Using the ICLR Online to Find UK Case Law


February 25, 2026

Last week, I found myself trying to track down an older UK case in a citable form. Today’s post will cover an easy, free way of snagging an official PDF via the ICLR Online.  

The UK has a storied history of case law reporting. Originally, it was a completely privatized affair, and different court reporters competed with the speed, reliability, and price of their reports. In 1865, the reporting system was centralized beneath an officially authorized organization, The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR). The ICLR began publishing The Law Reports, which to this day remains the bluebook-preferred source when citing to UK case law. 

You may find yourself in a situation where you need an easily accessible, citable version of a case. If you don’t have easy access to the print, the ICLR website provides a convenient way to access the official PDFs of three cases a month: perfect for the occasional cite check or faculty request.  

Registering for an account is free, and registered users can access three Law Reports, three case information pages and perform three Case Genie searches per month. (Case Genie is an AI tool that searches through a user uploaded document and suggests relevant case law, similar to brief analyzers available on Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg.) 

You can search for case law by name, citation, keywords, or judge. You can also browse by topic or level of court:

Once you select a case, you can confirm the citation and a brief summary of the subject matter before deciding whether to use one of your 3 allotted free cases:

Keep in mind that your institution might have a subscription to ICLR Online, and if they do you can browse away!  

Finally, for a more detailed look at legal research and the United Kingdom, including non-case law sources, here are a few recommend resources: