A. Court Designators and B. Pinpoint Citations
Status of this document
This is a recommendation by the Legal Information Standards Council (LISC). It is for circulation to Courts and interested people for consideration and comment.
Responses to these recommendations
Comment on these recommendation are invited, and should be sent to:
Secretariat
Legal Information Standards Council
c/- Law & Justice Foundation of NSW
GPO Box 4264
Sydney NSW 2001
DX 984 Sydney
Email: liscinfo@fl.asn.au
Web: <http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/lisc/>
Fax: 02 9262 1660.
| A.Court Designators |  |
| Background | Paras1-4 |
| The Standard Court Designator | Paras5-7 |
| TheGeographic Abbreviation | Paras8-12 |
| TheCourt or Tribunal Abbreviation | Paras13-15 |
| Comment | Paras16-18 |
| Examples | Paras19-21 |
| B.Pinpoint Citations | |
| Background | Paras22-28 |
| The Standard Pinpoint Citation | Paras29-31 |
| Comment | Paras32-37 |
Background
1. With the introduction of medium neutral citations (eg. the High Court of Australia's use of the designator "HCA"), LISC recommends that Australian courts adopt a common set of court designators for their judgments.
2. The objective is to provide a consistent and universally accessible descriptor for users of judgments within and outside Australia.
3. Universal designators are particularly important as judgments become widely available in electronic form and from different sources.
4. Consistent use of court designators will simplify the identification and location of judgments by the profession and the public.
The Standard Court Designator
5. The two component parts of the Standard Court Designator are:
{geographic abbreviation} followed by {court/tribunal abbreviation}
Example: NSWSC; NSWAAT
If necessary (principally in a Supreme Court), a further {court/tribunal abbreviation} is added
Example: NSWSCCA; WASCFC
7. Each Federal Court and Tribunal is identified by a standard designator in the following form:
{court/tribunal abbreviation} followed by {the letter 'A'} Example: HCA; IRTA
The Geographic Abbreviation
8. The geographic abbreviations currently in use by State Courts are:
ACT
NSW
NT
Q
SA
TAS
V
WA
9. To ensure consistency, LISC endorses the use of these abbreviations.
10. At the same time, LISC advocates that the use of the familiar acronyms QLD and VIC rather than Q and V would ensure recognisability and minimise ambiguity. This will assist with the fast and consistent retrieval of judgments across the full range of international jurisdictions.
11. Using only one letter will cause confusion. Overseas users of the material may not know that V means Victoria; search engines will return irrelevant results from overseas jurisdictions because they will seek one letter rather than a more distinctive group of letters.
12. LISC recommends that the letter 'A' be used for Federal jurisdictions. This is consistent with the established practice of the High Court of Australia: 'HCA'.
The Court or Tribunal Abbreviation
13. LISC recommends that standard abbreviations for courts and tribunals should be used.
14. LISC recommends that decisions of Courts of Appeal and Full Courts should be distinguished from other decisions of state Supreme Courts by the addition of CA or FC to the Court abbreviation.
15. LISC suggests that the commonly accepted abbreviations are used.
Examples are:
| SC | SupremeCourt |
| T | Tribunal |
| Comn | Commission |
| CA | Courtof Appeal |
| FC | FullCourt |
16. Placing the geographic abbreviation first is already common practice, and is natural for users of the material, particularly court staff.
17. The converse is true only for the Federal jurisdictions.
18. In each case, the combination of abbreviations is only a designator for a court or tribunal; it does not necessarily reflect the official name of the court/tribunal.
Example: IRComnA = Australian Industrial Relations Commission
Examples
19. Examples for States and Territory Supreme Courts:
| ACTSC | Supreme Court of Australian Capital Territory |
| NSWSC | Supreme Court of New South Wales |
| NTSC | Supreme Court of the Northern Territory |
| QLDSC | Supreme Court of Queensland |
| SASC | SupremeCourt of South Australia |
| TASSC | SupremeCourt of Tasmania |
| VICSC | SupremeCourt of Victoria |
| WASC | Supreme Court of Western Australia |
| HCA | High Court of Australia |
| FCA | Federal Court of Australia |
| FamCA | Family Court of Australia |
| IRComnA | Australian Industrial Relations Commission |
| IRCA | Industrial Relations Court of Australia |
| RRTA | Refugee Review Tribunal (of Australia) |
| IRTA | Immigration Review Tribunal (of Australia) |
| AATA | Administrative Appeals Tribunal (of Australia) |
| NNTTA | National Native Title Tribunal (of Australia) |
| NSWSCCA | Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of NSW |
| NSWSCCCA | Court of Criminal Appeal, Supreme Court of NSW |
| NSWRTT | Residential Tenancies Tribunal of NSW |
| NSWLEC | Land and Environmental Court of NSW |
| NSWCT | Commercial Tribunal of NSW |
| NSWCC | Compensation Court of NSW |
| NSWCSAT | Community Services Appeals Tribunal of NSW |
| NSWDDT | Dust Diseases Tribunal of NSW |
Background
22. This recommendation is for a consistent form of parallel citation using paragraph numbers in printed and electronic copies of judgments from Australian courts.
23. Citations to printed copies of judgments use page numbers for the judgment citation and for the identified location within a judgment (the "at" reference or 'pinpoint citation').
24. Page numbers are unsuitable in most cases for use in citations to judgments in electronic form.
25. Pinpoint citations to an electronic judgment must use another point of reference, such as the paragraph number of the judgment.
26. Paragraph numbers in judgments will provide a convenient reference point to passages in printed copies of judgments as well as in electronic copies. If paragraph numbers are applied by the Court at the time of publication of the judgment, it will provide a consistent reference point for citations in all versions of the judgment, regardless of publisher or publishing medium.
27. Paragraph numbers provide an additional method of citation along with page numbers which will continue to be useful for references to judgments in printed reports.
28. It is desirable that uniform methods should be adopted for the use of paragraph numbers in pinpoint citations.
The Standard Pinpoint Citation
29. The usual pinpoint citation to a page in a printed judgment is, for example:
Person v Company (1999) 152 ALR 34 at 52
This pinpoints page 52 in the volume.
30. The Standard pinpoint citation to a paragraph in an online judgement would be:
Person v Company [1998] HCA 25 at [27]
This pinpoints paragraph 27 in the judgment.
31. The Standard pinpoint citation to multiple paragraphs in an online judgement would be:
Person v Company [1998] HCA 25 at [20]-[25], [27], [29] and [31]
This pinpoints paragraphs 20-25, 27, 29 and 31 in the judgment.
32. The Standard pinpoint citation, which encompasses both the page and paragraph numbers, would be:
Person v Company (1998) 152 ALR 34 at 52 [27]
This pinpoints page 52 in the volume and paragraph 27 in the judgment.
Comment
33. The High Court of Australia, the first jurisdiction to use medium neutral citations, and therefore paragraph numbers, has adopted the LISC Recommended Standard pinpoint citation.
34. Some means of identifying a paragraph number is essential to avoid confusion. A plain, unqualified number will be assumed to be a page number.
35. Without some means of identifying that a number is a paragraph number, hybrid citations (see [32] above), which are becoming increasingly common and which are useful, will not be possible.
36. The use of square brackets reflects a practical and widely accepted indicator of a paragraph number. This cannot be said of other means of indicating a paragraph number.
37. Square brackets are efficient for typing, use of space and quick recognition. None is as true of use of the term 'para'.
38. Square brackets are available on a conventional keyboard, and will survive conversion from one electronic format to another. Neither is true of the alternative indicator of a paragraph number: '¶'.
39. Use of the word 'at' a second time, between the page number and the paragraph number is superfluous: the connection is implicit.
40. A print citation is sometimes more specific than a page number, referring to a section based on margin letters, eg
Person v Company (1999) 152 ALR 34 at 52E
41. Depending on the length of the paragraphs, paragraph numbers may be more or less useful than margin letter citations. They may be used together, as in the following example:
Person v Company (1999) 152 ALR 34 at 52E [27]
End Standard.
Secretariat, Legal Information Standards Council
Law & Justice Foundation of NSW
GPO Box 4264
Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Email: liscinfo@fl.asn.au
Fax: 61 2 9262 1660 - Ph: 61 2 9299 5621
Last updated: 10 April, 1999.