Practice Directions

In all Australian courts, there is a convention that the authorised report of a judgment be cited in preference to other versions.

In a number of Queensland courts, this convention has been formalised by a complementary set of Practice Directions:

One of the stated purposes of these Practice Directions is to ensure that the Court is provided with the most authoritative and functional versions of the relevant authorities.

They direct that, when citing a judgment to the Court, a citation of the judgment from a set of the authorised reports is to be preferred. The parties are also encouraged to be selective in their citation of authorities. An unreported judgment should not usually be cited unless it contains a statement of legal principle, or a material application of principle, which is not found in reported authority.

Practice Directions concerning the citation of authorities are also to be found in other Australian jurisdictions:

See further:

Practice Direction (Citation of Authorities) - England and Wales - [2012] 1 WLR 780.