Case Law
Natalie Wieland
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Overview of case law including:
◦ Search techniques
◦ Online citators
 Casebase (LexisNexisAU)
 FirstPoint (Legal Online)
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Case citation
Abbreviations
Full text databases
Authorised reports
Finding relevant research guide
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What is a case citator
How to use Firstpoint and CaseBase to
find
◦ a case when you know the party name
◦ a case that refers to legislation
◦ cases on a topic of law
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How to find full text decisions
Understanding authorised and
unauthorised citations
Finding legal definitions
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Law Library Home Page
◦ Law Library Research Guides
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Law Library Information Desk
Consultation with Legal Research Skills
Adviser – make appointments through
Student Services or Masters Office
Links concepts and words into search statement
AND – finds records containing both words (limits)
OR – finds records containing either one word or the
other, as well as both (broadens search)
NOT – to exclude a word or phrase
“ “ quotation marks = search as a phrase
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Truncation to find all possible endings or
alternative spellings (Help or Search Tips)
◦ symbol* finds symbol, symbols, symbolic,
symbolism etc.
◦ In LexisNexisAu and Westlaw Au you need to use !
Eg. Negl! To find negligence, negligent,
negligently.
◦ wom*n will find women and woman.
◦ colo*r will find occurrences of colour and color and
organi*ation will find both organisation and
organization.
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Indexes and full text databases require the use of
different search techniques
Most databases allow the user to search individual
fields
Be aware of the content of the database – you can’t
find what isn’t there.
Remember to use Boolean operators: AND OR
NEAR NOT ()
Use proximity operators in full text databases E.g.
/p w/10 SUMMARY()
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What is the purpose of case citators?
◦ provide the correct citation for a case
◦ record if the case has been reported in several report
series
◦ track what has happened to the case by providing a
list of any cases that refer to the main case
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Casebase (online citator) -LexisNexisAU
First Point (online citator) – Westlaw Au
LawCite (online and international)
JustCite (UK)
Ref: Legal Research Guide Case Law
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Each reported case has a unique citation which
identifies the law report in which the case has been
published. There are well-established rules and
conventions about how cases are cited.
The following details are necessary for the full
citation of judgments:
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names of parties
date or volume number, or both
abbreviated name of report series
beginning page of case
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Authorised and unauthorised reports – these rules are
available on the library website under Legal ResearchResearch and tools
Court
Authorised
series
Abbreviation
High Court of
Australia
Commonwealth
Law Reports
CLR
Federal Court of Federal Court
Australia
Reports
FCR
Victorian
Supreme Court
VR’s
Victorian
Reports
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An Australian case citator
◦ Also some coverage of NZ and UK
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Has a record for each judgment it indexes
It is a database designed to allow users to locate
judgments and information about those judgments
It does not contain the text of judgment. It has
links to the judgments themselves where they are
available on other LNAU databases.
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Using CaseBase we will find:
◦ Cole v South Tweed Heads Rugby League Football
Club Ltd (2004) 217 CLR 469;
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By citation
Party name
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146 CLR 40
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By subject
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Scott and CAL
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By section of an Act
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“contributory
negligence”
By definition
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Victims of Crime
Assistance Act 1996 (Vic)
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“duty of care”
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An Australian case citator
Has a record for each judgment it indexes
It is a database designed to allow users to
locate judgments and information about
those judgments
It does not contain the text of judgment. It
has links to the judgments themselves where
they are available on other Westlaw Au
databases.
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Using FirstPoint we will find:
◦ Cole v South Tweed Heads Rugby League Football
Club Ltd (2004) 217 CLR 469
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By citation
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146 CLR 40
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Party name
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Scott and CAL
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By subject
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“contributory
negligence”
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By section of an Act
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Victims of Crime
Assistance Act 1996 (Vic)
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“duty of care”
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By definition
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Law Library Home Page – legal research –
services and tools:
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Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
Guide to citation - AGLC
Law Library holdings list
Casebase list
Encyclopaedic Australian Legal Dictionary - available
on LexisNexisAU
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LexisNexisAU
◦ ALR etc in reports folder and unreported judgments
Legal Online
◦ CLRs, etc in reports folder and unreported
judgments
AustLII free online gateway
◦ Cases from courts
◦ Immediately available as “unreported”
Lexis, Westlaw & Justis
◦ UK, US cases
Authorised Reports preferred e.g. CLRs (see link at
Services and Tools page from Law Library homepage)
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We are looking for a case we have read about
in the news.
The crown argued that an aboriginal
womanTopsy Kundrilba, had given her
informed consent to her son's removal from
Utopia Station to St Mary's Hostel
You need to search unreported judgments
not a case citator
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After using a citator to find a citation for a
case, you may find that the full text of the
case is not available on line. In this case
there’s an extra step involved – you will need
to find the case in a paper law report series
located on level 4 of the Law Library. The
citation will assist you in identifying the
series. Use the Holdings List to locate series.
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Primarily a case citator
◦ Provides full case citation
 details of subsequent cases
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Links to full text cases published by
LexisNexisAU
Very useful for finding journal articles on
cases.
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Also a case citator
Similar in content and coverage to Casebase
Provides links to full text cases published by
Lawbook including Commonwealth Law
Reports (CLR)
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Sometimes the case citators are not enough.
You need to refer to the full text databases.
But you will then need to refer to a case
citator to get most authorised version and
establish what has happened since.
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Refer to the Law Library Home Page
Ask at the Law Library Information Desk
Attend additional classes
Refer to the Library Research Guide