Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• find Australian cases on the basis of case citations
• locate guides to legal abbreviations
• explain the difference between standard and medium-neutral case citations

What makes up a full case citation?

Standard case citations are intended to help readers to identify the exact case and the law report series in which the case was published. Full citations require the following information:

• the names of the parties
• the year of the decision
• the volume number of the relevant law report series
• the abbreviated title of the report series
• the first page of published case.

An example is: Australian Knitting Mills v Grant (1933) 50 CLR 387. This citation refers to an Australian case published in volume 50 of the Commonwealth Law Reports in 1933. The case begins at page 387.

In addition, citations sometimes include a specific page or paragraph number (this is known as a pinpoint reference): Australian Knitting Mills v Grant (1933) 50 CLR 418.

Abbreviations

A good guide to Australian legal abbreviations is often necessary when finding cases published in older and more obscure report series. A paper source for Australian legal abbreviations is Colin Fong and Edwards, A, Australian and New Zealand Legal Abbreviations 1995, Sydney: Australian Law Librarians Group.

Both CaseBase and First Point include useful list of legal abbreviations. A free alternative is the Guide to Uniform Production of Judgments, which contains many common abbreviations.

Year and volume numbers

Dates in citations can be a source of confusion. There is often a signficant delay between the date at which a decision is handed down and the appearance of the case in an authorised report series. This means that the dates which appear in case citations can be interpreted in different ways. In some series the volumes are numbered sequentially. When reference is made to a case published in such a series, the standard rule is that the year reference should be placed in round brackets. In such instances, the year is that in which the decision was handed down. If a report series identifies the volume by the year of publication alone, the standard rule is to place the year reference in square brackets. In such cases, the year in the citation is the year the case was published. If a case citation has been made in a non-standard manner, you may have difficulty finding the case.

Medium-neutral citation

The standard rule is to cite cases to the authorised report series. However, medium neutral citation styles are becoming increasingly popular. The High Court was the first Australian court to adopt medium neutral citations, and this example has set the trend across Australia. Most courts and tribunals now assign to their judgments a medium neutral citation which allows the case to be located in either printed or electronic form.

Medium neutral citations have this format:

• case name
• year of the decision
• abbreviation of the court name
• number of the decision
• date of the judgement

An example of this style is Australian Workers & Union v BHP Iron Ore Pty Ltd [2000] FCA 39 (31 January 2000)

Different courts have adopted variant styles in relation to standard and pinpoint citations. Further information on this topic is available from the Law Foundation of New South

Medium neutral citation is not intended to replace standard citation formats. Medium-neutral citations operate in conjuction with the standard format. If a judgment is reported in an authorised law report, the citation of the reported version should follow the medium neutral citation.

The New South Wales Law and Justice Foundation provides further information on the page LISC Recommended Standard for Medium Neutral Citations.

Citations to older unreported judgments

The older standard for unreported judgements was to include the following information:

• case name
• status (ie unreported)
• date of judgment
• court
• judge (or F.C. for full court)
• number assigned to the case (if any).

An example is this citation: Caltex Refining Co Pty Limited v The Amalgamated Metal Workers Union (unreported, FCA, FC, 6 December 1990, No FCA 483 of 1990).

Finding a case when you have incomplete information

Although a case citation should provide all the information required to locate a particular case, things are not always so simple. The unreported case referred to above provides an example. Although the Federal Court itself has cited this case as Caltex Refining Co Pty Limited v The Amalgamated Metal Workers Union, this is not strictly speaking the full name of the case. The full name is Re Caltex Refining Co Pty Limited and Caltex Oil (Australia) Pty Limited v Amalgamated Metal Workers Union and Ors. The reasons for abbreviating the case name are obvious, but finding the case from the short name alone is not as simple as it might be.

Fortunately, even if you have only the short or popular name of a case, there are a number of electronic and paper sources that can assist you to find the exact case. These include:

• AustLII. AustLII has a powerful Advanced Search function which permits Boolean searching across all AustLII's databases at once.
• Australian Case Citator. This paper source contains an alphabetical listing of all reported Australian cases from 1825.
• AustralianLegal Monthly Digest (ALMD). The AMLD contains a Cumulative Table of Cases. Check the latest issue for recent cases.
• Australian Current Law, Reporter This source includes a Consolidated Tables section, which contains a Cumulative Table of Cases listing cases alphabetically.
• Both CaseBase and the online version of the Australian Case Citator allow free text searches. This feature can be used to find cases on the basis of keywords from abbreviated or popular case names.

Summary

This module covered the following:

• finding Australian cases on the basis of case citations
• locating guides to legal abbreviations
• the difference between standard and medium-neutral case citations