Important gaps remain in the government’s official repository of court judgments more than a year after its launch, research has revealed. According to the study by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting in England and Wales (ICLR), about 20% of the judgments that might be expected to be on the National Archives’ Find Case Law database are missing. 

The main laggard is the Family Division of the High Court, where only 26% of judgments were posted on the day. The ICLR concedes that delays may be explained by the need for more stringent checks to avoid identifying parties. Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal (civil division) published 91% of its judgments on the day; only 3% were unpublished. 

The report covered the first 12 months of Find Case Law's operation, to the end of April 2023. It concludes that the issue of missing judgments persisted throughout the year so was not simply a teething problem. 'It is, in short, systemic in nature.'

Apart from the failure of some judges to deliver judgments, remaining problems with the database include the ‘quite basic’ search function. 

The ICLR recommends that HM Courts & Tribunals Service and the judiciary should give more support to judges in preparing judgments for submission via the National Archives' portal. 

Despite the problems, the report welcomes the new database, 'which has gradually replaced BAILII as the official archive and primary source of court judgments'. The report notes that under the National Archives’ transactional licence, lawtech developers can process bulk judgment data - something that was not possible previously. Meanwhile, the publication of judgments 'is a cornerstone of open justice'. It is therefore important for the system of publishing judgments to be as fast, efficient and comprehensive as possible.

National Archives said the service is ‘operating well’, adding that ‘nine out of 10 judgments are published on the same day we receive them, usually within a couple of hours’. However a spokesperson noted that ‘It is for the courts to decide which judgments are sent for preservation in the archive. We publish all the judgments sent to us by the courts and tribunals.’

 

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