Justice Peter McClellan, Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court, today announced the establishment of Internet access to decisions of the Commissioners of the Court.

“Decisions of Commissioners have not being widely available until now and certainly have not been available on the Internet,” Justice McClellan said.

“Although decisions made by the Commissioners comprise the vast majority of the planning appeals dealt with by the Court, the full terms of those decisions are usually easily available only to the parties to the case,” he continued.

“However, as many of these decisions concern development proposals which are matters of debate in their local community, I have decided that there should be much more open access to the full terms of these judgments. It is also important that the community have access to the judgments so that people can appreciate the principles which are being considered and applied by the Court.”

“As a consequence, access to Commissioners’ judgments will be implemented progressively from today. The first of the Commissioners’ decisions to be made available is one given earlier this week involving proposed modifications to quarrying operations near Gosford. This decision is now reported on the Internet as Ralph Betts and anor v Gosford City Council [2003] NSWLEC 217.

“The judgments will be able to be read on the Court's web site as part of the ordinary judgments series for the Court and on AustLII, the Australasian Legal Information Institute at www.austlii.edu.au . The AustLII site is the predominant free legal information resource on the Internet for people interested in Australian laws and decisions of Australia's Courts”, Justice McClellan concluded.