A case is usually referred to using a case citation.
A law report citation tells you where to find a case in a law report series:
In January 2001, the official neutral citation system was introduced. It's 'neutral' because the citation is independent of any law report series and instead refers directly to the court:
You can find out more about neutral citations on the BAILII website.
A law report series will usually be referred to using an abbreviation, e.g. WLR for Weekly Law Reports.
To find out what an abbreviation means, check the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations or Raistrick's Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations.
To find out what happened in a case, you can consult a law report or a court transcript. Over time, reports of cases have grown into a body of case law.
Law reports are made available by publishers. They pay law reporters to sit in court and transcribe what is said when a case is heard. However, not all cases get reported (= published). In fact, only 1-2% of cases heard in UK courts each year get reported. To be reported, a case must raise a point of legal significance.
Also, the majority of reported cases are from the higher courts (Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court). You can find out more about the UK court structure on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website.
More recently, official court transcripts of cases have been made freely available on the Internet.
BU's print law collection contains materials that are not available electronically. In some cases this means that all of a particular series is provided in print, whereas for other series, such as the All England Law Reports, there is a mixture of both print and electronic. Printed law reports are kept on the second floor of the Sir Michael Cobham Library and include:
How to find a case in a printed law report series.
To find: Guest v T. Gaston and Co. [1926] TLR 547 (CA):
a) Check what 'TLR 'means (see What is a law report abbreviation? in the left column). It is an abbreviation for Times Law Reports.
b) Find this law report series on the library shelves and locate the volume for 1926.
c) Turn to page 547.
This video from The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR) explains how a law report of a case is produced.
