Unreported Judgements

Unreported judgements are those which have not been reported in a law report series - either because the case is too recent, or because it does not raise a significant point of law.

In Australia, unreported judgements are likely to be published online and can be accessed on:

• AustLII (or via the relevant court website)
• LexisNexis AU
• Westlaw AU.

Unreported judgements published electronically will use a court assigned medium neutral citation style.

Medium Neutral Citation

From 1992 onwards, Australian courts have adopted a standardised system of citation known as medium neutral citation. This system was adopted to promote efficient uploading, storage and retrieval of case law. Below is an example of the medium neutral citation style:

In the above citation, the party names are italicised, followed by the year (in square brackets), the court abbreviation, judgement number and date of judgement in round brackets. Pinpoints should refer to paragraph numbers (see example below).

Task: Try it Yourself!