Bodleian Law Library

Finding Case Law

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

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

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

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

Reported case law

• Only small proportion of cases decided by courts are reported

• Cases are selected by law report editors – not the courts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

Deciphering citations: Law report abbreviations

• Raistrick, D. Index to legal citations and abbreviations.

• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk

Anatomy of a law report

(1) Names of parties, dates

of hearing, judge(s)(2)

Catchwords

(3) Headnote

(4) List of cases cited

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

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

Anatomy of a law report (4)

(8) The judgment

decision or order

(9) Solicitors for each

party

(10) The reporter

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

Neutral citations

• 1999 onwards• Unique judgment number

[YEAR] COURT CASE NUMBER

[2001] EWCA Civ 101 [2006] EWHC 101 Admin[2003] UKSC 5

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

Finding case law: sources (2)

Hard copy• Law reports series (full text)• Halsburys Laws (index)• The Digest (digest)• Current Law (digest)

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

Current Law Case Citator

Cases listed alphabetically with law report citations – with most

authoritative first

The Digest: table of casesMain 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)

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.

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.

www.bailii.org (free site)

Choose case law search for the advanced search

screen for cases

Bailii cases search screen

Use the box to put in case names

If you scroll down the page you will findfurther options to

choose specific courts

Westlaw cases search screen (subscription)

Just place the name in the party names field

Search in the cases database

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

Lexis Library search screen (subscription)

Case names can be entered from the front

page

If searching for full reports then choose

‘all subscribed cases’

Lexis Library cases results screenEach separate report is

classed as a result

The law report or ‘source’ is at the end. It is not in the most authoritative order

Justis search screen (subscription)

In ‘Cases’ there are options to search by party name

Justis results screen

Law report citation

Year of judgment

Link through to full report

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

Subject searching: The DigestSearch the subject

indexes and these will give you both a volume number and paragraph

number

Subject searching: Westlaw

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

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

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

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

Checking citators online: Lawcite (free source)

You can search by party name or citation and

then limit the results to a jurisdiction if necessary

Lawcite: results screenIf 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

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

Checking citators online: Westlaw (subscription)

This time we are going to look at the citator tool

Westlaw: case analysis

Traffic light symbol

Subsequent cases citing Pepper v Hart

Westlaw: Case analysis (2)

Lists the cases under the different ‘treatments’

Checking citators online:Lexis Library

This time use the Case Overview

button

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

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?