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Australian Guide to Legal Citation 4th Edition

Guidance on using the Australian Guide to Legal Citation referencing style

Formatting case names

Formatting case names

The Australian Guide to Legal Citation ('AGLC') contains various rules for formatting case party names. Some of these are outlined below.

Rule Outline
2.1.1

Given names and initials are not included in party names.

Only the first named plaintiff and defendant are used as party names. Do not include & Anor or & Ors.

2.1.2 Business corporations are abbreviated in line with this rule.
2.1.3

The Commonwealth appears as Commonwealth.

The States appear as Queensland or New South Wales etc.

2.1.4

This generally applies in criminal cases.

The Crown as the first-listed party is abbreviated to R.

The Crown as a respondent is formatted as The Queen or The King (depending who was the Monarch at the time).

2.1.7

Attorney-General or Director of Public Prosecutions appears in abbreviated format in footnote case citations, followed by the abbreviated jurisdiction in parentheses, eg A-G (Qld) or DPP (NSW).

The position is written out in full if the case name is used within the text of an assignment.

2.1.8–2.1.10 Explains the meaning of Re, Ex parte and ex rel in party names.
2.1.11 The v separating the parties’ names is italicised and is not followed by a full-stop. In speech it is pronounced ‘and’ for civil actions and ‘against’ for criminal actions, not versus.
2.1.13 Shows the format for multiple proceedings between the same parties, eg [No 2], [No 3] etc, or assigning a descriptive short title.
Unless it's a subsequent reference, omit the case name from the footnote reference if it appears in the accompanying sentence within the text of your assignment (see AGLC rule 2.1.15).