1. Finding Cases Legal Research by Lisa Incledon

2. Why case law? 0 Why are the decisions of past cases important? 0 Judicial Precedent

3. Appellate Courts 0 Cases in the appellate courts are key to making law because they bind all other courts. 0 House of Lords/Supreme Court 0 Court of Appeal 0 Divisional Courts 0 High Court (occasionally)

4. Finding Cases All Cases have: 0 Name 0 Usually the name reflects the two parties in a case 0 Date 0 Year of the case (there can be some variation in the year of a case) 0 Citation 0 Neutral (references court) or specific to law reports

5. Case Name 0 The name of a civil case will usually involve two individuals or companies: E.g. Donoghue v Stevenson (the two parties were Mrs Donoghue and Mr Stevenson) 0 The name of a criminal case will usually involve ‘Regina’ (the Queen – meaning the state represented by the CPS): E.g. R v Cheshire (the case involved the prosecution of Mr Cheshire)

6. Citations 0 A case is cited with the year, a set of letters and the number 0 The letters may be neutral citations, specifying the court: 0 E.g. UKHL – House of Lords/ UKSC – Supreme Court 0 E.g. EWCA Civ – Court of Appeal (Civil Division) 0 E.g. EWCA Crim – Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) 0 E.g. EWHC – High Court [the Divison may follow in brackets] 0 The letters may also specify the set of reports the case is in: 0 AC – Appeal Cases Reports 0 All ER – All England Reports 0 WLR – Weekly Law Reports

7. Example Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] UKHL 100; [1932] AC 562 0 Name 0 Donoghue v Stevenson 0 Date 0 1932 0 Citation 0 Neutral: [1932] UKHL 100 0 Court specific: [1932] AC 562

8. Research Sources 0 The British and Irish Legal Information Institute: www.bailii.org www.bailii.org 0 Lexis Nexis and Westlaw 0 Expensive sources – some solicitors’ firms may have access

9. Basic Search - Enter keyword More detailed/specific search options Best used to find cases

10. Example Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] UKHL 100; [1932] AC 562 0 Name 0 Donoghue v Stevenson 0 Date 0 1932 0 Citation 0 Neutral: [1932] UKHL 100 0 Court specific: [1932] AC 562