Law reports and law periodicals are cited by an abbreviated version of their full title and each series has an official abbreviation. Check the meaning of an abbreviation online using the Cardiff Index to legal abbreviations.

For example: Warren v Random House Group Ltd  [2009] 2 W.L.R. 314

In this example, the abbreviation W.L.R stands for Weekly Law Reports. This is an example of a traditional citation and refers to a case that was reported on in 2009. The law report relating to this case can be found in the 2^nd volume of the 2009 Weekly Law Reports, on page 314.

You will also come across neutral citations. Neutral citations have been in use since 2001. High Court and Court of Appeal cases are cited using this form of citation, which denotes the year the case was heard, the court that issued the judgement and the case number.

For example: Warren v Random House Group Ltd  [2008] EWCA Civ 834         

2008 is the year the case was heard, EWCA Civ (Court of Appeal Civil Division) is the court that issued the judgement (use the Cardiff Index to legal abbreviations to decipher the abbreviation) and 834 is the judgement number.

Use Westlaw, Lexis Library and BAILI to search for these reports. 

OneSearch does not search Westlaw and Lexis for law reports; you will need to search these databases directly.