There are literally hundreds of publications in which case law can be found either in summary form or the full text of a judgment. One series, the Weekly Law Reports, also records the arguments submitted to the court by the advocates before the decision was made. Some series will be available in public libraries and some in law libraries as well as online. The official law reports are not freely available online though there are copies of full cases relevant to UK family law on Baiili (http://www.bailii.org/) & Family Law Week (http://www.familylawweek.co.uk). In relation to education law some decisions are published in the Family Law Reports and the Education Law Reports. Summaries may be found in numerous journals including Education and the Law and Jordan’s Family Law Journal. The House of Lords has published its decisions since 14th November 1996.
When reference is made to a particular case it will usually be by the name of the parties involved in the case, followed by the year of the decision, the series of the report (in abbreviated form) and the page number. A list of common abbreviations may be found below. Many education and family cases may only refer to a party by an initial : this is usually because that party is a child whose identity must be kept confidential.
AC Appeal Cases (part of main Law Report series)
All ER All England Law Reports
CA Court of Appeal
DC Divisional Court
ELR Education Law Reports
FCR Family Court Reporter
FLR Family Law Reports
FD Family Division
HL House of Lords
HMSO Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
ILR Independent Law Reports
IRLR Industrial Relations Law Reports
JP Justice of the Peace
KB King’s Bench
LGR Law Gazette Reports
LT Law Times Reports
QB Queen’s Bench
Sol J or SJ Solicitors’ Journal
WLR Weekly Law Reports