Pursuant to a practice direction given by Lord Judge during his tenure as the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the Law Reports are "the most authoritative reports" and should always be "cited in preference where there is a choice.
[16] The Law Reports were originally divided into eleven series.
Glanville Williams said that "roughly speaking" there was a series for each of the superior courts.
This was due to the creation of the High Court and a decision on the part of the publishers, to put the House of Lords, the Privy Council and the new Court of Appeal in the same volume, and to group Crown Cases Reserved and the Queen's Bench Division together.
This is because the Common Pleas and Exchequer Divisions of the High Court were incorporated in the Queen's Bench Division of that court in 1880: There have continued to be four series during this period, but their names have changed from time to time.