DIY Legal Research
Finding the relevant law is often not easy, even for a lawyer, although it has become easier with computers. This guide is a good place to start if you follow the links. However it may be necessary to locate the actual laws or legislation under which you could be, or have been, charged.
It is most important to try and locate the most recent law as some areas change regularly.
The following is a brief guide to finding the two types of law: Parliament-made law (legislation), and judge-made law (case law). Don't be frightened by the task and don't hesitate to ask for help from a librarian when using a library.
To find out what the law is, you can look at three sources:
- the laws made in Parliament;
- delegated legislation; and
- the decisions made by judges in courts, which are published in volumes of law reports.
Acts and other legislation
The phrases statute law, legislation and parliament-made law are also interchangeable.
You can often tell whether an Act is a Commonwealth or state Act as a reference to a Commonwealth Act usually has (Cth) written after it. References to Victorian Acts should have (Vic) written after them. Acts and delegated legislation are printed in statute books.
An Act has a name and a date, for example, Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). The name indicates the contents of the Act while the date specifies the year the Act was made in Parliament. Both pieces of information are needed to find an Act in a library since Acts will be organised in alphabetical order by year.
Reading an Act is made easier if the Act has a contents list at the front with sections, parts and divisions, each with its given title. There is usually a definition section at the front of each Act which explains what is meant by some of the words used in the Act. The definitions are crucial to understanding the Act.
Sometimes, at the back of an Act there are Schedules, which may contain tables, forms for court documents and various other information.
The period within which changes (called amendments) to the Acts, Regulations and Ordinances have occurred will sometimes be indicated in the date part of the title, e.g. The Family Law Act 19751977. To find an up-to-date Act, Regulation or Ordinance you can either search the Parliamentary statute books for the various amendments, or use reprints. Reprints are usually produced more rapidly by private publishers, e.g. CCH, than by government printers. Obviously, it is very important to make sure that the copy of an Act is as up to date as possible.
A copy of any Act, Regulation, or local law can be bought from the appropriate government bookshop, or over the Internet. Subscription services for Internet or "online" access are one way of making sure the document you are relying on is totally up to date. However, these services are expensive for the occasional user. The government sites may not be updated as quickly as subscription sites, but are free and extremely useful for most purposes. If you do not have Internet access at home, your local library will assist with getting access.
Legal information
The following websites provide information and legislation:
The Australasian Legal Information Institute
(AustLII): www.austlii.edu.au
This site provides access to a broad range of legislation and cases from across Australia. It is an excellent starting point.
Commonwealth law : www.australia.gov.au
This site also provides a great deal of interesting and useful information about government services and policies, not just legislation, and is a useful starting point for links to government agencies of every description.
Victorian law: either www.vic.gov.au or www.legalonline.vic.gov.au, both of which will assist the search for state legislation or information, policies and links.
Local councils : most councils also have their own websites. A good place to start your search is at www.doi.vic.gov.au/localgov , in order to find your own local council's site.
Australian Commonwealth Government
Bookshop (Government Infoshop)
190 Queen Street, Melbourne 3000
Tel: 9670 4224
Information Victoria
356 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000
Tel: 1300 366 356.
If you wish to find an Act or other Parliament-made law without buying it from a government printer, go to one of the libraries listed below.
Law reports
Law reports contain the more important cases decided by the courts. There are many different series of law reports, each one reporting decisions of different courts in different states and countries.
When a reported case is referred to in books, a traditionally accepted shorthand reference will be used: for example, Commonwealth v Anderson (1960) 105 CLR 303; Commonwealth v Anderson [1961] ALR 354. This case has been reported in two law report series: the Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR) and the Australian Law Reports (ALR). In the above examples, the person commencing the action is the Commonwealth and the person defending the action is Anderson. In the first series of reports, (1960) is the year in which the decision was handed down and 105 is the volume reference. In the second, [1961] is the volume reference. The final figure in both cases is the page number the judgment starts at in that volume.
Most law reports contain the names of the parties to the dispute, a summary at the front of the case which lists the facts involved and the court's decisions (called the headnote), written judgments, word for word, of the judges, including their reasons for deciding as they did, and the order of the court.
If you are looking for cases on a particular topic, as opposed to a particular case, you can use the Australian Legal Monthly Digest or Australian Current Law (both available online). These books are arranged under topics and list relevant cases and where to find them. Comprehensive databases are also becoming increasingly available. Most of the courts now also have websites and you are often able to access the judges' decisions. For example:
High Court: www.hcourt.gov.au
Supreme Court: www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au
Family Court: www.familycourt.gov.au
Online information
There are now many Internet sites offering general or more specific legal information, apart from this site (www.activistrights.org.au) and the ones mentioned above (see Acts and other legislation ).
To access a range of plain English publications on legal issues see http://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/ This is Victoria Legal Aid's website; it also explains VLA guidelines and policies.
There are also several commercial sites which provide some legal advice and offer advertising for law firms at the same time. The solicitors' organisation, the Law Institute of Victoria, has a useful site at http://www.liv.asn.au/ , which has much information of assistance to lawyers rather than the general public.
The Victorian government has a legal online service where laws are explained in plain English: www.legalonline.vic.gov.au
New sites are being created all the time a search engine such as Google offers literally hundreds of websites. However, as with any information found on the Internet, you need to check that the site you are accessing is a reliable and authoritative source of legal information, and not just a forum for expression of an individual (and perhaps inaccurate) view of the law.
Libraries
Local libraries do not carry extensive law collections, although most municipal and shire libraries will hold some basic law books. Some libraries have good inter-library loan arrangements and can often borrow a book from another library. They also tend to respond well to demand.
The following list of law libraries in Victoria may be consulted by the public. Apart from these, all law courts will have at least basic collections that may, with permission from the court staff, be consulted.
Victoria Legal Aid
350 Queen Street
Melbourne 3000
Tel: 9269 0234
Hours: 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday.
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne 3000
Tel: 8664 7000.
Hours: 1 pm to 9 pm Monday to Thursday;
10 am to 6 pm Friday to Sunday.
Closed on public holidays.
All libraries now offer Internet access, and trained staff can assist even the total novice to find almost anything online.
Costs and charges vary from library to library, but it is astonishing what can be located for little or no cost. If you need help, it is best to make prior arrangements with library staff to ensure someone is available to assist you.
Adapted from the Law Handbook 2004 . Published by the Fitzroy Legal Service. Contributor: Mary Anne Noone, Senior Lecturer, School of Law and Legal Studies, La Trobe University.
See Legal info for activists for more specific legal information for activists
| 
