This short guide shows Law students how to find and access case law in hard and electronic copy from Leeds Beckett Library.

1. Researching Case Law:
Introduction
Libraries and Learning Innovation
Jennie Wilson and Catherine Parkin
Academic Librarians for the Leeds Law School

2. It will cover:
• How to get started when researching case law
• How does the law get reported?
• Deciphering cases- What do citations look like?
• Law Report hierarchy
• Abbreviations
• Brackets in OSCOLA
• Looking at a law report
• Finding a Law Report in hard copy
• Finding a law report online
• Short tasks
This tutorial aims to help you with the first
steps in searching for reported cases.

3. Like any research you need to learn the conventions of
understanding and referencing citations. A citation is a short
form to provide information on where to find the full
information source. One case can have several different law
reports in different publications, so how do you know which
publications to use to find reports on the case you are
researching? And if there is more than one, how do you know
which is the most authoritative one to refer to?
This tutorial should take 10 minutes to complete.
How do you get started when researching
case law?

4. Cases heard in court are transcribed word for word.
The transcript is an exact record of what happened in
court. It can often be difficult to access transcriptions.
Law reports are created by companies who add
value by adding their professional commentary. Law
Reports are numerous, different series, in their own
hierarchy. These contain reports of noteworthy cases.
How does the Law get reported?

5. The hierarchy of reports are from top to bottom:
Main Law Report series : The full report will be published
later in either (or both) the All England Law Reports or Weekly
law Reports series. And finally an authoritative version might
be published up to 9 months later in the official Law reports
series.
Specialised Law reports : Reports of cases on specific
subjects are published later.
Law Journals : You will find summaries in journals soon after
the case is heard, these would not be used in court.
Newspapers : The Times reports about 10% of
cases the day after judgement.
How does the Law get reported?

6. You may see citations, or references, to cases in reading lists
from tutors, and other information sources. But what do they
mean?
How do you recognise a reference to a case as opposed to a
reference for a journal article, a statute or other information
type?
It is important to recognise what different citations refer to
because this determines how you find the source.
Deciphering cases

7. Civil cases are shown as:
Claimant (plaintiff) v Defendant
These cases are between two parties; they might be
individuals, or companies, or both. The first name cited is the
claimant (respondent), the second name is the defendant
(appellant).V is always expressed as “and”.
Party names: Civil cases

8. Criminal cases are shown as:
R (The Crown) v the defendant
These cases concern the Crown (the Government) and an
individual, company or organisation. “R” stands for Rex (King)
or Regina (Queen) and cases are typically expressed as e.g.
“The Crown against Smith”, or just “Smith”.
Party names: Criminal cases

9. The references below are in the OSCOLA referencing style, the system
preferred on most Law degrees.
This is a neutral citation for a case:
R. (on the application of Petty) v DPP [2001] UKHL 61 [2002] 1 A.C.
800.
This is a list of other reports on this case:
[2001] 3 W.L.R. 1958
[2002] 1 All E.R. 1
[2002] 2 Cr. App. R. 1
[2002 1 F.L.R. 268
You can see that a case might be reported in numerous
places; however there is an authority which you will learn
throughout your studies. Our databases typically list the most
authoritative source first.
What do citations look like?

10. Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball
• This case, heard in 1892, was first reported in the press,
and then the authoritative law report Queens Bench, which
should always be cited above all other series.
Law Report hierarchy

11. In most legal citations the titles of journals and law report
series are abbreviated, like WLR in the example:
[1954] 3 W.L.R. 257
But you need to know the full title to find them in a law library.
With time you will learn many of these but there will be some
you don’t know or remember, and for that we can use Cardiff
Index to Legal Abbreviations
http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/.
So WLR stands for Weekly Law Reports, which is
in hard copy in the Library.
Abbreviations

12. From 2001 cases started to be assigned neutral citations. The
neutral citation is the official method of citing the transcripts of
law cases issued directly by the courses as opposed to law
reports published later by publishers. This means that each
judgement has a unique identifier assigned to it by the court
itself.
R. (on the application of Petty) v DPP [2001] UKHL 61
[2002] 1 A.C. 800.
The easy way to identify a neutral citation is because the first
two letters refer to the jurisdiction; in the example case it is
UK.
If the only citation you can find for a case is the
neutral citation you will have to find the transcript,
not a law report.
Neutral Citations

13. This is a reference to a case Post-2001:
R. (on the application of Petty) v DPP [2001] UKHL 61
[2002] 1 A.C. 800.
The example above however contains both:
• Neutral citation [2001] UKHL 61
• Law report citation [2002] 1 A.C. 800
To find the law report cited here you would first need to look
up the abbreviation A.C. You could use the Cardiff Index to
Legal Abbreviations. A.C. stands for Appeal Cases,
and then you need Volume 1 for 2002, page 800.
Post-2001 cases, neutral citations and law
report citations

14. There is a difference between cases reported pre-2001.
This is a reference to a case pre-2001:
Morelle LTD v Waterworth [1955] 1 Q.B. 1
You must first start by deciphering the report series “Q.B.”. You
could use the Cardiff Index.
To find the law report cited here – [1955] 1 Q.B. 1 – you would
look for the report series Queen’s Bench, and once you find
the series you would look in Volume 1 for 1955,
page 1.
Pre-2001 cases

15. Square brackets [2000] and round brackets (2000) around a
year, in a citation, are there to help people find reports in hard
copy in the library, or to browse through volumes online.
Square brackets mean you need to know the year to find the
correct volume. Each year the volume numbers begin again at
1 so knowing the volume is not enough.
[2002] 1 F.L.R. 268
For this report once you find the correct series (Family Law
Reports) you need to find the 2002 volumes, then
volume 1 of 2002, and turn to page 268.
Brackets in OSCOLA

16. Round brackets however mean you do not need the year to
find the volumes because the volumes have been numbered
consecutively (not starting at 1 again each year).
(1954) 98 S.J. 509
For this report, once you find the correct publication (S.J. =
Solicitors’ journal) you need to find volume 98, and turn to
page 509. You don’t need the year as there is only one volume
98.
Brackets in OSCOLA

17. Looking at a law report: the beginning
Names of judges
Name of Court
Names of Parties
Date the Case was heard
Catchphrase
summary
Headnote: Facts and
decision
Statement of the
nature of
proceedings
Summary of
procedural
history

18. Looking at a law report: the middle
Start of judgement
Typically followed
by other judges in
agreement or
disagreement

19. Looking at a law report: the end
Names of
Solicitors Orders of the
Court

20. You might have used a library catalogue before to find a book,
and you probable typed the title of the book into a search box.
When we look for a law report we must type the title of the
Law Report into the Catalogue e.g. All England Reports or
Weekly Law Reports. We can check the years covered and
can then go to the shelves and start to locate the report.
Finding a Law Report in hard copy

21. There are several different online sources that provide case
information.
Some are subscription databases that give you access to
published law reports online, and often contain added value in
links to related documents. They allow you to search for cases
without a full citation, making it easier to search if you only
have partial information.
The Library pays to subscribe to some of these services.
There are also free websites that provide summaries
of cases, or even full judgements. Some give
information on cases that are not reported in the law
reports.
Finding a Law Report Online

22. Westlaw and Lexis are particularly useful for case research,
features include:
• Search with partial information
• See the case analysis document that summarise the main
points and outcome.
• Shows a list of citations of all the law reports on the case in
order of authority.
• Links to the full text of any reports on Westlaw
• A link to the official transcript for many cases
• Additional information, with direct links through to related
cases, legislation, related journal articles
Finding a Law Report Online

23. JustCite is another product which searches across Westlaw
and Lexis so you might like to use this first in your research, it
will then take you through to Westlaw or Lexis respectively.
Other online sources:
• Lawtel UK
• BAILII website is good for finding information on unreported
cases
Finding a Law Report Online

24. 1. Tasks to develop your skills:
2. Try searching Westlaw for one or two cases relevant to one of your
assignments or research projects.
– If you are not sure what might be a good case to look for on a particular
area of law, try looking in a textbook on that area of law. Textbooks will tell
you details of significant cases in that area.
– Look at the Case analysis documents for each case you find. Think about
when and why this information might be useful.
3. Find a law report in the library. You can use the citations you have
found on Westlaw for task 1 above.
4. Try searching the LexisNexis database for the same case using the
case search menu. Compare with Westlaw.
5. Finally use JustCite with the same case as above and see how that
collates Westlaw and Lexis information and gives further
links.
6. Which did you prefer using for general case research?
7. Which had full text access to the most authoritative law
report on your case(s)?
Next steps

25. It has cover:
• How to get started when researching case law
• How does the law get reported?
• Deciphering cases- What do citations look like?
• Law Report hierarchy
• Abbreviations
• Brackets in OSCOLA
• Looking at a law report
• Finding a Law Report in hard copy
• Finding a law report online
• Short tasks
This tutorial shows you the first steps in
searching for reported cases.

26. • For subject support see the Law subject guide
• Book an appointment or email your enquiry to your
academic librarians Jennie Wilson and Catherine
Parkin
parkin.wilson@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
• For general library enquiries see the Contact Us
page
http://libguides.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/contact_us
Need more help?