14 Using Case Citators
The main role of a case citator is to provide extra information about cases. In Australian legal databases, any judgment of a superior court will have a citator record that includes information about the:
- status of the case
- publication and citation details
- litigation history — whether the case has gone on appeal and been subsequently affirmed or reversed
- subsequent judicial treatment — how later judges have treated the decision
- consideration of earlier cases
- secondary sources that cite the case
- legislation considered by the case.
Always check case citators to understand the case.
The main case citators used in Australian legal research are:
- Casebase (Lexis Advance)
- KeyCite (Westlaw Australia)
- LawCite (AustLII)