A wide variety of terms and diagnostic labels are used in the Judgments to describe the injuries for which claimants have sought damages and these are recorded in the case summaries. However, some of the commonly encountered conditions have several names or spellings e.g. Lateral Epicondylitis is often referred to as Tennis Elbow, while De Quervain's Syndrome is referred to in a variety of ways including DeQuervain's Tenovaginitis and de Quervains tenosynovitis. In some cases, the nature of the injury is unspecified or given a generic label, such as WRULD, or described merely in terms of its symptoms, e.g. pain.

While it would be nice to think that all medical practitioners use similar diagnostic criteria, it is manifestly clear from the Judgments that they do not. Moreover, diagnostic labels appear to come into and go out of fashion, e.g, that which was diagnosed as a Repetitive Strain Injury ten years ago might now be described as a Diffuse or Regional Pain Syndrome, while twenty years ago virtually any pain in the hand or arm was often labelled as Tenosynovitis. Advances in knowledge have also changed the terms used to describe some conditions.

To assist in searching for cases involving similar conditions, a glossary of injury search terms has been developed and the pertinent search terms applied to each case. This glossary standardises the spelling of conditions such as De Quervain's Syndrome and attempts to use consistent labelling, e.g. Lateral Epicondylitis rather than Tennis Elbow. However, in assigning search terms to cases, no attempt has been made to re-label, retrospectively, the injuries referred to in the Judgments that might now be given a different diagnostic label, though where a Judgment clearly uses one of the numerous generic labels to describe the injury, and no specific condition is mentioned, the search term WRULD has been used.

While it can be argued that most if not all of the injuries that are described in Judgments in generic terms might now be considered to be some sort of pain syndrome, the search term Pain Syndrome is confined to cases in which the Judgment makes explicit reference to some sort of pain syndrome. The search term Pain is confined to cases in which the injury is described in the Judgment as some sort of pain but there is no reference to any sort of pain syndrome. For example, there are cases in which claimants have failed to prove they have suffered the specific conditions alleged but nevertheless have been awarded some damages for the pain they have been found to have suffered. The search term Repetitive Strain Injury is confined to cases in which Repetitive Strain Injury, or some variation thereof, is clearly used in a Judgment to suggest a claimant has suffered a discrete injury, rather than as a generic term. Where Repetitive Strain Injury, or some variation thereof, is used in a Judgment as a generic label to describe an injury, the search term WRULD has been applied.

In general, the injuries for which claimants have sought damages fall broadly into two categories: specific conditions and non-specific conditions. However, some specific conditions such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Tenosynovitis are encountered in Judgments much more frequently than others.