For information on how to use all of UNE's online legal tools, look at Online Legal Research at UNE. For hints and tutorials on how to write in a legal style, try Writing Skills for Law, from the UNE Academic Skills Office. For your referencing style you are expected to use the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd).

Below you will discover which Law Reports are available online and how to find your cases in LexisNexis Legal, LexisNexis AU (Butterworths), CCH Online and AustLII, and what to try if a case is not online.

LexisNexis Legal

You will find online Law Reports for the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (and much more) in LexisNexis Legal. The series you need for LS 371 that can be accessed here include:

United Kingdom
All England Law Reports (All ER) from 1558
Law Reports, Appeal Cases 3rd series (AC) from 1890
Law Reports, Appeal Cases 2nd series (App Cas) from 1875-1890
Law Reports, Chancery Division 3rd series (Ch) from 1875
Law Reports, Chancery Division 2nd series (Ch D) from 1865-1875
Law Reports, King's Bench (KB) from 1865
Law Reports, Queen's Bench (QB) from 1865
Australian
Australian Law Reports (ALR) from 1973
Victorian Reports (VR) from 1957 to the end of August 1996

Because LexisNexis Legal is so big, the way to search it is to select your source first and then search within that source.

Use the Internet and go to the Law Databases at http://www.une.edu.au/library/resources/guides/law/databases.php.
Add the Law Databases to your 'Favorites' to make it easier to find them again.
Enter your UNE username and password if prompted.
Choose 'LexisNexis Legal' from the list.
Here is a UK example for finding a QB report, but it will work the same way for your other UK cases.
Make sure the 'Look for a Source' tab is on 'Legal'.
Scroll down the page until you see 'Find Laws by Country or Region' on the right hand side of the screen.
Click on the link underneath called 'United Kingdom' and then on 'Case Law'.
Lastly click on 'UK Cases, Combined Courts' to select it as your source.
Use the small 'i' to see exactly what is in each source if you are not sure which one to choose.
Make sure the 'Terms and Connectors' radio button is on.
If you are looking for a particular case then the best method is to type the following into the search box:
name (carlill and carbolic)
This will find the case itself quickly and excludes the cases that have cited Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.
If you have the exact citation then you can use it instead of the case names. This is also useful if you have an incorrect party name. Try, for example,
cite (1953 2 all er 1021)
to find White v John Warrick & Co Ltd.
To find Australian material follow this pathway:
Legal > Find Laws by Country or Region > Australia > Case law > Australian Commonwealth, State & Territory Case Law
Use the same techniques as for the UK cases and type, for example, either name (popiw) or cite (1983 48 alr 620).
You will be able to read your documents on screen in HTML.
To print or download a document click on the 'Print'or 'Download' links at the top right of your screen.
You can also email reports to yourself in text or HTML.
Help is available at the top right of the LexisNexis screen.

LexisNexis AU (Butterworths)

UNE subscribes to a number of online products through LexisNexis AU (Butterworths) but only one series of Law Reports, the New South Wales Law Reports (NSWLR). They are available in PDF format from 1971.

Go to the Law Databases and select 'LexisNexis AU (Butterworths)' from the list.
Click on 'Search' next to 'New South Wales Law Reports' underneath the 'General Search Sources' for 'Cases/Legislation' near the bottom of the screen.
Alternatively, click on the red 'Cases' tab at the top left of the LexisNexis AU (Butterworths) Home page.
Then use the pull-down arrow in the 'Sources' area to choose 'New South Wales Law Reports' as your source.
The easiest way to find the report of a specific case is to use the 'Case/Article Name' search box. For example, try typing
coal and sijehama
and click on the red Search button (with the small torch) to the top right of the screen.
Alternatively, if you have the citation use the 'Citation' box to type
1989 16 nswlr 582
to find Austotel Pty Ltd v Franklins Selfserve Pty Ltd.
You will be able to read the Law Report on screen in HTML.
To read, print or save the PDF version of the Law Report click on the small 'PDF' icon next to the brief citation at the top left of the screen.
If you want to see the CaseBase entry for the case then click on the CaseBase signal next to the 'PDF' icon.
You can print your results in HTML format (as a web page), email yourself an attachment (Word, HTML or RTF) or save (Word, HTML or RTF) using the 'Print', 'Email' or 'Save' icons on the LexisNexis AU (Butterworths) toolbar.
For in-context Help use the hints on the right hand side of the screen or for the complete Help manual click on 'Help' at the top right of the LexisNexis AU (Butterworths) screen.
When you have finished using LexisNexis AU (Butterworths) click on 'Sign Out' at the top right of the screen.

CCH Online

UNE subscribes to some of the online full-text libraries offered by CCH Australia, including:

Australian Master Tax Guides (Archived)	Superannuation Law
Corporate News Archive	Tax Bills Annual Archive
Corporations Law	Tax Library (including the most recent Australian Master Tax Guide)
Family Law Library	Tax Week Archive
Fringe Benefits Tax Guide	Torts Law Library
GST & Sales Tax Guide	Trade Practices Library
Industrial Law Library

Australian Trade Practices Reports are one of the reports series available.

Go to the Law Databases and select CCH Online from the list.
Choose the Library and 'book'.
For example, Trade Practices Library and Trade Practices Cases.
Use the pull-down menu to choose 'Case Name' as the 'Search Form' instead of 'Inside All Text'.
In the new 'Search' box that pops up type
britt and miller
and click on 'Search'.
If you have the case citation (2000) ATPR ¶41-776 then choose 'Case citation' instead of 'Case Name' and try
41-776
Your results from any of these searches are displayed as a series of hits on the left hand side.
Click on the name of the case to bring up the text on the right hand side.
To print or save a document, click the 'Print Mode' button and it will then say 'Print Mode On'.
Put a tick in the box/es next to the document/s name.
Then click on the brown 'Print to PDF' button.
Use the Save or Print icons on the Acrobat toolbar to retrieve your document/s.
Logging out is not required when you have finished using CCH Online.

AustLII

UNE has a print subscription to the authorised Commonwealth Law Reports. If you want to request a photocopy from this series then use the request forms from External Students' Library Services. However, AustLII (Australasian Legal Information Institute) has online cases and selected reported and unreported decisions of the High Court of Australia from 1903. Judgments are generally available within 24 hours of being handed down.

The official High Court Home page is at http://www.hcourt.gov.au and High Court Cases are hosted on AustLII at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/high_ct/. The cases do not not contain headnotes, catchwords or parts of the hearing details which are subject to LBC Information Services copyright (LBC is the publisher of the CLRs). Catchwords for decisions are provided by the Court from 1996.

AustLII also has cases from the Federal Court at http://www.austlii.edu.au/forms/search1.html?meta=/au&method=title&mask=au/cases/cth/federal_ct. Reports begin on 1st February 1977.

Here are some hints on how to search AustLII:

Go to the Law Databases and select AustLII.
Click on the link [Advanced Search] underneath the search box at the top of the AustLII Home page.
You can select the AustLII database you want to search. Choose 'All case law databases' or 'Commonwealth: All cases'.
In the 'Find' box choose 'this case name' instead of the default 'this Boolean query'.
As an example type whitlock v brew into the 'Enter search query' box and click on 'Search'.
If you don't get any results it could be that you haven't entered the case names exactly as AustLII has listed them.
If this happens try 'this Boolean query' instead of 'this case name'. You will have more results, but hopefully the actual case appears somewhere near the top of the list.
Or, as you have the citation it would be quicker to find the case using this phrase. For example, if you type
1965 114 CLR 481
you will discover that AustLII has this case as Sydney Corporation v West and not as Council of the City of Sydney v West.
The AustLII Law Reports are in HTML format (web pages).

Can't find a case online?

If you don't find the case you want online in the above databases then there are still some strategies you can use. You can look in the UNE catalogue, use CaseBase or check in eReserve.

UNE Library Catalogue

The Library catalogue tells you which Law Reports and journals are held at UNE, both in print and online. Here are two examples:

Look in our catalogue and try a Title or Journal Title search for WLR
There is only one entry and it indicates to you that UNE only holds the Weekly Law Reports in print (not online) from 1953. If you want a report from within these date ranges then ask for a photocopy using the request forms from External Students' Library Services.
While Law tends to use abbreviations for the titles of law reports and journals the catalogue does not always list these.
You may need to use the full titles. Try the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations at http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/ if you don't know what the proper titles are.
The catalogue will also tell you if UNE holds a Law Report series online.
Try a search for australian law reports and you will see two entries.
The first one tells you we hold the ALRs in print from Vol. 1 (1973).
The second one says [electronic resource] after the title.
When you click on it the record tells you that the ALRs are available online in full-text in LexisNexis Legal.
Click on the URL (web address) provided and it will select the ALRs as the source.
Alternatively, from the LexisNexis Legal home page scroll down and click on 'Find Laws by Country or Region' near the bottom right.
Click on 'Australia', then 'Case Law' and finally on 'Australian Commonwealth, State & Territory Case Law'.
You can then search for a particular case using the hints above.

The Law Reports series for LS 371 available as print subscriptions or not held by UNE include:

Best & Smith's Queen's Bench Reports: B&S
Common Bench Reports, New Series: CN (NS)
English Reports: ER ***Please note, as of March 2007 these are available through HeinOnline
New South Wales State Reports: SR (NSW)
South Australian State Reports: SASR
Victorian Law Reports: VLR
Weekly Law Reports: WLR

CaseBase

If you can't find a particular case online or in print, or the party names or citation are incorrect then CaseBase is a very useful tool.

CaseBase is a citator and annotator that covers more than sixty Australian and overseas Law Reports titles. It also cites unreported decisions of the High Court, the Federal Court and all Australian Supreme Courts. As a bonus, CaseBase also indexes around 100 legal journals so you can find references to articles about some of the cases.

UNE's subscription to CaseBase does not contain full-text case reports (except for NSW Law Reports) or journal articles. Its job is to tell you where specific case decisions or journal articles are published. If you want to then find a particular reference or citation then use the catalogue to search for the cited Title of the Law Report or Journal.

Go to the Law Databases and bookmark the page (add to your Favorites) if you haven't already done so.
Select CaseBase Cases from the list.
You should now see a CaseBase search template with lots of options.
If a CLR is not available (or you can't find it on AustLII) you can use CaseBase to find out the ALR equivalent.
In the 'Case/Article Name' box, type the party names
waltons and maher
Join the party names using the Boolean operator AND because 'v' will not give you results.
CaseBase will tell you that Waltons Stores (Interstate) Ltd v Maher is reported in (1988) 164 CLR 387 and that the equivalent report is (1988) 76 ALR 513. The ALRs are online in LexisNexis Legal from 1973.
Let's say you can't find a case using a party name but you have the citation details.
Use the CaseBase 'Citation' search box. For example, type
1910 10 CLR 674
and you will see that the party name used is different to your citation.
You could then go to AustLII and find the case using goldsbrough mort instead of goldsborough mort.
As CaseBase also looks at UK Law Reports you can find out where else a particular case is reported.
For example, UNE only has Weekly Law Reports (WLR) in print, but if you do a 'Case/Article Name' search for
oscar chess
you will find out that an equivalent report to [1957] 1 WLR 370 is [1957] 1 All ER 325 and the All ERs are available online in LexisNexis Legal.
This also works for Tweddle v Atkinson where [1861-73] All ER Rep 369 is an alternative to (1861) 1 B & S 393.
When you have finished using LexisNexis AU (Butterworths) click on 'Sign Out' at the top right of the screen.

eReserve

eReserve contains items that your lecturers would like you to read. Usually they are journal articles, but sometimes cases that are not available online are scanned and put into e-reserve. An example is Slade's Case : Slade v Morley (1602) 4 CoRep 91a; 76 ER 1072.

Go to the University Library at http://www.une.edu.au/library/ and click on eReserve at the top left.
You will usually be asked to enter your UNE username and password.
If your enrolled units have materials in e-reserve you will see the relevant unit code buttons at the top of the screen.
You can also search e-reserve by Unit Co-ordinator, Unit Code or article Title/Author.
Click on 'L' and scroll down until you see LS 371 and click on the button to view the items there.
Click on a title to gain access.
Each document has a Copyright Statement before you can view it and is in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, available for free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

Referencing

When you use material written by other people for your assignments, it is important to acknowledge their work and use the correct style. Click here for more information about referencing and plagiarism. The UNE School of Law requires the use of the Australian legal referencing system found in the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd ed).

Library staff are happy to help you. Phone 02 6773 2322 during Law Library opening hours or Ask a Librarian online.

Global UNE Links:

University Library

Related sections:

Sub sections:

LS 371 Law of Contract I: How to find your cases