Australian Case Law

New South Wales cases

The authorised report series for New South Wales is the New South Wales Law Reports. These are available on Lexis+ Australia and Westlaw Australia.

Details of cases listed in the report series are also available from the New South Wales Law Reports website. 

Prior to 1971

Prior to the New South Wales Law Reports the following report series were published: 

• New South Wales Reports: 1960 - 1970 - available in hardcopy and online via NSWLR
• State Reports (New South Wales): 1901 - 1950 (AustLII) 

Prior to 1901

Several other 'non-authorised' report series contain New South Wales cases:

• Legge's Supreme Court Cases: 1825 - 1862 (AustLII) 
• New South Wales Supreme Court Reports: 1867 - 1879 (Selection on AustLII)
• New South Wales Law Reports: 1880 - 1900 - available in hardcopy
• New South Wales Law Reports: 1856 - 1900  (AustLII)

Note: The Supreme Court of New South Wales has issued a practice note (no. SC Gen 20) that applies to the citation of authorities in all proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the Court of Appeal and the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Unreported judgments are those not published in a law report series. The following unreported judgments from NSW courts are available on NSW Caselaw database, AustLII and Jade. Lexis+ Australia also includes some judgments from Supreme and District courts. 

Courts 

• Supreme Court of New South Wales: 1993 - current (AustLII) (Jade from 1997) (Lexis from 1998) (Caselaw from 1999)
• Supreme Court of New South Wales Court of Appeal: 1997 - current (Caselaw from 1988) (AustLII & Jade from 1998) ​
• Supreme Court of New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal: 1998 - current (AustLII & Caselaw from 1999)
• NSW District Court (selected cases available): 1992 - current (AustLII) (Jade from 1999) (Lexis from 2004) (Caselaw from 2005)
• NSW Local Court: 2002 - current (AustLII & Caselaw) (Jade from 2006)

Tribunals

The New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) commenced operating on 1 January 2014, replacing more than 20 of the State's existing tribunals, including the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. A selection of current tribunal decisions are available via the NSW Caselaw database.

• Administrative Decisions Tribunal of New South Wales: 1999 - 2013 (AustLII) (Jade) (Caselaw)
• Administrative Decisions Tribunal Appeal Panel of New South Wales: 1999 - 2013 (AustLII) (Caselaw) (Jade from 2006)
• Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal of New South Wales: 2002 - 2013 (AustLII)
• Dust Diseases Tribunal: 2001 - Present
• Fair Trading Tribunal of New South Wales: 1999 - 2001 (AustLII & Caselaw)
• Guardianship Tribunal of New South Wales 2004 - 2013 (AustLII)
• Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales: 1985 - present (AustLII) (Jade from 2000)
• Medical Tribunal: 1999 - 2013 (Caselaw)
• NSW Privacy Commissioner Cases: 1997 - 2006 (AustLII)
• Residential Tribunal of New South Wales: 1987-2002 (AustLII)
• Transport Appeal Boards (2011 - 2013) (Caselaw)

Cases prior to 1900

The New South Wales State Library has a guide on finding NSW judgments prior to 1900.

State Records of New South Wales has several collections of early New South Wales judgments. Although many of them have not been digitised, indexes are available to located the cases.

AustLII includes an historical database with edited records of decisions of the Supreme Court of New South Wales handed down prior to 1900. The database is under construction and new decisions will be added in due course. Supreme Court of NSW Moreton Bay Decisions 1851-1859.