Conventions in case names

The usual convention when naming a case is that the name of the party who is initiating the current stage of the proceedings will be placed first. So, if Smith is suing Jones for breach of contract, the case will be Smith v Jones.

First, in the Supreme Court (following the practice of the House of Lords), the case name reverts to whatever form it had at first instance, irrespective of who is the appellant.

Secondly, case names in criminal law are usually given in the form of R v Smith, whether at first instance or on appeal. The R stands for either Rex or Regina (meaning King or Queen) depending upon the sex of the monarch who was reigning at the time of the case.

Thirdly, some proceedings give rise to case names in special forms. One of the most common examples is judicial review, where historically the application to the court was made by the Crown on behalf of the real applicant. Although this is now pure fiction, the case names continue to reflect the original practice. For many years, the form was, for example, R v Secretary of State for Whatever ex parte Smith. However, the current usage, pursuing the same example, is R (on the application of Smith) v Secretary of State for Whatever, or, more briefly, R (Smith) v Secretary of State for Whatever.

Other exceptional usages include cases involving the estate of someone who has died, which are often given the name of the deceased, preceded by the word ‘Re‘, which means ‘in the matter of’. So, if Smith has died, a case dealing with the estate may be reported as Re Smith. A similar form is often used when cases deal with the welfare of children, except that the convention there is to use only initials, as, for example, in Re SA (A Minor) (where SA are the initials of the person concerned) in order to preserve anonymity. Another exception can arise in cases involving ships, which are sometimes named after the ship or ships involved. (See, for example, the alternative name for Ellerman Lines Ltd v Murray, which is given in the next paragraph.)

Sometimes a case may appear in two series of law reports under two different names. References to such a case may give both names, linked by the abbreviation sub nom (meaning sub nomine, or under the name of). For example, you may encounter the following: Ellerman Lines Ltd v Murray [1930] All ER Rep 503, sub nom The Croxteth Hall, The Celtic 47 TLR 147. In this example, the editor of one series has used the names of the parties, while another has used the names of the ships involved in the case.