Finding Cases
This guide provides details for access to print and electronic versions of Australian cases and related materials.
Finding a known case
Example: Copperart Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation (Cth) (1994) 50 FCR 345
Here you are trying to locate a case starting with the full and correct citation.
The pieces of information that make up a citation are given here.
(1) the names of the principal parties in the case, Copperart Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation (Cth)
(2) the date of the report (1994)
(3) volume number, 50
(4) the abbreviation of the name of the law report series, FCR
(5) the first page of the report, 345
The first step for locating the case, in this example, is to find out what the abbreviation FCR stands for. The best starting point for abbreviations is a database available on the Legal Research web page [Legal Abbreviations Database].
Having established that FCR stands for Federal Court Reports and that the location number is REP 348.94 F292 proceed to the Law Reports collection on Level 2 of the Bundoora library.
In the above citation the year is added in round brackets to indicate it is not essential information, as this series of reports is numbered sequentially. Other series of reports do not have volume numbers, or start with volume 1 each year, and without the year, it would be impossible to find the case. As the year is the only means of identifying the correct volume, it must appear in square brackets. The following example illustrates the use of square brackets.
Morley v Statewide Tobacco Services Ltd [1993] 1 VR 423
Finding a case without the full or correct citation
Example: Find the Breen and Williams case
Here you are trying to locate a case without knowing the full citation to the case.
Clearly, the above citation is missing important pieces of information, like in which set of law reports the case can be found, and the volume and page numbers where the case is located.
However, if you know the names of the parties it is usually possible to find the case.
A good starting point is to use a case citator. CaseBase is an online service via LexisNexisAU.
Figure 1: Extract from CaseBase showing alternate citations
Note that sometimes (as in this example) the same case is reported in more than one set of law reports. A copy of the case can be found in the Commonwealth Law Reports, the Australian Law Reports, the Australian Law Journal Reports etc.
Is the case available online?
In a short space of time, the legal publishers have made their sets of law reports available online. See Online Case Law which lists the major sets of law reports are available online. You will see that both the CLRs and the ALRs are available online. This means, if we follow the Breen and Williams example above, that we can find an online version of 186 CLR 71 and an online version of 138 ALR 259, but not an online version of 70 ALJR 772.
Cases, when they are first handed down, are referred to as unreported judgments. Unreported judgments can be obtained from AustLII, from the LexisNexisAU Unreported Judgments database and via Westlaw.
If a case has been decided there is a strong preference by courts (and your lecturers) for use of the reported version rather than the unreported version. Of course, for recent cases that have not been reported you must rely on the AustLII version.
Finding if a case has been judicially considered
Example: Has the Breen and Williams case been applied in any later cases?
Here you are trying to trace the history of a case.
It is always worth knowing if judges have applied the reasoning in later, more recent cases. This type of research is sometimes called noting up. Basically it involves finding later cases which have referred to the earlier case. This technique is a useful method (but not the only one) for finding cases on similar subject matter. CaseBase can be used for this purpose.
Figure 2: Extract from CaseBase showing judicial consideration
Finding legislation judicially considered
Example: Have there been any cases on sections 464A-H of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) ?
Here you are trying to find cases using an Act as a starting point.
There are many ways to approach this question but one of the most productive approaches is to use CaseBase. CaseBase covers both reported decisions and unreported decisions, and allows you to search for references to legislation.
Format for search: "crimes act" and 464a
Note: The search is not case sensitive and the search is 464a not s464a
You could also use the Australian Digest (in print), and the updating service the Australian Legal Monthly Digest. Both services have a legislation table which allows you to locate reported cases on a specific section of an act. These services cover reported decisions only.
Finding journal articles that discuss a case
Example: Are there any case notes on the Breen and Williams case?
Here you are trying to locate journal articles about a specific case.
CaseBase includes references to journal articles about a specific case.
Figure 3: Extract from CaseBase showing journal articles
Another useful source for finding journal articles about a case is AGIS Plus Text. Use one (or both) of the parties as a search term. The following extract from AGIS shows the first few records.
Figure 4: AGIS record