Polly Peck Holdings Plc v Trelford [1986] 2 WLR 845

Square brackets enclosing the year in the Reported Case citation, indicates that the year of publication - 1986 - is also the volume number. This means that the Report is organised by year. In this example, you would need to locate the 1986 volume of the Weekly Law Reports in order to locate the Case if you looking for a print version of the case. When searching for cases online, you would need to include the year when you search. If more than one part is published in the year, they are identified with sequential part numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) In this example, the Case cited is published in the 2nd part for 1986. The part number is not unique, every year may have parts 1 and 2. The Law Reports are arranged on the Library shelves by year.

Wright v Grasweld P/L (1991) 22 NSWLR 317

Round brackets enclosing the year of publication indicate that the Case can be found, using the volume represented by the number 22 in the citation. This means that Report is organised by volume number.  In this example, volume 22 of the New South Wales Law Reports contains the Case.  The year of publication is also included in the citation, but the round brackets indicate that the year is secondary to the volume number. So you would need to look for the volume number, if you were to look for this case in our print collection. It isn't necessary to look for the year as well. If you were to use one of the Databases to look for the case, then you don't need to include the year in your search. The volume, Report abbreviation and the start page are enough (22 NSWLR 317). If more than one volume is published in a year, then each will have its own unique volume number. These kinds of Reports are arranged on the Library shelves by the volume number.

For more information on brackets, read this article: Legal Research tips: Square brackets versus round brackets.

Abbreviations in Case Titles

• "Re" - in the matter of
• "Ex parte" - is used for someone who is involved in the Case but is not a party, or someone who has made an application in the absence of other parties
• "R" - Rex or Regina. Latin for King or Queen. Used in cases pertaining to criminal law matters

For example: Re Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Ex parte Fejzullahu and Others (2000) 171 ALR 341

Rule 2.2 of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation specifies a citation format for Reported Judgments.

To reference Reported Cases, you will need to include the following elements in the citation: Case Name (Year) Volume Law Report Series Starting Page, Pinpoint. 

For more examples on this, have a look at our UWA AGLC4 Referencing Guide. 

The Unreported Judgment below, is an example of a medium neutral citation. The term medium neutral citation is a fancy way of saying a Court given citation. 

This method of citing Unreported Judgments was devised in the late 1990s, by the High Court of Australia, in order to accommodate the citation of Judgments, when they were first made available online. As these Judgments don't have page numbers, pinpoint references are managed by sequentially numbering all paragraphs in the online Judgment. All Unreported Judgments from the late 1990s are available online.

Example of a medium neutral Unreported Judgment citation:
Browne v Dunne [2000] HCA 23 at [4] 

Before 1999 Unreported Judgments were published as paper pamphlets and cited to reflect this format. In pre-1999 works you will see Unreported Judgments cited like this:

Example of a pre-1999 Unreported Judgment
Browne v Manning (Unreported, Supreme Court of Western Australia, Hawkins J, 3 September 1992) p. 23

For more information medium neutral citations, have a look at this article: Short and sharp - legal research tips what are and are not medium neutral citations?

Although there is debate about the precedent value of Unreported decisions, in practice and in academia, they are used if they contain the only statement of the law on a particular subject. 

Rule 2.3 of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, specifies a citation format for Unreported Judgments, that is slightly different from the standard legal citation format described above.

Medium Neutral Citation
Osborne [2001] VSCA 228 (Unreported, Winneke P, Buchanan and Vincent JJA, 14 December 2001) [18] (Winneke P)

Without Medium Neutral Citation (pre-1990s documents)
Bruinsma v Menczer (Unreported, Supreme Court of NSW, Santow J, 16 November 1995)

The UWA AGLC Referencing Guide offers more information on citing unreported judgments using the AGLC style.