Help from the library

A-Z How to Find Information >  Law and Your Rights > How can I find a report of a court case?

• The 'All England Law Reports' series (whose abbreviation is AELR) is available from 1972 to 2008 at Bedford Central Library. This is a general series which gives reports on selected significant cases in all subject areas
• Summaries of law cases across all subject areas are given in the monthly journal that accompanies the encyclopaedia 'Halsbury's laws of England', available at Bedford Central Library
• For employment law cases, Bedford Central Library has online access (by staff on your behalf) to the IDS series of reports of significant cases. Summaries of important cases are also given in 'Croner's employment law', a regularly updated loose-leaf work available at Bedford Central, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard libraries. For employment tribunal and employment appeal tribunal cases see the separate employment tribunal and employment appeal tribunal pages
• If the case you are looking for is a significant one, and if all you need is a short statement of what the case was about and its outcome, then you may find what you need in a substantial law book dealing with the same broad subject as the case. Look in the book for a section called 'Table of cases', listing alphabetically all the cases that are mentioned in the book
• The multi-volume encyclopaedia 'Halsbury's laws of England' at Bedford Central Library mentions hundreds of significant cases in all subject areas. The encyclopaedia set includes a 'Consolidated Table of Cases' volume listing alphabetically all the cases mentioned. An earlier edition of that volume is available at Dunstable Library
• If you have the full case reference (the publication details) of the law report you need and if it is not available online or locally, you may like to ask your library to try to obtain a photocopy of it through the British Library (which may supply it from its own collection or from a specialist library). There will be a library request charge and you will need to sign a copyright declaration form (and pay a copyright charge if it is for commercial use)
• You can check for law books in the library catalogue
• If you need help to find what you need, just contact us
• Continue:
  How can I find a report of a law case?
  Overview
  Searching online
  Help from the library
  Fast pay-as-you-go services
  

Page last updated: 1st December 2020