Modernisation

With the development of computer technology creating both challenges and opportunities for the courts and the legal profession, the ICLRQ is seeking to adapt its services to meet the needs of the modern Australian legal system.

With the encouragement and assistance of the Chief Justice, the ICLRQ has moved to new premises in the Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law. Apart from the symbolic importance of this relocation, it has allowed the ICLRQ to modernise all its computer systems and operations in a way which will minimise its ongoing costs of operation.

Over the last decade, the ICLRQ has developed and successfully launched:

  1. a high-quality online database of Queensland authorised reports and unreported case law for the Queensland Supreme Court and Queensland Court of Appeal from 2002 onwards, at no cost to end users (Queensland Judgments Website);
  2. an annotated Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 service, integrated into and published on the Queensland Judgments website;
  3. a new format Queensland Law Reporter delivered by email to a significant number of subscribers which is linked to and integrated with the Queensland Judgments website; and
  4. digital monthly parts of the Queensland Reports, published on the Queensland Judgments website, and accessible at no cost.

In 2013, the Queensland Law Reporter was significantly modernised under the editorship of Roger Derrington QC (now Derrington J of the Federal Court). Not only did this produce copies of the headnotes of the cases being reported but it also provided notes of cases considered noteworthy but not being reported and other information in addition to formal notices, including book reviews, judicial speeches, news of upcoming events and other material of interest to the legal profession. The modernisation of the Queensland Law Reporter has evolved further under the editorship of Sarah Holland, Barrister, who added the practice of including, analogous to a headnote, a short editor’s note before each note of the cases.

On 2 March 2018, the Queensland Judgments website was launched, completing ICLRQ’s digitisation of the whole body of reported Queensland case law contained in the Queensland Supreme Court Reports, the Queensland Law Reports, the Queensland Law Journal Reports, the Queensland Weekly Notes, the State Reports of Queensland and the Queensland Reports. Pursuant to the policies of the ICLRQ, access to such material is intended to be provided on a not-for-profit basis – with the ICLRQ hoping to lower the cost to all users, as far as possible, by attracting the widest possible subscription base amongst the legal profession in Queensland and in other Australian jurisdictions. As in the United Kingdom, the ICLRQ hopes to assist users of the free online legal databases by making the authorised versions of judgments accessible (at a small fee) through links from those databases. The ICLRQ also proposes to continue to make the authorised reports available to commercial publishers, for incorporation in their more extensive and highly functional online databases, for use by ICLRQ subscribers.

The Queensland Judgments Website currently has over 18,500 registered users. The number of registered users has grown consistently since March 2018, and continues to do so. It is widely used.

Over the next five years, the ICLRQ proposes to:

  1. fully develop and enhance the Queensland Judgments Website by expanding and deepening its content;
  2. refresh the style of the Queensland Reports printed bound volumes; and
  3. introduce retrospective reporting of notable historical judgments that were not reported in the Queensland Reports at the time of their delivery.

On 4 September 2020, a new version of the Queensland Judgments website was launched, which expanded its coverage to all Queensland Courts and Tribunals. This content will be continuously updated upon the delivery of each judgment or decision authorised for publication from all Queensland Courts and Tribunals.

On 1 March 2021, an additional 35,000 historical unreported judgments were added, including the complete collection of unreported judgments of the Court of Appeal as well as further instalments of the backset of unreported judgments of: the Supreme Court (now complete from 1979); the District Court (now complete from 2000); the Land Court and Land Appeal Court (now complete from 1985); the Planning & Environment Court (now complete from 2000); the Industrial Court (now complete from 2008); and the entire digital collections of the Childrens Court; the Magistrates Court; the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal; the Legal Practice Tribunal; the Queensland Health Practitioners Tribunal; and the Retail Shop Leases Tribunal.

In 2018, the Queensland Reports expanded its output to three annual volumes, reflecting the increase in the number of judges and reportable judgments being produced by the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. From April 2018 each monthly part of the Queensland Reports began to be distributed by email on the last Friday of each month and available online for free and that continues.

On 27 March 2020, the new series of the Queensland Reports commenced, with an improved typography and move to a style which is clearer and more readable. The new series continues to be known as the Queensland Reports, but published for the first time as a set of consecutively numbered volumes. A new form of citation has also been adopted for this series, using round brackets to identify the year of the judgment and a simpler abbreviation for the series – “QR” rather than “Qd R”. Judgments in the new series are cited in the form: (2020) 4 QR 1.

Some volumes of the new series will span judgments decided in more than one year. The year cited in the round brackets is the year in which the judgment was delivered. It is not correct to cite more than one year in the round brackets.

Over the next five years, the ICLRQ proposes to introduce retrospective reporting of notable historical judgments that were not reported in the Queensland Reports at the time of their delivery.

In 2021, the present website was launched. This website is intended to allow the Editors to communicate key information about changes and developments in the law more directly and efficiently to the whole of the Queensland legal community.

The present website includes an online portal to facilitate dealings with ICLRQ customers. The ICLRQ Online Customer Portal allows legal practitioners and members of the public to lodge and pay for probate, admission and public notices and to register and manage subscriptions to ICLRQ publications.

The use of this website is provided free of charge. Please note, however, that use of this free website is subject to Terms and Conditions which include disclaimers of liability. These Terms and Conditions appear on the main webpage.