Frequently Asked Legal Research Questions

How do I find the full judgment of a case?

A judgment is the decision of the judge or judges in a court of law. This is distinct from a law report which is produced by a legal publisher with added content such as head notes and catchwords.

If you have the party names try:

Free web sources

	BAILII - www.bailii.org/ - either use the Case Law Search section or if you know the specific court, go to the section for that court.
	Court Service web site - www.courtservice.gov.uk - has selected High Court judgments from 1996 onwards.
	House of Lords - www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199697/ldjudgmt/ldjudgmt.htm - judgments from November 1996 onwards.

Hard copy sources

Current Law Monthly Digest or Current Law Yearbooks

Subscription-based databases

	Casetrack
	Justis
	Lawtel
	LexisNexis Professional
	Westlaw

If you only have the citation try:

Free web sources  

BAILII - www.bailii.org - in Case Law Search, enter the citation in the search box or go directly to Find a Case by Citation.

Subscription-based databases

	Casetrack - use the advanced search option.
	Justis - in the cases database, enter the citation in the search box.
	LexisNexis Professional - enter the citation in the cite box.
	Westlaw - in the cases database, enter the citation in the search box.

If you only know the subject matter try:

Free web sources

BAILII

Hard copy sources

Current Law Monthly or Current Law Yearbooks

Subscription-based databases

	Justis
	Lawtel
	LexisNexis Professional
	Westlaw

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