Why case law goes unseen

Klaudia Audunsdottir

Recently, two of our customers asked us the same question: “Is this verdict real?”

A ruling can be completely real and still be missing from the legal database you use every day. In most countries, only part of the case law gets collected, published and indexed. The rest exists. Most lawyers just never see it.

Recently two Pandektes users found a relevant ruling. Both then searched for it in the legal research platforms they had used before and the results came up empty. It made sense: if the ruling isn’t there, maybe it doesn’t exist.

The question stayed with us, because it shows an unspoken rule many legal professionals work by: if it’s not in the database, it doesn’t count. It’s a reasonable shortcut. It’s also why relevant case law gets missed every day.

Why so many rulings go unseen

Case law in many countries, like Denmark, comes from a multitude of places: district courts, the high courts, the Maritime and Commercial High Court, the Supreme Court and a long list of boards and tribunals. Each publishes in its own format, on its own timeline, through its own channels.

Traditional databases have to pick what to collect and edit. Usually that means the higher courts and the rulings seen as most significant. That leaves gaps:

District court rulings that are never appealed
Board and tribunal decisions (employment, housing, insurance, consumer) published on separate sites
New rulings still waiting to be selected, edited and added

Those gaps matter. A lot.

A district court ruling on nearly your exact facts can be worth more than a landmark Supreme Court judgment on a related point.