Date:

12/09/1998

Release Date: 9 December 1998

The Chief Justice of NSW, The Hon JJ Spigelman, today announced that from 1 January 1999, an electronic database will be established to access Supreme Court judgments.

“The database will mean cheaper and faster access to the court’s decisions. It will provide full text access to judgments and will be a means of informing a wider audience about judicial decisions,” said Chief Justice Spigelman.

“The database will enable full text distribution of judgments via electronic means such as email and the Internet. This will dramatically improve access to one of the court’s most requested services. It will also provide that access much faster”, he said.

The database will have a number of advantages. It will:

• overcome the costly aspects of paper-based judgment production and distribution;
• significantly reduce the costs for libraries and others interested in the court’s judgments as the database will mean less reliance on expensive published law reports;
• law students and the public will have cheaper, faster and easier access to judgments; and
• enable “medium neutral citation” (see below).

“Distribution to libraries, publishers, other courts and the public will be managed electronically from the court’s registry. Judgments will be available from a number of electronic websites, including the court’s website. Significant reduction in the amount of paper used and other costs will be achieved, said Chief Justice Spigelman.

The availability of judgments in electronic form enables a standardised method of identifying or citing judgments, irrespective of whether the judgment is reported in law reports. This new method of citing judgments is known as “medium neutral citation” and will facilitate ease of reference to judgments that are distributed electronically.

Case citations have traditionally been based on the page number and volume of the approved law report in which the judgment was reported. This meant that an official citation was not available until the law report was published, normally a couple of months after the judgment was handed down. The traditional citation was consequently dependant on publication in a particular medium, that is, paper law reports.

“The court will allocate a unique number at the time the judgment is delivered and paragraphs will be numbered, providing an immediate, permanent and medium neutral means of referring to the judgment,” said Chief Justice Spigelman.

“The Supreme Court’s citation system is modelled on that of the High Court of Australia to ensure national uniformity,” he said.

Guidelines have been prepared which detail how Supreme Court judgments will now be cited and electronically distributed. Interested people or organisations can obtain a copy of the guidelines (“Judgments in Electronic Form”) from the Executive Office of the Supreme Court or the Court’s web site: http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/sc

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