1. LPAB – Understanding Legal Language and Legislation – Legal Research Classes – Friday 17th June 2016 and Friday 29th July 2016
Session Coverage
General legal research revision
Finding cases and journal articles
Legal citation
Researching legislation

2. What do law firms think of the legal research skills of graduates???

3. “Research skills of grads are very poor
“Research skills of grads are very poor. I find I have to take them right back to basics including how case law works and how legislation comes into existence.”

4. “ They tend to rely on Google and AustLII - no sense of the availability of journal articles, loose-leaf commentary, seminal textbooks etc.”

5. “. a lack of hands on experience with legislation
“...a lack of hands on experience with legislation.... they don't understand how to read notes tables”
“They can find cases but still get confused by medium neutral citations.”

6. “While Google is popular so is Wikipedia
“While Google is popular so is Wikipedia. I even saw a Federal Court case, where the lawyers had done their research on Wikipedia.”

7. “They can be very gung-ho and announce they know everything about legal research - everything's on LexisNexis right?”

8. Interpreting a case citation
Swain v Waverley Municipal Council
(2005) 220 CLR 517; [2005] HCA 4

9. Interpreting a case citation
Two main types of case citation
Law report citation
Medium neutral citation (court)
Swain v Waverley Municipal Council
(2005) 220 CLR 517 – law report
[2005] HCA 4 – medium neutral

10. Steps for Finding cases:
What is the abbreviation??
(see Law Library > Law Subject Guide > Legal Research > Legal Abbreviations)
Australian or UK or other??
Law report or medium neutral citation

11. Steps for Finding cases (cont):
Law Report: Law Databases – Law Reports A to Z
Medium Neutral Citation
Law Databases – Cases - AustLII
UK case - Law Databases – Cases – ICLR Online

12. CaseBase and FirstPoint
To obtain extra information about a case
To find cases by subject

13. Finding Journal Articles
When you already have a citation
- ‘Journal’ search on library catalogue. Search title of journal NOT title of article
Searching for journal articles by subject
Law Databases – Journal databases and news Services – eg. AGIS Plus Text (Australia) and LegalTrac (international) 13

14. Legal Citation
There is no single standard in Australia for legal referencing.
However, it is important that all citations made within one document are consistent in style
Australian Guide to Legal Citation (3rd edition) (AGLC3) is the most commonly used citation style for Australian law schools and legal publications. 14

15. Case law AGLC3 Citation Style:
Reported Judgments:
Swain v Waverley Municipal Council (2005) 220 CLR 517
Unreported Judgments:
Swain v Waverley Municipal Council [2005] HCA 4 15

16. Books
AGLC3 Citation Style:
Dennis Pearce and Robert Geddes, Statutory Interpretation in Australia (Lexis Nexis Butterworths, 7th ed, 2011).

17. Journal articles AGLC3 Citation Style:
Miranda Kaye, Julie Stubbs and Julia Tolmie, ‘Domestic Violence and Child Contact Arrangements’ (2003) 17(2) Australian Journal of Family Law 93, 95. 17

18. Basic Boolean connectors:
AND – combining concepts
Eg. murder and defences
OR – for similar concepts and synonyms
Eg. murder OR manslaughter
NOT (sometimes AND NOT) – leaving out concepts
Eg. Murder NOT provocation