Frequently Asked Legal Research Questions

What is a neutral citation?

The official neutral citation system was introduced for England and Wales in January 2001 and applies to all judgments from the House of Lords, Privy Council, Court of Appeal and all divisions of the High Court. The aim is to make it easier to retrieve judgments that appear on the Internet. The neutral citation generally consists of the following: the year, court, case number and division i.e.  [2003] EWHC 161 (Admin) — this refers to case number 161 of 2003 from the Administrative Division of the High Court.