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Case Law: Case Lifecycle

This Guides provides information relating to Law Reports, Citations and Citators, how to look for specific Cases, using different methods. It also includes links to Databases, to enable you locate Australian Cases and Cases from other Jurisdictions.

Case Lifecycle

Before you explore Case Law in depth, let's explore the lifecycle of a Case and have a look at the journey a Case takes, before if becomes Reported somewhere!

Cases are heard in Courts and when a matter is finalised, in most instances, the text of the decision is usually published very quickly on the Court webpage. This means that the Judgment appears online first, on the respective Court website and allocated a medium neutral citation (a Court given citation). These Judgments are referred to as Unreported Judgments.

Here a few examples of Court websites: 

Soon afterwards, these Unreported Judgments are also made available in a variety of legal Databases, including AustLII, Lexis+ and Westlaw AU.

Although these decisions are "published", they are labelled Unreported Judgments, because they have not been published / reported, or put differently, reported in any Law Report Series. But down the track, an Unreported Judgment may subsequently be published / reported in one or more Law Report. This can happen if it is deemed important by the Judges or the Case changes a significant point of law. You will find out more about where a Case can be published in the tabs that follow!

So in terms the lifecycle of a Case, here are some 3 very important points:

  1. Cases are always born Unreported and ....
  2. They are “published” online first, by the Court (or Tribunal) on their respective website and then made available in Unreported Judgment Databases.
  3. If the Unreported Cases are deemed important enough by the Judges, they are then published / reported in a Law Report. Cases can even be published in several Law Reports! This will be developed further. 

Here is a diagram that illustrates the lifecycle of a case: 

(Fig 1. Images generated using Microsoft Edge's Copilot, powered by DALL·E from the prompt "can you create infographic that depicts the lifecycle of a case: a case is always born an unreported case and is “published” by the Court on the respective website first. if the case is deemed important enough by the judges, they are then published in one, or several Law Reporters.")

Now that you know more about the lifecycle of a case, continue reading to find out about Law Reports. 

(Please note: Decisions of lower Courts might not be published on their website. When this happens with cases heard in the Magistrate's Court of Western Australia, it is necessary to contact the Court, to obtain decisions).

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