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Practice Direction: Citation of Authorities
Ref: Practice Direction No.19 (effective 1 October 2002)
Explanation
In recent years there has been a substantial growth in the number and availability of reports of judgments in this and other jurisdictions, such reports being available either in published reports or in electronic form. The current weight of available material, whilst increasing the knowledge of the work and decisions of the courts, causes problems both for advocates and for the Court in properly limiting the nature and amount of material used in the preparation of and submissions in subsequent cases.
Recent and continuing efforts to increase the efficiency and thus reduce the cost of litigation, whilst maintaining the interest of justice, will be hindered if the Court is burdened by weight of inappropriate and unnecessary authority. The Court has experienced the following:
- Long lists of authorities, but only a small number from the list being referred to by the advocate;
- The citation of a number of authorities for a single proposition when only one authority (namely the most recent or the most authoritative) would be sufficient;
- The failure to state the proposition of law for which the authority is cited;
- The failure to identify the part or parts of the judgment that support the proposition; and
- Authorities referred to in electronic form when the authorised report is available.
This practice direction is made with a view to limiting the citation of previous authority to cases that are relevant and useful to the Court and to lay down the manner in which that cited material should be handled by advocates.
Citation of Authorities
(a) Subject to paragraph 4(b), the authorised report of a judgement should be cited as far as practicable, if it is available in that form. Parallel citation of any medium neutral citation, allocated by a court at the time of delivery of judgment, will maximise accessibility.
The authorised reports of the High Court are the Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR). If a High Court judgment is to be cited then the citation should be CLR, even if the judgment may be reported elsewhere. (For example, the citation of Oshlack v Richmond River Council should be 193 CLR 72, not 96 LGERA 173).
Similarly, the authorised reports of the Supreme Court are the New South Wales Law Reports (NSWLR). If a Supreme Court judgement is to be cited then the citation should be from that series even of the judgment may be reported elsewhere. (For example, the citation of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Timbarra Protection Coalition Inc v Ross Mining NL should be 46 NSWLR 55, not 102 LGERA 52)
(b) The citation of a judgment reported in the Local Government and Environmental Reports of Australia (LGERA) will be accepted.
Citation of judgments in only electronic format should, as far as practicable, be done only if not reported in any of the published series of reports. They should be cited in medium neutral form.
A party who intends to cite an unreported judgment shall provide photocopies for the Court and for the other parties.
Pinpoint citations should refer to both page and paragraph numbers. Example: Blacktown City Council v Wilkie (2001) 119 LGERA 255 at 273 [60].
It will remain the duty of advocates to draw the attention of the Court to any relevant authority not cited by an opponent which is a adverse to the case being advanced.
Advocates will be required to state, in respect of each authority that they wish to cite, the proposition of law which the authority demonstrates and the parts of the judgment that support that proposition. If it is sought to cite more than one authority in support of a given proposition, advocates must state the reason for taking that course.
The demonstration referred to in par [9] may be contained in any written outline of submissions.
The statements referred to in par [9] should not materially add to the length of submissions or any written outline of submissions.
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