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Case law on BAILII


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URL: http://www.bailii.org/bailii/summary-cases.html

BAILII receives a regular feed of cases from the Courts of the four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom and from the Courts of Ireland. The table below shows the numbers of cases decided since 1 January 1996 which are held in the database.

In April and May of 2003 arrangements were made for all the substantive judgments of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal and the Administrative Court to be posted on the BAILII website. Judgments on permission applications, and other preliminary applications, will only be published there if a judge so requests. This arrangement was backdated to 1st January 2003. All these judgments are now on BAILII. The number of judgments from the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal and the other Divisions of the High Court have been steadily increasing, and it is hoped that even more progress will be achieved during 2005.

There is still a restriction on the number of English cases from Divisions of the High Court which can be added to the BAILII database which arises from the fact that the shorthand-writers who transcribe judgments which have been given verbally (as opposed to judgments handed down on paper) own the copyright in the transcribed version of the judgment. This prevents the judgment being added to the BAILII database without the consent of the shorthand-writer. BAILII, being a free web site, has no funds with which to acquire a licence to copy and display the transcript. (Enquiries for copies of unreported English judgments which are not available on BAILII should be directed to the Mechanical Recording Department of the High Court (RCJ Room WB14; tel: 020 7947 6154; fax: 020 7947 6662; email: HighCourt.NeutralCitation@courtservice.gsi.gov.uk)

BAILII continues to press for the system to be changed so that all judgments may be freely available. A large number of transcribed judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Administrative Court for the period July 1996 - August 1999 were kindly provided by the official shorthand writers Smith Bernal. All handed down English Court of Appeal cases decided since July 1996 should be on BAILII.

Handed down first-instance decisions of the England and Wales and Northern Ireland High Courts are generally only provided to BAILII where the Judge giving the judgment indicates that they are of sufficient interest to be made available for publication on the Internet.

The official version of English judgments of the Court of Appeal and High Court are the Approved Judgments in .rtf format. In most cases the .rtf version is also available on BAILII. When the .rtf version is not available the BAILII web version is not to be taken as official.

Decisions of the Irish Supreme Court and High Court are reasonably comprehensive since February 2001. The official version of Irish judgments is the hard copy version.

BAILII has few Northern Ireland cases decided prior to 2000.

BAILII has few Scottish cases decided prior to 1999.

Full coverage of House of Lords and Privy Council cases commmenced during 1996.

Users of BAILII are reminded that the judgments of any court below the highest level may have been the subject of an appeal, and that they should satisfy themselves that the judgment has not been the subject of an appeal before relying on it as an authority. The Court of Appeal has recently adopted this practice, although it is not yet being universally followed in the judgments of that court. This should facilitate an automated noter-up function to display an indication that a judgment has been the subject of an appeal.

An orange highlight to a row denotes a court that is no longer active.

Database pre-1996 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 total

England and Wales
England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions 475 840 2332 1971 1629 469 2036 1779 771 775 797 792 858 951 799 771 763 59 18867
England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions 71 24 26 38 18 134 154 158 167 242 274 329 320 443 444 377 301 20 3540
England and Wales County Court (Family)                             6 60 6   72
England and Wales Care Standards Tribunal               14 34 53 57 47 66 71         342
England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions 30 382 1155 1118 824 197 244 251 624 514 523 509 523 707 799 611 449 22 9482
England and Wales High Court (Admiralty Division) Decisions           1 7 7 4 4 2 1 2 6 8 3 5   50
England and Wales High Court (Court of Protection) Decisions           2                 9 22 20   53
Court of Common Pleas 6                                   6
England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions 29 1 5 14 46 39 87 93 163 219 256 297 341 331 360 364 288 21 2954
England and Wales High Court (Commercial Court) Decisions 1 1 3 11 17 44 54 69 114 104 102 119 125 120 131 133 163 12 1323
England and Wales High Court (Senior Courts Costs Office) Decisions           13 18 36 45 41 21 20 30 24 28 27 18   321
England and Wales High Court (Exchequer Court) Decisions 13                                   13
England and Wales High Court (Family Division) Decisions 5     1 4 2 12 6 35 36 39 52 69 68 68 87 70 4 558
England and Wales High Court (King's Bench Division) Decisions 29                                   29
Mercantile Court             1             1 2 5 3   12
England and Wales High Court (Patents Court) Decisions   1 9 28 14 16 7 11 16 16 15 29 35 40 42 25 36   340
England and Wales High Court (Queen's Bench Division) Decisions 25 3 6 9 15 29 38 53 76 87 150 171 206 225 227 265 268 17 1870
England and Wales High Court (Technology and Construction Court) Decisions     11 25 31 46 20 36 48 65 80 90 98 97 98 91 86 6 928
England and Wales Leasehold Valuation Tribunal Decisions 2 5 18 17 23 12 21 129 46 81 137 969 808 930 931 1108 2318 47 7602
England and Wales Land Registry Adjudicator                     4 21 22 25 20 12 16   120
England and Wales Lands Tribunal         2 72 65 29 58 45 66 66 63 88 28       582
England and Wales Magistrates' Court (Family)                             16 83     99
England and Wales Patents County Court                       2   3   9 37 4 55
English and Welsh Courts - Miscellaneous 10       1     1   3   1 7 5 10 18 18 2 76

Scotland
Scottish Court of Session Decisions 337 6 10 121 307 333 297 214 337 277 245 263 298 256 275 272 307 31 4186
Scottish High Court of Justiciary Decisons 71   4 30 259 115 124 121 67 70 128 111 83 84 107 136 123 12 1645
Scottish Information Commissioner Decisions                     89 228 231 168 151 222 226 11 1326
Scottish Sheriff Court Decisions       3 27 35 24 28 60 91 90 104 76 42 50 29 40   699

Northern Ireland
Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland Decisions       2 19 36 57 52 59 50 62 47 60 50 63 45 67 1 670
Crown Court for Northern Ireland Decisions         1 2   9 17 10 22 35 51 44 71 44 35 2 343
Fair Employment Tribunal Northern Ireland Decisions       1     1 37 32 24 55 51 42 37 25 23 20   348
High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland Chancery Division Decisions       5 5 7 15 14 9 6 4 4 7 24 10 18 21 3 152
High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland Family Division Decisions           9 24 26 16 12 17 19 13 15 23 19 13   206
Northand Ireland High Court of Justice, Master's decisions           1 1     1 12 8 10 8 13 5 6 1 66
High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland Queen's Bench Division Decisions 1 2 2 2 25 44 50 19 79 91 86 97 120 153 96 135 106 1 1109
Industrial Tribunals Northern Ireland Decisions               333 139 210 147 152 322 226 330 452 464   2775
Northern Ireland - Social Security and Child Support Commissioners' Decisions 117 84 66 70 73 39 31 61 99 88 52 57 46 31 66 92 79 5 1156

Ireland
Irish Competition Authority Decisions 456 19 13 47 40 8 10 2 47 81 84 98 72 38 27 46 11   1099
Irish Court of Criminal Appeal 17                 39 33 33 30 67 43 26 30 1 319
Irish Data Protection Commission Case Studies                     12 15 15 21 16 20     99
High Court of Ireland Decisions 580 61 234 232 252 213 230 179 184 302 452 382 427 422 526 482 462   5620
Irish Information Commissioner's Decisions       20 23 27 30 19 23 18 16 14 14 6 36 73 7   326
Supreme Court of Ireland Decisions 104 9 12 68 95 81 121 79 74 73 71 69 70 70 77 59 47 7 1186

United Kingdom
United Kingdom Competition Appeals Tribunal             6 1 2 6 40 35 36 40 36 28 44 3 277
Nominet UK Dispute Resolution Service             8 110 106 114 146 174 162 181 127 107 228 24 1487
Special Immigrations Appeals Commission                 11 17 6 14 11 6 8 9 15 2 99
United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal 2530 785 992 1059 1330 1255 1344 973 785 463 382 316 354 343 333 322 377 12 13955
United Kingdom Financial Services and Markets Tribunals Decisions               2 5 3 13 18 11 11 8       71
First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber)                             27 99 50   176
First-tier Tribunal (Health Education and Social Care Chamber)                           8 58 63 37   166
First-tier Tribunal (Tax)                             325 551 812 81 1769
United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions 531 21 59 54 53 72 71 50 72 56 75 59 58 74 45       1350
United Kingdom Asylum and Immigration Tribunal 4 2   2 2 11 24 248 216 341 180 96 98 93 56 3     1376
United Kingdom Information Tribunal including the National Security Appeals Panel 9     1 1 1 1 1 2   7 28 75 80 50       256
Privy Council Decisions 9304 67 71 54 57 54 66 72 88 61 51 60 68 64 54 33 48 2 10274
United Kingdom Supreme Court                             17 58 59 2 136
United Kingdom Special Commissioners of Income Tax Decisions         5 17 25 25 35 57 62 57 83 66 14       446
UK Social Security and Child Support Commissioners' Decisions 297 73 109 85 47 107 169 285 252 251 207 185 189 220         2476
Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber)                           38 230 298 246 9 821
Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)                               63 97 8 168
United Kingdom Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber)                             56 83 78 8 225
United Kingdom Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber)                             3 41 62 6 112
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals Decisions 1           1 11 283 446 500 555 537 391 77       2802
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals (Customs) Decisions           1 1 8 10 5 18 20 19 17 5       104
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals (Excise) Decisions             1 32 200 240 100 69 70 82 10       804
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals (Insurance Premium Tax) Decisions         2 1       1 1   1 1         7
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals (Landfill Tax) Decisions         1   1   2 2 1 2 1 2         12

Europe
European Court of Human Rights 795 102 136 119 191 712 897 855 716 731 947 1187 1159 1841 2109 2150 2255 232 17134
Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions) 4933 351 406 480 359 529 497 534 548 589 614 839 516 559 613 832 1080 37 14316
Updated 9 February 2012
Total cases 143443


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URL: http://www.bailii.org/bailii/summary-cases.html