
• The Digest (digest)
• Current Law (digest)

25. Searching by party name: hard
copy
• If you already have a citation - find the
case by citation
• If you have a year – Current Law Case
Citator
• If you just have the party names – The
Digest or Halsbury‟s Laws

26. Current Law Case Citator
Cases listed alphabetically with
law report citations – with most
authoritative first

27. The Digest: table of cases
Main table of cases
volumes – gives the
year and then a main
volume number
Table of cases
in Vol 28(1)
gives a
paragraph
number (not a
page)

28. The Digest: summary and citation
The paragraph
number relates to a
digest of a case and
this then gives a full
law report citation at
the end.

29. Searching by party name: online
• Most subscription databases as well as Bailli.org
have an option to search for party name.
• Remember that if it is a common name there
may be too many results coming up – if you
have a citation there may be an option to search
using that.

30. www.bailii.org (free site)
Choose case law search
for the advanced search
screen for cases

31. Bailii cases search screen
Use the box to put
in case names
If you scroll down the
page you will find
further options to
choose specific courts

32. Westlaw cases search screen
(subscription)
Just place the name in
the party names field
Search in the
cases database

33. Westlaw cases results screen
Full text of the reports available
on Westlaw are linked
A full list of where the case
has been reported in order
of authority
Case summary
and citator

34. Lexis Library search screen
(subscription)
Case names can be
entered from the front
page
If searching for full
reports then choose
„all subscribed cases‟

35. Lexis Library cases results screen
Each separate report is
classed as a result
The law report or „source‟ is
at the end. It is not in the
most authoritative order

36. Justis search screen (subscription)
In „Cases‟ there are options
to search by party name

37. Justis results screen
Law report
citation
Year of
judgment
Link through
to full report

38. Finding case law: by subject
Hard copy
– Use The Digest or Halsburys Laws
Online databases
– Use the subject, keyword or heading box to
enter search terms

39. Subject searching: The Digest
Search the subject
indexes and these will
give you both a volume
number and paragraph
number

40. Subject searching: Westlaw

41. Updating case law: Is it still good
law?
• Has the case been cited in later case law?
• Authority of a case may be strengthened
by being approved in a higher court
• Case may have been overruled
• Lexis Library, Westlaw, Justcite, Lawcite
(free site)
• Current Law Case Citator, The Digest

42. Terms used for citing
• Applied
• Considered
• Distinguished
• Overruled
• Followed
Principle from an earlier case applied
although facts materially different
Discussed, but no definite use in
decision
There are substantial differences to
earlier case
Principle from a lower court overruled
Court bound by precedents set in a
previous case

43. Checking citators: hard copy
This lists cases that have
cited Pepper v Hart. All it
gives is a Current Law
digest reference – you
need to use the relevant
volume of Current Law
Year Book to find the
name of the case
The citator covers a
set time span and
you should start with
the volume that
cover the year of the
case – you need to
look at later volumes
to keep updated

44. Checking citators: hard copy (2)
This is a later volume – if the case has
not been cited within these years it will
not appear in the list
Pepper v Hart has been cited and so you
can see there are the previous cases listed
plus a few later cases

45. Checking citators online: Lawcite (free
source)
You can search by party
name or citation and
then limit the results to a
jurisdiction if necessary

46. Lawcite: results screen
If there is more than one case it will
list them along with citations, dates
and a flag to indicate which country
the case was heard in. Click on the
case you are looking for to see the
citator information

47. Lawcite: citator screen
This lists cases referring to the
case searched for as well as a
citation, where you can get the
full text and jurisdiction.
You can check
which cases
have cited these
cases by clicking
on this symbol

48. Checking citators online: Westlaw
(subscription)
This time we are going to
look at the citator tool

49. Westlaw: case analysis
Traffic light
symbol
Subsequent cases
citing Pepper v Hart

50. Westlaw: Case analysis (2)
Lists the
cases under
the different
„treatments‟

51. Checking citators online:Lexis
Library
This time use the
Case Overview
button

52. Lexis Library Case Overview results
Symbols to
whether the case is
still „good‟
Case history through
the courts
Links to cases citing and cited by
this case: click on to see the list

53. Summary
• What‟s reported, precedent and hierarchy of
courts
• Case citations, party names and abbreviations
• Searching in print and searching online –
searching by name and searching by subject
• Checking citators: is it still good law?