Under the BarNet banner, we were very privileged to work with the Council of Law Reporting of New South Wales to build their online portal for the New South Wales Law Reports. In the same mould as the Victorian Reports, our aim was to develop a portal that allows the democratic access to all of the reported cases of the New South Wales Supreme Court in a flexible and cost-effective manner.

Launched in June this year by his Honour Chief Justice Bathurst, the NSWLR portal has been well received, not only in its home state but interstate and internationally.

The Chief Justice welcomed the introduction of the online portal, which gives users access to the State Reports dating back to 1900 and all New South Wales Law Reports, as having “the important role of bringing forgotten judgements back into the light”. (The Hon T F Bathurst AC, Chief Justice of New South Wales, ‘Launch of the Electronic State Reports (New South Wales)’. (Speech delivered at the launch of the NSW Law Reports, Ceremonial Court, Supreme Court of New South Wales, 28 June 2017.)

On a daily basis, we see users from far and wide accessing judgements of the New South Wales Supreme Court … from a user in WA downloading Baltic Shipping Company v Dillon “Mikhail Lermontov” (1991) 22 NSWLR 1, to a user in Yorktown Heights, New York ordering a copy of Proctor v Jetway Aviation [1982] 2 NSWLR 264.

The launch of the NSWLR portal represents another exciting development in not only the evolution of law reporting but the preservation of Australian legal history.

Categories: Law Reports, New South Wales Law Reports