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Law Subject Guide

Find online and print resources for law

Locate Australian cases

Find an Australian case by citation or name

Most Australian reported cases are available in Westlaw Australia or Lexis Advance. CCH iKnowConnect contains additional subject-based law report series.

Locate a case using its citation, eg to find Gough v Braden use 1993 1 Qd R 100. This avoids confusion where there are multiple proceedings with the same parties, year and court. There's no need to include party names, brackets or punctuation.

Locate Australian cases

Westlaw Australia contains all Australian authorised law reports series, including:

  • Commonwealth Law Reports
  • Federal Court Reports
  • Queensland Reports & State Reports of Queensland
  • New South Wales Law Reports, South Australian State Reports, Victorian Reports etc.

Unauthorised law reports series in Westlaw include the Federal Law Reports and various specialist reports eg Administrative Appeals Reports, Australian Criminal Reports, Local Government & Environmental Reports etc. The below video demonstrates how to access a reported case in Westlaw Australia [0:50].

Downloading a Court-Ready Version of a Law Report (Thomson Reuters, 2021) <https://support.thomsonreuters.com.au/product/new-westlaw-australia/video/westlaw-australia-downloading-court-ready-version-law-report-50>.

Find a case in Westlaw Australia

  1. enter the case citation details into the search box on the database homepage eg 1992 175 CLR 1
  2. press enter/search to view the full case version indicated by the citation

Selecting the suggested case that appears below the search box generally displays the unreported 'Westlaw Version'. Use the Case version box on the right-hand side to access available reported versions.

More help with accessing a case in Westlaw Australia

The Library's Lexis Advance subscription includes the authorised New South Wales Law Reports, Queensland Reports and Victorian Reports. Unauthorised law reports series include the Australian Law Reports and a range of specialist reports eg Administrative Law Decisions, Family Law Reports etc.
 

Find a case in Lexis Advance

  1. use the Quick Find pod > Cases area
  2. enter the citation into the Case Citation box eg 1993 1 Qd R 100
  3. in the results list, click on the linked citation to open the full case. Use 'Download Document' to view the PDF format.

Alternatively, enter party names into the Case Name box. Clicking on the case name or the CaseBase link displays research information about the case rather than the full text.

This database contains some case law from the United Kingdom and selected overseas jurisdictions, as identified by a flag icon.

CCH iKnowConnect (previously CCH IntelliConnect) includes various unauthorised subject specialised law reports series. For example:

  • Australian Company Law Cases
  • Australian Contract Reports
  • Australian Family Law Cases
  • Australian Torts Reports.

Some CCH report series include extracts of cases, as relevant to that field of law, rather than the full case.

AustLII is a free website that includes case law from all Australian jurisdictions (coverage varies). Many cases are in unreported format, although various historical law report series are included.

To find a case in AustLII:

  • enter a medium neutral citation into the 'Search all databases' box eg [2008] NSWSC 51. Include square brackets around the year.
  • search for the basic party names eg Harband v Prior. For popular names, select Titles only from the drop-down arrow beside the search box. Sort results by relevance, citation frequency, database, date or title.
  • browse cases by selecting a jurisdiction > court name > year. Search across individual courts using the 'search selected databases' box.
  • use advanced search options available via the search box drop-down arrow.

Not all cases are available on AustLII, particularly not recent reported case law and older unreported cases from state jurisdictions. Before citing unreported cases from AustLII, check if reported versions exist.

The Queensland Judgments website provides free access to the Queensland Reports series as well as an expanding collection of unreported Queensland cases.

The below video shows how to register for free access to the Queensland Reports and how to find case law on this website.

Optimised, 'Queensland Judgments - Getting Started' (Vimeo, 27 February 2018) <https://vimeo.com/257818068>.

Helpful features include:

  • case appeal history including symbols identifying pending appeals and appeal outcomes
  • a starring system, which identifies reported judgments, recent judgments selected for future reporting and notable unreported judgments. 

Occasionally, a unique unreported case decision may only be available via the below sources:

Search for a full law report series title in Library Search to view the Library's online and/or print availability.

Tip

Tip: criminal case names involving the Crown as a party may use The King/Queen or the abbreviation R representing the latin terms Rex/Regina. Use the alternative term if having difficulty locating this type of case by name.