TW v A City Council [2011] EWCA Civ 17
The Court of Appeal issued a reminder of the following: (a) that the bundle of authorities should be agreed; (b) that it should be filed at least seven days before the hearing; (c) that it should not contain more than ten authorities unless the scale of the appeal warrants more extensive citation; (d) that the relevant authorities should be copied from the official law reports, and only if not should reports from the All England Law Reports (All ER) or a specialist law report series be included. In addition, if a case is reported in volume 1 of the Weekly Law Reports that report should be used in preference to the report in the All ER. BAILII judgments (with neutral citation numbers) should only be used if no other recognised reports were available and the case really needs to be cited; and (e) that the passages in the authorities which were relevant and on which counsel sought to rely must be marked.
ICLR
The ICLR have kindly agreed for their WLR (D) case report to be reproduced below.
Catchwords
PRACTICE — Senior courts — Citation of authority — Law Reports to be cited in preference to all other series — Volume 1 Weekly Law Reports to be cited in preference to All England Law Reports — BAILII judgments only to be used where no other recognised reports available
Headnote
The profession needed to be reminded that the relevant authorities should be copied from the official Law Reports (published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales), and only if not should reports from the All England Law Reports (“All ER”) or a specialist law report series be included. In addition if a case was reported in volume 1 of the Weekly Law Reports that report should be used in preference to the report in the All ER. British and Irish Legal Information Institute (“BAILII”) judgments (with neutral citation numbers) should only be used if no other recognised reports were available.
The Court of Appeal so stated when allowing an appeal by TW, as intervener in care proceedings, against a finding of fact made against him by Judge Norrie, sitting in the Brighton County Court on 30 April 2010.
SIR NICHOLAS WALL P, handing down the judgment of the court, said that the court had been provided with a bundle of authorities only one of which was copied from a law report, the remainder being taken from the BAILII website, and none of the relevant passages had been sidelined or otherwise highlighted. The court wished to take the opportunity to draw attention to the note in the Supreme Court Practice 2010, vol 1, p 1562, at para 52.12.3, referring to section 8 of Practice Statement (Supreme Court: Judgments) [1998] 1 WLR 825Not on Bailii!, and to remind the profession of Practice Direction 52PD.66 supplementing CPR Pt 52, in particular of the following: (a) that the bundle of authorities should be agreed; (b) that it should be filed at least seven days before the hearing; (c) that it should not contain more than ten authorities unless the scale of the appeal warranted more extensive citation; (d) that the relevant authorities should be copied from the official Law Reports, and only if not should reports from the All ER or a specialist law report series be included. In addition if a case was reported in volume 1 of the Weekly Law Reports that report should be used in preference to the report in the All ER. BAILII judgments (with neutral citation numbers) should only be used if no other recognised reports were available and the case really needed to be cited; and (e) that the passages in the authorities which were relevant and on which counsel sought to rely had to be marked.
Other information
[2011] EWCA Civ 17B; [2011] WLR (D) 9
CA: Sir Nicholas Wall P, Wilson, Aikens LJJ: 20 January 2011
Appearances: Charles Geekie QC and Rachael Morton (instructed by Griffith Smith Farrington Webb, Brighton ) for TW; Mary Lazarus (instructed by Legal Services, A City Council) for the council.
Reported by: Jeanette Burn, barrister.
See also
Practice Direction: Citation of Authorities (2012)