Legal Research Guide: Case Law and Courts - Australia

Related Links

Find an abbreviation - Abbreviations
Determine if/where a case has been reported - Case Citators
For more information on authorised reports and a complete list, consult Appendix C of Laying down the law, 7th ed by Cook et al.


Reported Decisions

Decisions recorded and published in law reports.
Have raised significant points of law.
May be paper based, online, or both.
Authorised reports have been approved by the court/tribunal.
Where available, always cite from an authorised report.

Commonwealth

Commonwealth Law Reports Authorised Report | High Court
Federal Court Reports Authorised Report | Federal Court of Australia
Australian Law Reports High Court, Federal Court, Supreme Courts and other courts and tribunals exercising federal jurisdiction
Australian Argus Law Reports print only
Argus Law Reports print only
Australian Law Journal Reports High Court, Federal Court, Supreme Courts and other courts and tribunals exercising federal jurisdiction | print only
Federal Law Reports Federal Court, Supreme Courts and other courts and tribunals exercising federal jurisdiction

Queensland

Queensland Reports Authorised Report | online
Queensland Reports Authorised Report | print
State Reports, Queensland print only

Australian Capital Territory

Australian Capital Territory Reports Authorised Report | print only (at the end of the Australian Law Reports)
Federal Law Reports

New South Wales

New South Wales Law Reports Authorised Report
State Reports, New South Wales Authorised Report from 1964- | print only
Weekly Notes New South Wales Authorised Report | All courts in NSW | print only
Law Reports, New South Wales print only
New South Wales Reports Supreme Court of New South Wales | print only
New South Wales Weekly Notes All courts in NSW | print only

Northern Territory

Northern Territory Reports Authorised Report | print only (at the end of the Australian Law Reports)
Federal Law Reports
Northern Territory Law Reports print only

South Australia

South Australian State Reports Authorised Report
South Australian State Reports Authorised Report | print only
South Australian Law Reports print only

Tasmania

Tasmanian Reports Authorised Report | print only
Tasmanian State Reports print only
Tasmanian Law Reports print only

Victoria

Victorian Reports Authorised Report
Victorian Law Reports print only

Western Australia

State Reports (Western Australia) Authorised Report | Family Court of Western Australia and District Court of Western Australia | print only
Western Australian Reports Authorised Report | print only
Western Australian Law Reports print only


Unreported Decisions / Medium Neutral Citations

Are only available online.
Are decisions that did not raise significant points of law.
May be recent decisions that will be reported in due course.
Use a case citator to check if a decision has been reported.

All Australian Jurisdictions

Australian Unreported Judgments via Westlaw
Unreported Judgments via LexisNexis AU
Unreported Judgments via Legal Online

Commonwealth

Queensland

Queensland Courts Court web site including judgments
Queensland Legal Indices Indexes Queensland judgments
Queensland Case Law via AustLII
Industrial Court of Queensland Queensland Industrial Relations Commission
Land Court of Queensland Tribunal decisions
Obtaining Court Transcriptions

Australian Capital Territory

ACT Case Law via AustLII

New South Wales

New South Wales Case Law via AustLII
Courts & Tribunals of New South Wales

Northern Territory

Northern Territory Case Law via AustLII
Supreme Court of the Northern Territory Court web site including judgments

South Australia

South Australian Case Law via AustLII
Courts Administration Authority

Tasmania

Tasmanian Case Law via AustLII
Tasmanian Courts

Victoria

Victorian Case Law via AustLII
Supreme Court of Victoria

Western Australia

Western Australian Case Law via AustLII
Supreme Court of Western Australia

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