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Many decisions are made by courts and tribunals each day. The decisions that are made, transcribed and released are called judgments. See our Judgments page for more information.
Select judgments are published in law reports series depending on the significance of the decision, for example, if the judgment changes the law or provides a new perspective on a particular point of law.
The following table describes the difference between reported and unreported judgments and authorised and unauthorised law reports:
Judgment |
Access |
---|---|
Authorised
|
|
Reported
|
|
Unreported
|
|
Court |
Subscription Resources |
Free Resources |
If you haven't found what you're looking for... |
---|---|---|---|
Supreme Court of Victoria |
Lexis Advance (1968- ) Westlaw AU (1999- ) Capital Monitor (1997- ) |
Law Library of Victoria Catalogue (1950- ) AustLII (1994- ) JADE (1998-) |
Contact the Law Library of Victoria for assistance via llv@courts.vic.gov.au. If the judgment still cannot be located the next step may be the request of records from the following locations: Civil Pre 1989
Civil 1990 to Current
Criminal Pre 1989
Criminal 1990 to 2000
Please note for some services a fee may occur. |
Supreme Court of Appeal |
Lexis Advance (1980- ) Westlaw AU (1998- ) Capital Monitor (1998- ) |
Law Library of Victoria Catalogue (1998- ) AustLII (1998-) JADE (1998- ) |
Contact the Law Library of Victoria for assistance via llv@courts.vic.gov.au. If the judgment still cannot be located the next step may be the request of records from the following locations: Civil Pre 1989
Civil 1990 to Current
Criminal Pre 1989
Criminal 1990 to 2000
Please note for some services a fee may occur. |
County Court of Victoria | Lexis Advance has a small selection of County Court decisions |
AustLII (selected decisions only, 1993- ) JADE (2003- ) |
For decisions from 1988 to current, contact the County Court Publications Manager via information.services@countycourt.vic.gov.au In the email state the name of the person requesting decision and a brief description why the decision is required (e.g. barrister from XXXXX firm has another case on similar point of law). Not all decisions from the County Court are available on request. Distribution is at the discretion of the Judge who heard the matter. Additional information can viewed via www.countycourt.vic.gov.au/case-information |
Magistrates' Court of Victoria | There are currently no subscription databases which contain Magistrates' Court decisions |
AustLII (2006- ) JADE (2006 - ) |
The Magistrates’ Court has a small hard copy collection 1992 - 2013. Email the Law Library of Victoria via llv@courts.vic.gov.au to arrange a search of this collection. Not every case heard in the Magistrates’ Court has a judgment written, and transcripts may be the only option. Additional information can be viewed via www.mcv.vic.gov.au/going-court/document-and-recordings |
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) |
Lexis Advance (2002- ) Westlaw AU (1998- ) Capital Monitor (2007- ) |
VCAT (contains a selection of high profile decisions only, 2012- ) AustLII (1998- ) JADE (contains a limited coverage prior to 2009, 2014- ) |
For decisions from 1 July 1998 to present day, use the ‘Contact us’ page of the VCAT website to arrange a search of the Register. Fees apply. Oral decisions are not published. Decisions that are subject to an anonymisation order or where publication is prevented by a legislative requirement are published in a de-identified manner. Unreported decisions require permission for release from the Heads of Division. |
For more information about case law research and the Australian court system see the Melbourne University Australian Case Law Research Guide.
For more information about judgments and the conventions for citing them, see the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (published by the University of Melbourne) and the Court Cases in Australia Guide (published by the State Library of Victoria).