Question:
Which databases should I use to find law reports?
Our answer:
There are three Online Library legal databases which contain law reports:
Law reports may be found in one or more of these databases. So, which database should you use? This will depend, to some extent, on whether you have a full citation of a particular case, a partial citation of a case, or whether you are simply searching for cases on a topic (without having any specific citations).
Searching by citation
If you already have a full case citation, it will include an abbreviation for the law report in which the case was reported, such as All ER (which stands for All England Law Reports). For example:
R v Chalkley and Jeffries (1998) 2 All ER 155
If you are not sure of the meaning of an abbreviation, search the the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations to find out the full title of the law report series. Then search Publications Search to find out which database (vLex Justis, Lexis+ or Westlaw) contains the law report. In this example, you will find that the All England Law Reports are available in Lexis+.
Searching by party names
You may only have the party names of a case, such as Brown v Stott. This citation is incomplete, because it does not provide the details of the law report in which the case was reported. If you only have the party names, search vLex Justis (which includes a case citator), to find out where a case was reported, and link directly to the full-text report where available in the Online Library databases. vLex Justis cross-searches the Online Library legal databases so you don't have to search them individually.
Once you have logged into vlex Justis with your student portal password, search for the case Brown v Stott using the search box on the homepage. You will see that the case was widely reported, for example at [2003] 1 AC 681, [2001] 2 WLR 817 and [2001] 2 All ER 97. vLex Justis not only shows you where a case was reported, but also gives you key information such as, cited authorities, cited legislation, and key subsequent citing cases. Select the citations and sources tab to link to the full text law reports in the Online Library databases. vLex Justis includes a precedent map feature which visually depicts the relationships between cases and helps you to discover other cases related to your research. For more information about vLex Justis see the quick start guide.
For assistance with searching the legal databases (vLex Justis, Westlaw, and Lexis+), contact the Online Library Enquiry Service.
Searching for cases on a topic
The legal databases (vLex Justis, Lexis+ and Westlaw) enable you to search for cases on a topic, using keywords (e.g. "involuntary intoxication"). If you are not familiar with legal databases, you may wish to begin by searching all 3 databases. After gaining some experience of performing searches on each database, you may develop a preference for a particular database.
To be comprehensive in your search, begin by searching vLex Justis, then search the legal databases individually. No single database includes all law reports, so you may find cases in one database which do not appear in another. For instance, at the time of writing a free text search for cases concerning "involuntary intoxication" retrieved 22 cases from vLex Justis, 31 cases from Lexis+, and 49 cases from Westlaw.
For more information on searching for cases on a topic, please see How do I find reports on a topic.