An acronym is a word or name composed of the first letters of each word of a title or description. For example, NATO is an acronym for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
An initialism is an abbreviated name or description composed of the first letters of the full name or description, pronounced as a set of initials rather than a word. For example, BBC is an initialism for British Broadcasting Corporation.
Both initialisms and (to a lesser extent) acronyms used to be punctuated with full stops, as would other abbreviations (eg Mr used to appear as Mr.) and this may be how they appear in older law reports and commentary.
This entry lists some common and less common legal acronyms, initialisms and other abbreviations used in England and Wales.
Note that it does NOT include the abbreviations commonly used in legal citations, or in corporate names, which we have listed elsewhere.
Admin Ct – Administrative Court (part of the Queen’s Bench Division)
ACL – Association of Costs Lawyers
ADR – Alternative Dispute Resolution
AG – Advocate General (in European Court of Justice)
AG or A-G – Attorney General
AKA – Also known as (alias)
ASBO – Anti-social behaviour order
ATE – After the Event (insurance)
BAME– Black and Minority Ethnic
BSB – Bar Standards Board, created by the Bar Council as the regulator of barristers
BTE – Before the Event (insurance)
C – Chancellor (after the surname of the Chancellor of the High Court, Chancery Division)
CA – Court of Appeal
CBA – Criminal Bar Association
CACD – Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
CFA – Conditional Fee Agreement
Ch – Chancellor (as a judge of an ecclesiastical court)
Ch D – Chancery Division (of the High Court)
CIPA – Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
CLSA – Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association
CJ – Chief Justice
CJEC – Court of Justice of the European Communities (in Luxembourg)
CJEU – Court of Justice of the European Union (in Luxembourg)
CLC – Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the regulator for licensed conveyancers
CLSB – Costs Lawyer Standards Board, regulator for the ACL
Const Ct – Consistory Court
CoP or COP – Court of Protection
COP – Code of Practice
CPD – Continuing professional development, a system for ensuring professionals maintain their standards of competence
CPR – Civil Procedure Rules
CPS – Crown Prosecution Service
Crim PR – Criminal Procedure Rules
Ct of Sess – Court of Session (in Scotland)
DBA – Damages Based Agreement
DC – Divisional Court (usually, but not exclusively, of the Queen’s Bench Division)
DFJ – Designated Family Judge
DoLS – Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
DPA – Data Protection Act
DPP – Director of Public Prosecutions
EAT – Employment Appeal Tribunal
EC – European Commission
ECHR – European Convention on Human Rights
ECtHR (or ECHR) – European Court of Human Rights (in Strasbourg)
ECJ – European Court of Justice (in Luxembourg; aka Court of Justice of the European Communities / Union)
ECLI – European Case Law Identifier
EEC – European Economic Community
ET – Employment Tribunal
EU – European Union
EW or E&W – England and Wales
FC or Fam Ct – Family Court
Fam D – Family Division (of the High Court)
FLBA – Family Law Bar Association
FPR – Family Procedure Rules
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulaton (EU)
HC – High Court (of England and Wales)
HC – House of Commons (sometimes HoC)
HL – House of Lords
HMSO – Her Majesty’s Stationery Office – official printers of government publications
ICO – Information Commissioner’s Office
ICTA – Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988
IPReg – Intellectual Property Regulation Board, the regulator for ITMA and CIPA
IPS – Ilex Professional Standards, the regulator of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
IT – Industrial Tribunal (former name of Employment Tribunal)
IT – Information Technology
ITMA – Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys
J – Justice (after a High Court judge’s name, as an abbreviation for Mr / Mrs Justice)
JAG – Joint Advocacy Group, consisting of representatives of the BSB, SRA and IPS
JC – Judicial Committee (of the Privy Council)
JJ – Justices (plural, after listing their surnames)
JSC – Justice of the Supreme Court (after his or her title)
JJSC – Justices of the Supreme Court (plural, after listing their titles)
KCPO – Knife crime prevention order
LASPO – Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (sometimes LASPOA)
LCCSA – London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association
LCJ – Lord Chief Justice
LIP – Litigant in person (sometimes known as self-represented litigant)
LJ – Lord Justice, Lady Justice (appearing after the surname)
LJJ – Lords and/or Ladies Justices (plural, after listing their surnames)
LPS – Liberty Protection Safeguards
LSA 2007 – Legal Services Act 2007
LSB – Legal Services Board, the regulator (or super regulator) of legal regulators
LSS – Litigation and Settlements Strategy (of HMRC)
MLA – Member of the Legislative Assembly (of Northern Ireland)
MP – Member of Parliament
MSP – Member of the Scottish Parliament
MWA – Member of the Welsh Assembly
NIRC – National Industrial Relations Court
NTA – Non Trial Advocate (see also POA), an advocate who can only represent a client who pleads guilty (eg for mitigation).
OCOF – One Case One Fee: the system under which an advocate is paid a flat fee regardless of the complexity or duration of the case
P – President (after a the surname of the President of a High Court division)
PACE – Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
PATAS – Parking and Traffic Appeals Service, hears appeals from motorists against penalty charge notices etc
PC – Privy Council
PCN – Penalty Charge Notice, usually for parking in the wrong place, driving in the Congestion Zone without paying, or some other fixed-penalty infringement
PCT – Price Competitive Tendering
PDA – Probate, Divorce and Admiralty (former division of the High Court)
PI – Personal injury (in the context of claims for damages)
PM – Prime Minister
POA – Plea Only Advocates: an advocate qualified only to represent a client who wishes to plead guilty (now renamed NTAs or Non Trial Advocates).
POC – Person of colour (North American usage).
QASA – Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates
QBD – Queen’s Bench Division (of the High Court)
SC(E) – Supreme Court, when hearing appeals from the courts of England and Wales
SC(NI) – Supreme Court, when hearing appeals from Northern Ireland
SC(Sc) – Supreme Court, when hearing appeals from Scotland
Sen Cts – Senior Courts (ie High Court and Court of Appeal, replacing the former term Supreme Court)
SEO – Search engine optimisation (for better ranking in results)
SME – Small and Medium sized Enterprises
SRA – Solicitors’ Regulation Authority, created by the Law Society to regulate solicitors
Sup Ct – Supreme Court (either as former title of Senior Courts, or since 2009 for the highest appellate court in the UK)
T/A – Trading as (in a case name)
TPD – Third Party Debt (order)
UCP – Universal Customs & Practice (for documentary credits)
UK – United Kingdom
UKPC – United Kingdom Privy Council
UKSC – United Kingdom Supreme Court
V-C – Vice-Chancellor (after the surname of the Vice-Chancellor of the Chancery Division, the title formerly given to the most senior judge in that Division of the High Court.)
WCWF – Western Circuit Women’s Forum