Unit 3: Sources of law: Case Law

03. The structure of a law report (Video transcript)

While it is true that you will be able to find short descriptions of key cases in your text books and the
subject guide, you should not rely on these short summaries. There is no substitute for reading the
case itself, so you will need to learn to find your way around a law report.

Having found the case of Sarjantson v Chief Constable of Humberside Police [2014] we are going to
look at how the report of this case is structured. Understanding the structure of a law report will
help you to find your way to the key information that you require.

Look at the top of page 411 of the QB report. You’ll see on the top left, the page number and
beneath this [2014] QB and the name of the case, Sarjantson v Chief Constable of Humberside Police
(CA). If you looked at the hard copy of this report in a paper volume the text Sarjantson v Chief
Constable of Humberside Police (CA) and [2014] QB wouldn’t be there. It’s only added here because
this is a PDF version and the page number alone doesn’t provide enough information. The court is
identified, the Court of Appeal, and this text is more or less level with the letter A in italics in the
right hand margin. These letters are called marginal letters and are provided to make it easier to
make precise reference to the paragraphs of a report. You can refer readers to page 411 at A rather
than just page 411.

You’ll now see the name of the case again but if you were looking at the paper copy it would be the
first time the case name appears. The neutral citation appears next followed by the hearing date and
beneath the date the judgment was handed down. The names of the three judges who heard the
case, Lord Dyson, Masters of the Rolls and Lord Justice McFarlane and Lady Justice Sharp are
abbreviated in the conventional written form. LJJ is the plural of LJ which stands for Lord Justice or
Lady Justice. It’s not possible to work out if the judge is male or female from the letters LJ but
thankfully the written form in all cases is the same and so unless you’re participating in a debate
where you need to say the judge’s name you don’t need to know the judge’s gender. If you do need
to know you can find a list of the senior judiciary online.

This is most likely the first and probably the last time you will consider the first few lines of a law
report in such detail. In future you’ll probably simply glance at the case name and the keywords or
catchwords which appear in italics. These keywords mark the start of the headnote and all of the
information included in the headnote is written by a law reporter. The keywords tell you – only in
the most general terms – what the case is about. In future, you might read no further than these
keywords, before deciding that the case is of no use or interest to you but for now I am afraid you’ll
have to read on!

The next part of the headnote provides a summary of the facts of the case. These, along with the
summary of the court’s decision, are the most useful parts of the headnote.

You’ll see that the summary of the facts includes not just the facts in terms of the events that led to
the claim but also an outline of the claim and the decision of the court below. The sentence starting
‘The first claimant…’ (One line above E) describes the legal claim the claimants initiated against the
police and the sentence beginning ‘On the defendant’s application…’ (Midway between E and F)
explains that in the County Court the claim was ‘struck out’. There are a few words you may not be
familiar with in this paragraph.
Claimant: A claimant is a person commencing a legal action against another. In cases before 1999
the claimant was known as the plaintiff and many common law jurisdictions still use this term.

Inter alia: Inter alia is a Latin term still used by lawyers and means ‘among other things’.

Struck out: A court can ‘strike out’ a claim if, inter alia, it considers that there is no real possibility
that the claim will be successful. The easiest way to understand this is to recognise that claims were
once handwritten documents and that when the court made a striking out order parts of a claim
would literally be struck out in the same way as you cross out or delete text today by putting a
horizontal line through it.

The next section of the headnote is another summary; a synopsis of the Court of Appeal’s decision.
The word ‘Held’ refers to the court’s decision. It means the court ruled or decided. It’s a word you
need to learn. You’ll come across it often. When you scan through the headnote you’ll need to be on
the lookout for the word ‘Held’ as a pointer to the law reporter’s summary of the court’s decision.
When you read journal articles about the law you’ll see the phrase ‘the court held in such and such a
case…’ and you need to recognise that the writer is referring to the court’s decision. Ultimately it’s a
phrase you’ll need to work into your own writing.

This section probably introduced a few more words to you vocabulary.

Timeous: This is not a legal term but it is quite unusual. In this context it means if the police had
arrived ‘in a good’ or ‘sufficiently early’ fashion so it has to do with timing..

Per curiam: Per curiam (Latin) translates ‘by the court’. It identifies that the court – all three of the
judges here – rather than one individual judge stated this, so it's what the court is saying. If the point
were made by an individual judge it would say, for example, Per Sharpe LJ.

Quantum: Quantum means quantity, that is, the amount of money payable in damages.

You’ll now see a list of cases. The case names are in italics following the standard convention in legal
writing. The list includes all the cases mentioned in Lord Dyson’s judgment and by the advocates
when presenting their arguments to the court.

The law report then outlines the procedural history of the case. The procedural history describes the
case’s journey though the court system. It’s rare that you’ll be interested in the procedural history of
a case. You’ll mostly read the headnote for the summary of the facts and the summary of the court’s
decision.

The final part of headnote is a summary of the arguments presented to the Court of Appeal by the
advocates. You will perhaps recall that the Official Law Reports are said to be the most authoritative
because they include a summary of the arguments. In the early stages of your law studies the
summary of the arguments in a law report will not be important. They are, however, useful to a
court and to advocates and they can be useful if you participate in mooting competitions.

The judgment of the court begins at the top of page 415 and you’ll see that it was handed down on
18 October 2013, ten days after the court heard the case. A court can give its judgment immediately
– at the end of a hearing – and in straightforward cases often does so. Sometimes a court will state
its decision but provide the reasons later. At appellate level, however, it’s usual for the court to take
‘time for consideration’ before providing a fully reasoned judgment.