To find a case by name, citation or subject use a case citator. Citators track a case's history and its treatment by subsequent courts, as well a providing links to relevant cases, legislation and secondary sources. Examples are:
Australian Cases
International Cases
Understanding all of the elements to a case citation is the first step to locating the report and understanding the court judgments. The table below will explain how to read the citation Mabo v Queensland [No 2] (1992)175 CLR 1 to locate the correct source:
| Mabo v Queensland | [No 2] | (1992) | 175 | CLR | 1 |
| Names of the principal parties.* | This number distinguishes this case from other with the same case name |
Year of the report | Volume number of the report | Abbreviation of the law report.** | First page of the case report. |
* The v is read as" and " in Australia
** CLR is the Commonwealth Law Reports.
| AGLC rule 2.3 (Unreported Decisions) | Number Name v Name [Year] Court abbreviation Judgement number, Pinpoint. |
Example
8 Glass v Commonwealth of Australia [2003] ACTCA 8, [7].
♦ Unreported case without a medium neutral citation
| AGLC rule 2.3 (Unreported Decisions) | Number Name v Name (Court, Judge(s), Day Month Year of Case) Pinpoint. |
Example
8 Ross v Chambers (Supreme Court of Northern Territory, Kriewaldt J, 5 April 1956) 77-8.
Medium-Neutral Citation ("MNC") or Neutral Citation, is a unique citation assigned for judgments or decisions by the Court or Tribunal. It is also part of the title of the judgment (having been allocated by the court at the time of delivering the judgment). According to the Federal Court of Australia, from 1 January 1999, all Federal Court judgments and decisions have an MNC. E.g. [1992] HCA 23
Noting Up: If you have used a case as an authority, it is necessary that you check whether the case has been subsequently overruled by the same or a 'higher' court in the hierarchy of courts. Originally came from actual reports being physically marked in the margins with references to later cases.
More Information:
Legal citations use abbreviations for publications and the courts themselves - For example, HCA for High Court of Australia and CLR for the Commonwealth Law Reports.
Find the official abbreviations for legal publications:
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Lexis+ is the new version of Lexis Advance, incorporating intuitive and powerful AI-features. It is a platform for Australian and New Zealand law material. Includes Halsbury's Laws of Australia, CaseBase, Australian Encyclopaedia of Forms & Precedents and LawNow Legislation.
Australian State and Territory Judgments on the web.
(Full text of judgments might not be available through these sources.)
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