Finding official Law Reports from a neutral citation

clocks

Hello all,

I prefer to read cases in the official Law Reports, however recent cases are almost exclusively cited in the neutral citation style.

For example, the case In the Matter of Hocroft Developments Ltd [2009] IEHC 580 is available on Bailii here.

I'd like to find an IR or IRLM report of this case with the headnote etc. Is there a "meta" search engine or law library index to convert the citation ?

hullaballoo

If you do not have access to it already via your college/workplace/professional whatever, it is well worth investigating a subscription to justis. I find it is unrivalled in terms of researching cases and will return the "official" reports as well as the circulated judgment.

clocks

hullaballoo wrote: »

If you do not have access to it already via your college/workplace/professional whatever, it is well worth investigating a subscription to justis. I find it is unrivalled in terms of researching cases and will return the "official" reports as well as the circulated judgement.

Thanks. I should have added that I am a graduate studying for professional examinations (FE1s); I can attend the university law library as an external reader but electronic access is limited. I am happiest reading the hard copies of official law reports but it seems like one can't use a library the old fashioned way without a computer now.

So University Law students and Practitioners would just plug those citations into westlaw or Lexis Nexis ?

hullaballoo

I just said I use Justis. I don't like Westlaw or LexNex because the search functionality is not as strong as Justis, even if they cover more areas, such as academic sources etc.

Edit: just in case the above comes across a little bluntly - here is a smiley face.

Pro Hoc Vice

clocks wrote: »

Thanks. I should have added that I am a graduate studying for professional examinations (FE1s); I can attend the university law library as an external reader but electronic access is limited. I am happiest reading the hard copies of official law reports but it seems like one can't use a library the old fashioned way without a computer now.

So University Law students and Practitioners would just plug those citations into westlaw or Lexis Nexis ?

Yes most would do a search of one of the online resources, of course also Google, if the only results and citations are the IEHC or IESC results then a very good chance no reported judgement. More and more important cases remain unreported simply because of the volume of written judgements.

clocks

Pro Hoc Vice wrote: »

Yes most would do a search of one of the online resources, of course also Google, if the only results and citations are the IEHC or IESC results then a very good chance no reported judgement. More and more important cases remain unreported simply because of the volume of written judgements.

Though I understand the principle behind the switch to vendor-neutral citations it appears to be having the perverse effect (at least in my circumstances) of encouraging use of the raw text of judgements rather than Official Reports.

It also makes it significantly harder to rely on paper based resources

Pro Hoc Vice

clocks wrote: »

Though I understand the principle behind the switch to vendor-neutral citations it appears to be having the perverse effect (at least in my circumstances) of encouraging use of the raw text of judgements rather than Official Reports.

It also makes it significantly harder to rely on paper based resources

I assume you are only searching for the case name rather than the full neutral citation. Also the online resources have a citation searcher, which should give all citations eg neutral, IR and ILRM if they exist.

The old fashioned way of course still exists that is to go through the index of the reports after the date of decision,time consuming and often a waste as I said not all written judgements are reported. If after all the searching all you can find is neutral citation prob best to assume no reported judgement.

Pro Hoc Vice

Pro Hoc Vice wrote: »

I assume you are only searching for the case name rather than the full neutral citation. Also the online resources have a citation searcher, which should give all citations eg neutral, IR and ILRM if they exist.

The old fashioned way of course still exists that is to go through the index of the reports after the date of decision,time consuming and often a waste as I said not all written judgements are reported. If after all the searching all you can find is neutral citation prob best to assume no reported judgement.

http://www.ucc.ie/law/irlii/irliiindex/irliiindexsearch.php?q=In%20the%20Matter%20of%20Hocroft%20Developments%20Ltd%20[2009]%20IEHC%20580

According to that no reported judgement of the case mentioned.

clocks

Pro Hoc Vice wrote: »

http://www.ucc.ie/law/irlii/irliiindex/irliiindexsearch.php?q=In%20the%20Matter%20of%20Hocroft%20Developments%20Ltd%20[2009]%20IEHC%20580

According to that no reported judgement of the case mentioned.

Thanks for that Pro Hoc Vice, very useful. The "Citation Searcher" was essentially the tool I had in mind when first posting. A Justis subscription is obviously another option, but I'm not sure it's worth it for me at the moment.

I see your point now about fewer cases being reported. It is a pity as I find them very well done--significantly easier and faster to read than an unreported judgement online. In the University Law Reports appear to lack the sort of outline or index that one would find with an extensive encyclopedia.