Law

Before judgments are published, many courts make them available online as Unreported judgments, sometimes referred to as medium neutral citations.

Significant cases that reflect important points of law are published in law reports. These can either be:

1. Authorised - these are reviewed by judge for accuracy before publication. Here is a list of authorised law reports organised by jurisdiction.
2. Unauthorised - may be published more quickly and can appear in a specialised report series on a particular area of law e.g. torts, criminal law.

Cases may be published in multiple law reports.

Citation hierarchy in order of preference:

1. Authorised (See authorised reports)
2. Unauthorised
3. Unreported

Citation elements

Authorised Law report series

Finding a case from a citation

Use an abbreviations guide to find out the full title of the report series:

Hints:

• Australian Law Reports
  • Authorised series: Most are on Westlaw AU
  • All other series are on Lexis Advance
• Unreported decisions: Use AustLII or Jade. They are also in both Lexis Advance (see CaseBase) and Westlaw AU.

• UK Reported series: Justis is an easy index with direct links into ICLR (publisher of UK Authorised reports)
   

Finding cases on a topic

Use secondary resources such as books, journals, commentaries and encyclopaedias to find cases on a particular area of law.

Case Citators

Use Case Citators to help locate judgments when you:

• Have an incomplete or incorrect citation
• Require cases on a topic
• Track later cases
   

Case Citators provide:

1. Complete citation, including parallel citations
2. Links to full text of judgment
3. Name and date of judgment
4. Presiding judge
5. Litigation history
6. Cases considered and cited
7. Any later cases that have considered this case
    

Commonwealth of Australia: Courts and Decisions

• High Court of Australia: Judgments

• Federal Court of Australia

• Federal Court Full Court (FCAFC) Decisions 2002-

  AustLII

• Federal Court Decisions 1977-

  AustLII

• Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia

• Family Court of Australia Decisions 1982-

  AustLII

• Family Court (FamCAFC) Decisions 2008-

  AustLII

New South Wales: Courts and Decisions

• Supreme Court of New South Wales

• District Court of New South Wales

• Family Law National Enquiry Centre

• New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT)

• Department of Justice: New South Wales Government

Western Australia: Courts and Decisions

• Supreme Court of Western Australia

• Supreme Court of Western Australia Court of Appeal Decisions 1999-

  AustLII

• Supreme Court of Western Australia Decisions 1999-

  AustLII

• Supreme Court of Western Australia Judgments 1991-

• Supreme Court of Western Australia - Sentences

• District Court of Western Australia

• Family Court of Western Australia

  Selected Judgments Only

• State Administrative Tribunal (SAT)

  The State Administrative Tribunal deals with a broad range of administrative, commercial and personal matters reviewing decisions made by Government agencies and officials.

• State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia Decisions 2005-

  AustLII

• Warden's Court

  Information and links to decisions.

• Department of the Attorney General (WA)

Videos

• Transcripts and Videos from the Supreme Court of Western Australia

  Videos of special events and live streaming of selected cases.

• Digital Law Library (Federal Court of Australia)

  Includes Federal Court Library resources, selected videos, and a catalogue of judgements

• Recent AV Recordings (High Court of Australia)

  Selected videos from Full Court hearings heard in Canberra