LibGuides: Law: Practical Legal Research: Practical Legal Research Resources

Practical Legal Research Resources

The Law Handbook
Useful for a general background on an area of law, The Law handbook is the single most important plain English guide to the law in NSW. It provides a practical guide to 40 legal topics – legal issues which affect people in their everyday lives. This edition up to date as of October 2019.

Family Law Book This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive coverage of Australian family law, procedure and precedents. Includes key case law and legislation.

NSW Courts and Tribunals
Use to access forms, fees, practice directions and bench books of NSW Courts and Tribunals.
Judicial Commission of New South Wales
Use to access bench books.
Australian Encyclopaedia of Forms & Precedents
The Australian Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents is the most comprehensive one-stop source of forms and precedents in Australia, including over 6,000 legal forms and precedent documents in over 60 legal subject areas, covering all Australian jurisdictions.
Court Forms Precedents & Pleadings NSW
Knowing the right form or pleading to use, and when and how to use it, can be a considerable challenge for practitioners, especially those litigating across a range of different areas of law. Court Forms, Precedents and Pleadings New South Wales is designed to guide practitioners through the process of preparing and filing of documents in the NSW court system – from the Local Court to the District Court and Supreme Court.

The Law Handbook
Useful for a general background on an area of law, The Law handbook is the single most important plain English guide to the law in NSW. It provides a practical guide to 40 legal topics – legal issues which affect people in their everyday lives. This edition up to date as of October 2019.
Australian Encyclopaedia of Forms & Precedents
The Australian Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents is the most comprehensive one-stop source of forms and precedents in Australia, including over 6,000 legal forms and precedent documents in over 60 legal subject areas, covering all Australian jurisdictions.

Lexis Advance - Practical Guidance Collection This link opens in a new window
Legal updates, guidance notes, primary law, precedents, forms, checklists and excerpts from LexisNexis. Includes Banking & Finance, Business, Competition, Consumer, Corporations, Criminal, Cybersecurity, Data Protection & Privacy, Employment, Family, General Counsel, Governance, Immigration, Insolvency & Restructuring, Intellectual Property, Mergers & Acquisitions, Personal Injury NSW, Personal Property Securities, Property, Social Justice, Succession, and Work Health & Safety modules.
Lexis Advance does not work in IE

Thomson Reuters Practical Guidance
Practical Law provides accurate legal guidance for lawyers. Access practice notes, standard documents, checklists, forms and legal updates.

CCH IntelliConnect This link opens in a new window
Browse by commentary area to view general precedents.

The Law Handbook
Useful for a general background on an area of law, The Law handbook is the single most important plain English guide to the law in NSW. It provides a practical guide to 40 legal topics – legal issues which affect people in their everyday lives. This edition up to date as of October 2019.

Lexis Advance This link opens in a new window
For a general background and terminology search for relevant journal articles. You can also access the LawNow Plus Legislation Citator by browsing a relevant section of legislation and selecting "View Legislation Citator" to view a list of secondary materials that have considered that section.

Halsbury's Laws of Australia
Australian legal encyclopaedia. Enter a legal word or phrase in the Search Terms search box.

Westlaw AU This link opens in a new window
Search for journal articles on specific legal topics.
CCH IntelliConnect This link opens in a new window
Browse and search commentary on specialised legal topics, such as accounting, tax, family law, litigation and court practice, employment and insurance, plus more.

AustLII
Free access to full text Australian and international journal articles.

AGIS Plus Text (Informit) This link opens in a new window
Indexing of journal articles, government documents, publications from non profit organizations and law reform commissions from 1975, on all aspects of law in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific. Limited full-text for UK, US and Canadian publications from 1999.

Webinars and video resources

Need some extra training on legal databases? Lexis Advance and Westlaw AU regularly run public webinars on a variety of topics - from the basics of finding case law, legislation and secondary sources, to finding forms and precedents and researching specific practice areas. Use the links below to see what webinars are currently scheduled and register:

Video resources

BenchTV This link opens in a new window
BenchTV produce high quality, video content for legal educational purposes covering topics such as advocacy, alternative dispute resolution, family law, torts/negligence, environmental and criminal law.

Let us know what you want

Is there anything more you would like us to include in this guide? Let us know by going to our Feedback page and we will do our very best to add the resources you want.

Your Subject Librarians

This guide has been created by University of Newcastle Librarians who work with your schools to make sure you have access to the resources you need. The Librarians supporting the School of Law and Justice are:

Teaching Liaison Librarian

Jessica Davis

Research Liaison Librarian

Jennie Skulander