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#How to find case law - Lawlinks - University of Kent

If you know the name/citation of the case

Every reported case has a title which is usually the name of the parties involved in the action. The title is then supplemented by a citation, which helps to find the case and shows where you can find the law report.

Citations

Citations normally consist of a year plus abbreviations, which lead to a page within a volume of a series of law reports.

The four parts to most citations are:

• date or year
• volume number
• abbreviation for the title of the law report series
• page number

Some cases will have multiple citations which means they have been reported in a number of different law report series. The name of the series is usually abbreviated. Decode the abbreviations by using the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations .

Searching by subject

If you are searching for cases on a topic, you should start by using an up to date commentary (eg Halsbury s Laws via LexisLibrary ) where significant cases will be cited.

You can then update your search by using one of the major online datasets and searching using the case name to look for more recent cases that have considered the case. The main sources of case law are Westlaw, LexisLibrary and Justis available from the Electronic Law Library .

Older reports

You can find many reports published before 1865 in the English Reports. a collection of various series of reports (also known as nominate reports). The easiest way to access the English Reports is to use Justis, Hein Online or Westlaw (on the Electronic Law Library ). You can also find the English Reports on BAILII. If you know the details of the case you can use the JustCite search box above.

Unreported cases

Some cases are never formally reported. Transcripts may be available and a fee is often payable to the transcriber for this service. A guide to what is available has been prepared by the Inner Temple Library