Law cases have been published in the journal The Accountant since it began in 1874. In the years that followed these were collected into a dedicated Law Reports section.

As the journal developed, pressures of space often led to this section being omitted on the basis that law cases only dated when they were overturned and could be held back for a later issue. The editorial team at The Accountant tackled this in 1889 and made the decision to publish the Law Reports section as a supplement to the journal in line with the practice of other law journals of the day.

In addition to the Law Reports, The Accountant also published a series of Annotated Tax Cases from 1922 to 1975; the Library holds a complete set. We also hold a complete set of the Tax Supplements published between 1926 and 1947.

Some cases from The Accountant and Accountant Law Reports were reproduced in 1994 in the publication British audit practice, 1884–1900: A case law perspective.

The abbreviation used in citations for the Accountant Law Reports is Acct L. R.

The Law Reports were bound together annually with an index from 1889 (with the corresponding annual volumes of The Accountant for the first 14 years and then as separate volumes) until 1941. Most citations of the Accountant Law Reports refer to the annual volumes published since 1889 which were numbered sequentially.

Earlier citations may refer to a specific Law Reports section within an issue of The Accountant (essentially the same format as taken by the separate supplements) or, prior to the adoption of this format, to an individual report of a case in a particular issue of The Accountant.