Authorised Reports
Before cases are published, some law report series are checked for accuracy by the judges - these are known as the Authorised Reports.
Courts require the most authorised reported version of a case be cited, so it is good practice to follow this now during your studies.
- Where a case/judgment has been reported in a number of law report series (and has parallel citations), the authorised report series takes precedence over other report series - this authorised reported version must be cited.
- If your case/judgment has only been reported in an unauthorised report series, this version should be cited.
- Only cite an unreported case if it does not appear in any reported series (authorised / unauthorised), and then preferably using the medium neutral citation assigned by the Court.
See below for a list of authorised reports and details of unauthorised law report series.
Reported / Unreported Cases
Common Law precedent requires authoritative reporting of decisions that can be referred to by lawyers involved in later cases. Councils of Law Reporting were set up to select and publish in authorised report series. Judgments that set some precedent or raise a significant point of law are generally chosen to be reported in the authorised series.
Australian publishers of report series (* denotes an Authorised report series)
- Westlaw This link opens in a new window
| Abbreviation | Title |
| AAR | Administrative Appeals Reports |
| A Crim R | Australian Criminal Reports |
| ALJR | Australian Law Journal Reports |
| CLR | Commonwealth Law Reports * |
| FCR | Federal Court Reports * |
| FLR | Federal Law Reports |
| IR | Industrial Reports * |
| LGERA | Local Government and Environmental Reports of Australia |
| NTLR | Northern Territory Law Reports * |
| SASR | South Australian State Reports * |
| SR (WA) | State Reports (WA) |
| Tas R | Tasmanian Reports * |
| WAR | Western Australian Reports * |
| Unreported judgments | |
- Lexis+ (previously Lexis Advance) This link opens in a new window
| Abbreviation | Title |
| ALD | Administrative Law Decisions * |
| All ER | All England Law Reports |
| ACTLR | Australian Capital Territory Law Reports * |
| ACLR | Australian Company Law Reports |
| ACSR | Australian Corporations & Securities Reports |
| ALR | Australian Law Reports |
| Fam LR | Family Law Reports |
| IPR | Intellectual Property Reports |
| MVR | Motor Vehicle Reports |
| NSWLR | New South Wales Law Reports * |
| NZLR | New Zealand Law Reports * |
| NTR | Northern Territory Reports |
| QCLLR | Queensland Crown Lands Law Reports |
| QR / Qd R | Queensland Reports * |
| VR | Victorian Reports * |
| Unreported judgments | |
- CCH iKnowConnect (previously CCH IntelliConnect) This link opens in a new window
| Abbreviation | Title |
| ANZ Ins Cas | Australian and New Zealand Insurance Cases |
| ANZ ConvR | Australian and New Zealand Conveyancing Reports |
| Australian Child Support Cases | |
| ACLC | Australian Company Law Cases |
| Australian Competition and Consumer Cases | |
| Australian Consumer Credit Law Cases | |
| Australian Consumer Sales and Credit Law Cases | |
| Australian Contract Law Cases | |
| Australian De facto Relationship Cases | |
| Australian Equal Opportunity Cases | |
| Australian Family Law Cases | |
| Australian Family Law Western Australian Cases | |
| Australian GST Cases | |
| AILR | Australian Industrial Law Reports |
| Australian Industrial Property Cases | |
|
AIPC |
Australian Intellectual Property Cases |
| Australian Medical Liability Leading Cases | |
| Australian Personal Property Securities Cases | |
| Australian Sales and Fair Trading Law Cases | |
| Australian Social Security Cases | |
| Australian Superannuation Cases | |
|
ATC |
Australian Tax Cases |
| Australian Torts Cases | |
| Australian Uniform Evidence Law Cases | |
| Australian Work Health and Safety Law Cases | |
| AWCR | Australian Workers Compensation Review |
| New South Wales Conveyancing Law Cases | |
| New South Wales Strata and Community Titles Cases | |
| Queensland Conveyancing Law Cases | |
| V Conv R | Victorian Conveyancing Law Cases |
Many cases from the courts are not published in a law report series - these are Unreported Cases.
Since 1997, unreported cases are recognisable by the use of medium neutral citation. This citation is assigned by the court and includes the year of hearing, unique court identifier and a judgment number.
An unreported (medium neutral) citation should only be used when a case has not been included in a reported series.
Unreported cases are available via court websites (below), AustLII, Jade and via ECU's legal database subscriptions.
Federal Courts
- High Court of Australia
- Federal Court of Australia
- Family Court of Australia
- Federal Magistrates Court
State Courts
- Supreme Court of Western Australia
- District Court of Western Australia
- Queensland Judgments - almost complete and up-to-date unreported judgments of the Supreme Court of Queensland (from 2002)
- State Administrative Tribunal - decisions bulletins
- Gateway to other Australian Courts and Tribunals
Note: Some cases are not made available for various reasons, this could be due to suppression orders (especially in criminal cases) or other reason. Some courts and tribunals do not publish decisions in any way, e.g. the Magistrates Court decisions of WA are not published. You may be able to request a transcript of a hearing where no decision is published but generally you will have to be a party to the matter.