You are encouraged to look your Australian Cases up in Case citators. There are 2 Australian Case citators: one provided by Westlaw AU and the other is provided by Lexis+. There is also a freely available one.

This part of the Case Law Guide includes information on the various Case citators that are available. Continue reading to find out more!

Let's have a look at Westlaw AU first. Their built in Case citator, Keycite, will help you determine:​

1. All of the citation details for a Case - see red box 
2. If the Case has been Reported in more than one series of Reports - see red box
3. Whether the Case has been Reported in an Authorised Law Report Series - see red box
4. Whether any later Cases have considered the Case - see red arrow 1
5. Which earlier Cases were used by the Case, as authorities - see green arrow
6. If journal articles have considered the Case - see red arrow 2
7. If the Case has considered Legislation - there is no example here, but if any legislation is considered by a Case, the information will appear in the "Citing References" section, or the text of the Case. 

Westlaw AU will also offer links to the full text of the Judgment if it is available from the publisher of the citator. See blue arrow. For this Case, it is recommended to access the CLR version, as this is the most Authorised version. 

They also provide Case treatment annotations. Annotations help you understand more about the history of a Case and whether it is still considered good law - see yellow arrow. 

Let's have a look at Lexis+. Their built in Case citator, CaseBase, will help you determine:​

1. All of the citation details for a Case - see red box 
2. If the Case has been reported in more than one series of reports - see red box
3. Whether the Case has been reported in an Authorised Law Report Series - see red arrow
4. Whether any later Cases have considered the Case - see blue arrow 
5. Which earlier Cases were used by the Case, as authorities - see green arrow
6. If journal articles have considered the Case - see yellow arrow
7. If the Case has considered Legislation - see black arrow. 

This Case citator also offer links to the full text of the Judgment if it is available from the publisher of the citator. See red arrow. In this example, the publisher only provides access to the ALR version. Top tip: the ALR version is not the most authorised version of this case. The CLR version is and this is the version that should be cited in an essay. As we have found out above, you can access the full text CLR version from Westlaw AU, as Westlaw AU publishes the Commonwealth Law Reports! So, it is always recommended to look up Cases in both Databases, as the legal publishers publish different Reporters. For more information on citing Cases have a look at our UWA AGLC4 Referencing Guide.  

The CaseBase citator also provides case treatment annotations. Annotations help you understand more about the history of a Case and whether it is still considered good law - see green box. 

For more information on these annotations please see this page from the online book Legal Research Skills: An Australian Law Guide: 2024 Edition (compliments of University of Queensland Law Library, James Cook University, the University of Southern Queensland, Charles Darwin University, Southern Cross University, Queensland University of Technology, Deakin University and University of South Australia).

CaseBase (Lexis+)
Australian Reported and Unreported Judgments 1825+ and some International Cases. CaseBase Journal Articles offers references to consideration of Cases in journal articles. To link to leading UK Cases cited in CaseBase go to Thomson Reuters Westlaw (International Materials > Cases > United Kingdom) and Lexis+ for the All England Law Reports. The Publisher made video below, provides an overview of the CaseBase Case Citator. 

KeyCite (Westlaw AU) 
KeyCite is Westlaw's built in citator. You can use it to view Case particulars such as party names, judges, date etc. You can also use it to ascertain treatment of Judgments, to see if a Case still represents good law! It can also be used to see what Legislation has been considered by a Case. You may also gain access to other citing references, such as Cases and secondary sources that discuss a Case. It can provide links to the full text Unreported Judgements, as well as Authorised and Unauthorised Law Reports and availability depends on what they publish. This Westlaw AU Guide, provides an overview on KeyCite. You can also watch this video for more information. [Please note, when you click the icon, you will be directed to Westlaw AU's Training and Support webpage. To watch the video, click the white play button]. 

LawCite (AustLII) 
Australian and International Cases. LawCite is an automatically generated International legal Case and journal article citator. It is being developed at AustLII in collaboration with other members of the Free Access to Law Movement

Useful Fact: Case citators don’t search across the full text of a Case. They search the data in the citator record or summary of the Case, including citation, party names, jurisdiction, court and judge.