Understanding and reviewing Case Law is an important aspect of the administration of justice and upholding of the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law asserts that no person is above the law and that governmental authority needs to be legitimately exercised in accordance with written and publicly disclosed laws, which are adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedural steps that are referred to as due process.

“We consider access to Case Law to be a pivotal part of advancing the Rule of Law,” says Shebash Pillay, Managing Editor LexisNexis Law Reports. “We review each and every new case, determine which specialist series it bears relevance to, and provide access to case law containing, summaries and keywords to help legal practitioners stay up-to-date. This is key to upholding the law and essential in ensuring an equitable society for all.”

Providing access to the widest range of case law, including civil, criminal, labour, divorce, property and tax, the online LexisNexis Case Law interface is easy to navigate with indices that allow for ease of access, quick referencing and deeper research. Topical and precedent setting cases provide key insights ensuring that subscribers stay abreast of new developments in the law.

Understanding that legal practitioners face time constraints, LexisNexis Case Law offers a free to download index that details the latest cases from the previous month, as selected by a team of legal experts, to help professionals stay abreast of the latest legal developments.

“With Case Law, every case is a story, it has that human element,” says Louis Podbielski, Case Law Content Manager: LexisNexis South Africa. “That is what makes case law so interesting. As a lawyer you have to keep learning, and the best way to do that, to stay on top of things, is by reading recent case law.”

Reviewing case law not only provides learnings on substantive law, it offers rich insights and practical knowledge. “Legal professionals are able, through reading current case law, to get an understanding of which paragraphs and which dictum has been chosen by an experienced judge to articulate their reasoning. On the practice side, this gives professionals insights on what to do and what not to do,” Podbielski says.

Both Pillay and Podbielski have an active following on LinkedIn, where they post daily Case Law updates, opening up conversations with legal practitioners, who in turn share their cases, highlighting key aspects and learnings.

“The popularity of these daily updates, the community and networking and the encouraging feedback we have received has resulted in the creation of a dedicated Case Law blog on the LexisNexis website, to ensure that practitioners are able to access these cases with ease,” says Pillay.

LexisNexis Case Law provides useful, practical guidance and an understanding of how the law may be interpreted by the court, especially when guidelines may be unclear. While standard law reports cover law-making cases, LexisNexis believes it is important to also highlight cases that offer guidance on practical, day to day matters, packaged for ease of reference to assist busy legal professionals including lawyers, advocates and judicial officers with relevant judgment extracts useful in everyday practice.

Need to stay abreast of the latest legal developments? Download a free index of the latest cases from the previous month or visit http://ow.ly/GiX150ByRjK