How to Research Caselaw

On these pages we introduce you to researching cases, or decisions of courts. This requires an understanding of how cases are reported (or unreported), how to find if a case is still considered 'good law' and how to find cases by topic. The following legal resources and terminology will be explored, to assist you in understanding the case law research method.

• Case Citators and Digests
• Legal Encyclopaedias
• Law Reports
• Unreported Judgment

But firstly, a few rules on case citation.

Law Report Citation

The citation of law reports (the published decisions of courts) follows a basic format. Refer to the Australian Guide to Legal Citation for more detail.

• party names (always italicised)
• year of the decision in (round brackets), UNLESS there is no voume number to the law report series, in this case the year is in [square brackets]
• volume number of the report series
• abbreviated title of the report series
• page at which the judgment begin
  

Mabo v The State of Queensland [No.2] (1992) 175 CLR 1

Unreported Judgment Citation

Unreported judgments usually have a similar citation format except...

• following the party names, usually annotated with [Unreported, Name of Court]
• full date of judgment
• Court file number

Smith v Jones (Unreported, Supreme Court of South Australia, 1 January 1995, 5/1995)

Medium Neutral Citation

Medium neutral citations have been adopted by Australian courts and tribunals as the preferred form of citation for unreported judgments. The format of the citation makes it applicable to both printed and electronic versions of the judgment, hence it's designation as medium neutral, with paragraph numbering preferred to pagination.

Mahmood v State of Western Australia [2008] HCA 1
The citation is interpreted as judgment number 1 of 2008 from the High Court of Australia.

Northcape Properties Pty Ltd v District Council of Yorke Peninsula [2008] SASC 57
The citation is interpreted as judgment number 57 of 2008 from the South Australian Supreme Court.

Mahmood v State of Western Australia [2008] HCA 1; 82 ALJR 372; 241 ALR 606
When the judgment is reported (published), the citation of the reported version is to be cited following the medium neutral version.

A useful explanation of the medium neutral citation is set out by the New South Wales Law and Justice Foundation in their guides LISC Recommended Standard for Medium Neutral Citations. For more detail on the development of the medium neutral citation format see: Olsson (1999) Guide to Uniform Production of Judgments.