Cases

Use the two major publisher platform databases below to search for cases. If you know the report series your case is in, you can use the Online Case Reports listing to go directly to the correct platform.

Rule 2 of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation ('AGLC') covers how to cite cases.

Legal decisions (case law) in Australia can be reported or unreported, and reported decisions can be in authorised or unauthorised forms.

Unreported decisions

Unreported decisions are those that have not been formally published in a report series. This may be because they are from a lower court, or because they are not considered legally significant. There is a time lag involved in reporting, so an unreported decision may become a reported decision in time. Unreported decisions are often still available in written form, particularly via court websites, or on Austlii or JADE (see links below).

Reported decisions

Reported decisions are decisions that have been published in a report series. Generally, cases will be published because they deal with significant points of law or establish new precedent. Report series can be either authorised or unauthorised.

An authorised report series is the official report series of record for a particular court or jurisdiction, given official approval by the judiciary. In each jurisdiction only one series is designated as the  authorised series. An authorised report should be cited in preference to an unauthorised report.

The current authorised report series for some of the most common jurisdictions you will encounter are listed below:

An unauthorised report series should be cited where no authorised series is available. A case may be published in an unauthorised series but not an authorised series because it is from a lower court, or because it is not considered as legally significant.

Hierarchy of citations

As set out in rule 2.2.2 of the AGLC, cases should be cited as follows:

• By preference, cite to the authorised report series
• If there is no authorised report series citation, cite an unauthorised report
• If there is no unauthorised report sereis, cite the unreported, medium neutral citation.

Finding authorised report series

If you know the report series you need but not the platform it is found on, you can use our Online Case Reports list to find the direct link to the report series. You can then search by citation to find the case itself. Current Australian authorised report series are indicated on this list with an asterisk.

For more help with legal abbreviations including law reports and law journal series:

A Case Citator is an essential tool for effective case research and is used extensively in legal practice. Case citators will give a summary of the important elements of a case including judicial consideration of a case, and legislation considered by a case. Some citators will allow for catchword or topic searching.