The Library Bulletin
Law Library Victoria publishes judgments from the Court of Appeal and Trial Division in the Library Bulletin. This free current awareness service compiles and links to the full unreported judgments. It is updated daily online, with an option to subscribe to fortnightly alerts.
Accessing judgments, sentences and summaries
Recent judgments and sentences are published on the AustLII website:
The Court audio webcasts some judgments and sentences and streams them live. You can also listen to the audio on demand.
Reserved judgments
In some instances, a judgment may be reserved and thus not available to access. Parties who wish to enquire about a delay in the delivery of a reserved judgment of the Court should refer to the protocol for reserved judgments.
Summaries and sentencing remarks
The Supreme Court may also provide judgment summaries for certain cases. These summaries are a guide only and not the official decision of the Court.
Access Court of Appeal and Trial Division unreported judgments, sentencing remarks, and judgment summaries dating from the 1950s to the present via the Law Library Victoria catalogue. You can search for judgments by party name, judge name, and Medium Neutral Citation. For assistance using the catalogue contact the Law Library.
The Supreme Court of Victoria also makes available a lot of information about its criminal cases and sentencing, publishing:
- the audio of the sentence on our website, available in almost every case
- the written reasons for sentence, on Austlii, in almost every matter on the internet and in high profile cases on the homepage of the Supreme Court of Victoria's website
- the fact that a sentence has been handed down on Twitter and Facebook with a link to the written reasons and audio in many cases
- written summaries of Court of Appeal criminal appeals including sentence appeals in almost every case
- the written judgment in every Court of Appeal criminal appeal including sentence appeals (except for suppressed cases)
- Court of Appeal judgments in criminal appeals, including sentence appeals, with pseudonyms to protect victims and facilitate publication when appropriate.
The information has been progressively developed and available for some time to assist the public in understanding the Court's decisions.