Searching for legal information: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 00:15, 15 October 2026

Australia uses legal system that was developed in Middle Ages England. The actual law my not be enough in finding what you can expect from your case.

Finding cases relevant to your situation is huge challenge. Short list he way to search for cases and some interesting past court cases are on the page Court cases for personal injury and negligence.

Looking up previous cases is a good way of checking out the lawyers you are about to hire.

Determinations from court cases are kind of public but not really. Among many problems related to this system is publishing past cases, and the abuse of the system is well illustrated by the way PIC publishes their cases.

Past cases

Personal Injury Commission provides information where you can find their decisions.
New South Wales Caselaw - decisions for all courts and Tribunals
Australasian Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court of New South Wales Court of Appeal - has some of the submissions for the cases. It is the best place so far to look for examples how to prepare documents.
Federal Court of Australia has a law search function. It has a list of past and upcoming cases, and determinations and orders produced by the court.

Similar cases

One of the ways to look for solicitors is going through past cases where they have dealt with the same problem, for example cost assessment, corrupt government official or lawyers misconduct.

This approach can be very labor intensive and one day I will be able to provide a system to help access verified data, but until this time I am writing a guide and if you are lucky, it may not be so much work.

PIC publishing problem

The PIC publishes some of their decisions. It is unclear how they chose what cases they publish. It well could be that it is decided on personal interests of someone within the PIC who is making these decisions. I will update this if I get any further information. The only thing I was able to test that not all decisions are published, for example I was not able to find determination on my case.

The easiest way to search for PIC decisions is on the Australasian Legal Information Institute site. You case use few keywords to limit search (based on PIC site):

Presidential member decision = NSWPICPD e.g. [2021] NSWPICPD 1
Non-Presidential member decision = NSWPIC e.g. [2021] NSWPIC 1
Medical Appeal Panel and Review Panel decision = NSWPICMP e.g. [2021] NSWPICMP 1
Merit Review decision = NSWPICMR e.g. [2021] NSWPICMR 1
Merit Review Appeal Panel decision = NSWPICMRA e.g. [2021] NSWPICMRA 1

As of 2026-08-07 it has:

decisions
categories of decisions

Upcoming court hearings

Upcoming court cases are published day before at NSW Online Registry Courts and Tribunals. You can go there and see for you self how it is happening. There is only name of the case displayed, but for most insurance cases the word "insurance" will be in a name of defendant. You can learn a lot about the process and the lawyers you are planning to hire.

NSW courts. Check list of upcoming court cases in online court registry. Maybe you can see the solicitor in action.
Federal Court of Australia

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 * [https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/ New South Wales Caselaw - decisions for all courts and Tribunals]
 * [http://www6.austlii.edu.au/ Australasian Legal Information Institute]
-* [https://nswca.judcom.nsw.gov.au/ Supreme Court of New South Wales Court of Appeal] - TODO broken link
+* [https://supremecourt.nsw.gov.au/practice-procedure/nswca/submissions.html Supreme Court of New South Wales Court of Appeal] - has some of the submissions for the cases. It is the best place so far to look for examples how to prepare documents.
+* Federal Court of Australia has a [https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/online-services/federal-law-search law search] function. It has a list of past and upcoming cases, and determinations and orders produced by the court.
 === Similar cases ===
@@ Line 35: / Line 36: @@
 Upcoming court cases are published day before at [https://onlineregistry.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/content/court-lists#!/?q=%257B%2522offset%2522%253A0%252C%2522count%2522%253A30%252C%2522searchInput%2522%253A%2522%2522%252C%2522filters%2522%253A%257B%2522date%2522%253A%2522Today%2522%257D%252C%2522applicableSortFields%2522%253A%257B%2522defaultSortGroup%2522%253A%257B%2522sortField%2522%253A%2522date%252Ctime%252Clocation%2522%252C%2522sortOrder%2522%253A%2522ASC%2522%257D%252C%2522date%2522%253A%257B%2522sortField%2522%253A%2522date%2522%252C%2522sortOrder%2522%253A%2522ASC%2522%257D%257D%257D NSW Online Registry Courts and Tribunals]. You can go there and see for you self how it is happening. There is only name of the case displayed, but for most insurance cases the word "insurance" will be in a name of defendant. You can learn a lot about the process and the lawyers you are planning to hire.
-Check list of upcoming court cases in [https://www.localcourt.nsw.gov.au/court-lists.html online court registry]. Maybe you can see the solicitor in action.
+* NSW courts. Check list of upcoming court cases in [https://www.localcourt.nsw.gov.au/court-lists.html online court registry]. Maybe you can see the solicitor in action.
+* [https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/online-services/federal-law-search Federal Court of Australia]