English Reports – Searching Tips

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

Full-text searching
Finding a publication reference
Browsing on the Index and Contents screen
Finding preceding and subsequent cases

1. Full-text searching

Unlike the other Justis case law series, the full text of the case reports in the English Reports database is available only as PDF files, which provide an almost exact facsimile of the original printed version. Only the important details of cases, including case name, court, references and subject terms, are available as normal text.

When you use the Full Text box on the Search In Cases screen with the English Reports, you are searching an index that has been generated automatically from the PDF files. Please note that although the majority of free-text searches will produce accurate results, occasional text errors (such as digit “1” appearing where the lower case “l” should be) may affect the search results. You may sometimes retrieve more relevant documents by using wild cards in place of characters that have been recognised incorrectly.

It is also possible to search for words within the PDF files. Once you have carried out a search and displayed a case by clicking the red “PDF” tab, you can use the standard search options in the PDF viewer to look for a word or a phrase within that case only. Please note that the accuracy of this type of search is the same as when using the Full Text facility.

If you are doing a free-text search and you do not find the documents that you were expecting, then please try a few alternative searches with wild cards in order to maximise the chance of finding all of the relevant documents.

2. 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 English Reports.

Punctuation is not required, and alphabetic characters can be upper or lower case.

3. 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.

4. Finding preceding and subsequent cases

Justis makes it easy to find reports of cases that are referred to in 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.