OSCOLA referencing guide (Online)

A law report is a published report of a judgment, containing additional information and facts relating to the case.

Judgments may be reported by any number of law reports. However, some series are regarded as more authoritative than others. The Law Reports series is seen as the most authoritative as the text is approved by both counsel and the judge before publication.

You should always cite the most authoritative series which has reported the case.

Here is the commonly recognised order of authority, with the most authoritative at the top of the list:

• The Law Reports (AC, QB, Ch, Fam)
• Weekly Law Reports (WLR) or All England Law Reports (All ER)
• Specialist law reports, for example Lloyds Law Reports (Lloyd's Rep), Industrial Cases Reports (ICR), Medical Law Reports (Med LR) or Criminal Appeal Reports (Cr App R).

All journal and newspaper reports are summaries, so should only be cited if the decision is not available in a law report series.