Case Law & Law Reports

Neutral case citation

Neutral case citations were introduced in January 2001.They cover judgments from all divisions of the High Court, Court of Appeal, House of Lords and the Supreme Court

They are independent of any series of law reports. The citations indicate the the court in which the case was heard and the case number.  Paragraph numbers are also used so that a precise place in a  judgment can be cited, and this is a great benefit whe n using online versions of judgments.

Example: Matthews v. Ministry of Defence [2003] UKHL 4 at [19]-[21]

• Matthews v. Ministry of Defence indicates the part to the case
• [2003] is the date of the judgment
• UKHL is the abbreviation for the court that heard the case. In this example it is the House of Lords
• 4 is the case number for that year/court
• [19]-[21] refers to paragraphs 19-21 within the judgment

Here are some other examples with links to the judgments on BAILII

Attorney General v Dumas (Trinidad and Tobago) [2017] UKPC 12 

A & A v The Director of Public Prosecutions [2016] EWCA Crim 96 

AH v DT [2017] EWHC 36 (Fam) 

A and B (Children: Injury: Proof: Suspicion: Speculation) [2015] NIFam 14 

When a case is reported in a published series the normal citation will follow, e.g. Dunnett v. Railtrack Plc [2002] EWCA Civ 303, [2002] 3 W.L.R. 2434

The neutral citation can be used to easily search and find the text of a law report in online sources.