You don’t need to remember a specific format. JADE recognises virtually every standard Australian legal citation and will resolve it to the correct document. Here’s a reference guide for what works.

Case law citations

Medium neutral citations — the most reliable format:

• [2024] HCA 1
• [2023] NSWCA 250
• [2022] VSC 45
• [2024] FCA 100

Law report citations:

• (2024) 299 CLR 1
• (2023) 110 NSWLR 200
• [2022] 2 Qd R 50

Party names:

• Mabo v Queensland
• Donoghue v Stevenson
• Palmer v Western Australia

You can combine formats too. Searching “Mabo [1992] HCA” will narrow your results precisely.

Legislation citations

JADE recognises act names with or without jurisdiction qualifiers:

• Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)
• Evidence Act 1995
• Criminal Code (Qld)
• Fair Work Act 2009

You can go straight to a section by adding the number:

• Corporations Act s 180
• Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) s 76
• TPA s 52 (JADE knows the Trade Practices Act is now the Competition and Consumer Act)

Tips for better results

Don’t worry about punctuation. Whether you type “[2024] HCA 1” or “2024 HCA 1”, JADE will find it.

Abbreviations are fine. JADE knows that CLR means Commonwealth Law Reports, NSWLR means New South Wales Law Reports, and so on.

Partial citations work. If you can only remember “HCA 2024” and a party name like “Smith”, searching “Smith HCA 2024” will usually get you there.