The Law Reports – Searching Tips

Here are some tips to help you find what you are looking for in The Law Reports database on Justis.

Finding a publication reference
Browsing on the Index and Contents screen

Finding preceding and subsequent cases
Searching The Weekly Law Reports without duplicate cases

1. Finding a publication reference

To find a case report when you know the publication reference, you need to use the Citation field on the Search In Cases screen. Just type the reference into the text boxes, and click the “Search” button. The case report will be displayed on the Document screen.

Publication reference formats for The Law Reports (1st series).

Publication reference formats for The Law Reports (2nd series).

Publication reference formats for The Law Reports (3rd series).

2. Browsing on the Index and Contents screen

You can find case reports without searching and without knowing the publication reference, by using the Index and Contents screen.

You can select a year and a volume, and then view the list of case titles on the Results screen. Click the title of a report that you want to see, and it will be displayed for you on the Document screen.

3. Finding preceding and subsequent cases

Justis makes it easy to find reports of cases that are referred to in the Headnote field of the current document, and also reports that refer to the current document.

While you are viewing a case report, click the green JustCite tabs and you will see lists of preceding and subsequent cases.

4. Searching The Weekly Law Reports without duplicate cases

Many users like to search The Law Reports and The Weekly Law Reports together, but want to exclude volumes 2 and 3 of WLR, because there are fuller reports of these cases in The Law Reports.

You can do this by putting:

not("2 WLR" or "3 WLR")

in one of the text boxes of the Citation field.