Anyone who has looked at a shelf of bound law reports — or a citation in a judgment — runs into the same problem: the spines and the citations are almost entirely abbreviations. This page collects the most common ones in one place.
The official Law Reports
Published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR), these are the most authoritative series, running since 1865. Since 1890 they've been divided into four subdivisions:
| Abbreviation | Series | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| AC | Appeal Cases | Supreme Court (previously House of Lords) and Privy Council |
| QB | Queen's Bench Division | High Court and Court of Appeal — used during a Queen's reign |
| KB | King's Bench Division | The same series, named for a King's reign |
| Ch | Chancery Division | High Court and Court of Appeal, Chancery matters |
| Fam | Family Division | High Court and Court of Appeal, family matters |
| P | Probate Division | The earlier Probate, Divorce and Admiralty series |
Commercial and specialist series
Everything below is commercially published rather than official, but several are cited constantly in practice:
| Abbreviation | Series |
|---|---|
| WLR | Weekly Law Reports (ICLR) |
| All ER | All England Law Reports (LexisNexis) |
| Lloyd's Rep | Lloyd's Law Reports — maritime and commercial |
| FLR | Family Law Reports |
| Cr App R | Criminal Appeal Reports |
| Cr App R (S) | Criminal Appeal Reports (Sentencing) |
| ICR | Industrial Cases Reports |
| IRLR | Industrial Relations Law Reports |
| FSR | Fleet Street Reports — intellectual property |
| BCLC | Butterworths Company Law Cases |
| P & CR | Property, Planning and Compensation Reports |
| SC | Session Cases — Scottish |
Which report should you cite?
Where a case appears in several series, there's an accepted order of preference. The convention runs:
- The official Law Reports (AC, QB/KB, Ch, Fam) — cite these if the case appears there. They're the only series that include summaries of counsel's arguments and are checked by the judges.
- WLR or All ER — treated as equal in status to each other, and cited when the official reports don't carry the case.
- Specialist series — where neither of the above applies.
Where more than one is cited together, the most authoritative comes first. A case reported in all three might appear as: McIlraith v Grady [1968] 1 QB 468, [1967] 3 WLR 1331, [1967] 3 All ER 625.
Square brackets vs round brackets
A detail that trips people up. Square brackets around the year mean the year is essential to finding the report — the series restarts its volume numbering each year. Round brackets mean the year is helpful context but the volume number alone identifies the report, because that series numbers its volumes continuously.
Where to check anything else
This page covers the abbreviations most often encountered. For anything more obscure, the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations is the standard free reference, and the ICLR's own citation guide covers every series they've published.
Have these sets on your shelves? We buy bound runs of All England Law Reports, the Law Reports, Weekly Law Reports, and the specialist series — complete or partial.
See what we buy →Free to use and link to. If this guide is useful to your students or colleagues, please feel free to reference it.
Common questions
What's the difference between square and round brackets in a citation? Square brackets mean the year is essential to finding the report, because that series restarts its volume numbering each year. Round brackets mean the year is helpful context, but the volume number alone identifies the report.
Which law report should I cite first if a case appears in several? The official Law Reports (AC, QB, Ch, Fam) come first if the case appears there. WLR and All ER are treated as equal to each other, and are cited when the official reports don't carry the case.