Lowe v Auckland City Council [1993] NZHC 238

For those who haven't read this rather droll New Zealand High Court  judgment concerning an unregistered German shepherd called Ben - here it is: http://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZHC/1993/238.html.

The last few sentences are particularly fine:


"The late Professor Davis campaigned tirelessly in his years as a law professor and Dean of Law at Auckland to end discrimination between cats and dogs. In his view (expressed in the august pages of no less than the Modern Law Review) dogs are rigorously controlled, whilst, if I may be permitted the expression, cats are entitled to ponce about town, completely unregulated. Was there something in the new New Zealand Bill of Rights which would end this shameful discrimination and assist Mr Lowe?


I began formulating an oral decision in my mind. Then I realised that I was mumbling aloud, and the Registrar was looking at me strangely, or perhaps more strangely than usual.


Pragmatism, some will say fortunately, took over.

The decision of the learned District Court Judge is quashed, and I substitute therefore a fine of $20.00. I urge upon the appellant the wisdom of the registration of Ben.


Cave canem (again, for the uninitiated, beware of the dog)."

R G Hammond J

But what if I can't find it on the internet?

Pauline Westwood in the Canberra Times


Libraries have lost more than books - research service standards have fallen too. 

Jack Waterford's article ''The library of discarded books'' (May 5, p19), about the destruction of paper-based books by librarians highlighted a disturbing trend largely ignored by mainstream media. With the growth in the use of information technology, many new tools have potentially increased our access to knowledge.



But because of cost-cutting policies and the mantra of ''digitisation at all cost'', we are in danger of decreasing rather than increasing our access to information over time. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in libraries. It is driven by an over-reliance on new technology, in turn propelled by the forces of managerialism and economic rationalism.

Read more here

Libraries - do we really need them?

Looks as though my previous post which reported Judge Spigelman's observations about legal research, is now being born out by even bigger events in 2012 in Queensland. Government libraries are disappearing altogether. 

A few newspapers have been fighting a rearguard action on our behalf:, but my guess is they're going to need advocates themselves soon enough.

The Huffington Post

The Brisbane Times

QWeekend - Nov 10-11 2012 pp 10-11 (can't attach this as blogger doesn't allow the attachment of documents)

Chief Justice has history on his side (The Australian 4th Feb 2010)

IF his record is any guide, those who fail to take Jim Spigelman's predictions seriously are heading for trouble.

The NSW Chief Justice has an uncanny knack of making sure he is always on the right side of history.

He was the first to blow the whistle on the feeding frenzy that used to characterise personal injury litigation. Tort reform followed.

Spigelman also got it right seven years ago when he exposed the moral hazard of billable hours. Smart law firms of all sizes are now including fixed fees and other alternative billing schemes in their pitch to clients.

Spigelman's endorsement this week of the outsourcing of legal work to low-cost jurisdictions is also clearly on the money.

click here

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It's hard to ignore a sense that the bell could soon be tolling for law librarians too.

Qld Floods

The past two months with natural disaster occuring at our footstep has reminded us of what is important in not only our business but more importantly our personal life. The flood chaos which hit the northern area of Qld seemed for Brisbane firms miles away with devastation and destruction throughout Rockhampton, Bundaberg and inland towns including Emerald. What we didn't appreciate at the time we were offering assistance to those in the northern area, is the onset of issues that we would personally face. Toowoomba with its inland tsnumai, Ipswich with the main centre under water, and Brisbane CBD with areas totally flooded and some unaccessible. Over the past week, the ALLA(Q) Committee has been assisting where possible any firm or member who has been affected by the floods. If you know of anyone who requires help, please ask them to contact the committee and we will endeavour to provide anything required, especially a person to talk to about the experience. As of 18 January, the following firms/organisations were known to have been affected in Brisbane with office closures. Most of the resources appear to be unaffected as the libraries were placed in strategic positions in the buildings. Mallesons Blake Dawson Hopgood Ganim Minter Ellison Norton Rose Clayton Utz QUT Corrs McCullough Robertson Allens Arthur Robinson Anti-Discrimination Commission We are planning on hosting a talkfest for Qld Members to come together and speak about their experiences both in the work place and personally. This will be planned for February. The next edition of the Qld Newsletter will also include stories relating to the flood and we encourage any member to submit their story and photos. Take care and stay safe. Lisa Sylvester ALLA(Q) President 2010-2011

Medium Neutral Citation and the elusive paragraph number

Has anyone noticed that some judgments from the Queensland Supreme Court have been published online with appropriate medium neutral citations but without paragraph numbering?  This makes pinpoint citation in these instances impossible. The judgments in question seem generally to be given ex tempore.

I had some interesting feedback on this topic from both the Victorian Supreme Court Librarian and the Tasmanian Supreme Court Librarian. In both of these courts an Associate will add paragraph numbering where it is required.

It would be useful for us to follow the full recommendations of  the AIJA Guide to Uniform Production of Judgments too.

Forthcoming LexisNexis AU enhancements

At the Cross Currents conference last week LexisNexis gave a presentation on new features that are soon to be coming to the platform. Here's an overview of what you can expect from them in the next couple of months.

Explore by Topic

• This is essentially an implementation of a 1200 word subject taxonomy across LNAU content.
• It will allow you to combine searches on free text with selections from the taxonomy to narrow results by topic.
• It will be launched in November 2010.

 Search Assist

• Essentially a word wheel system for autocompletion of party names and legislation titles.
• Designed to make it quicker and easier to search for a particular case or piece of legislation.
• Works like Google's autocompletion - you start typing your case name or Act title and it brings up a list of possible options to select to search on.
• Due for release before the end of October.

Legal Express

• Legal Express is back!
• Provides manually selected current awareness of new case law and legislation.
• Can be delivered via email, RSS, iphone/ipad app, or on the new legal express website.
• Options to select content from 32 practice areas.
• At this stage content is coming only from Casebase and Law Now, but will include other content such as journal articles in the future.
• The Alerts themselves are free to all LNAU customers.
• Due for launch 1st week of November.

Practical Guidance

• Pitched as existing content presented to match the work flow of a legal practitioner.
• A number of areas of law will be rolled out over time such as Family Law, Business Law and Succession Law.
• It amalgamates news, legislation, cases, and commentary under one practice area.
• Roll out of this starts Q4 2010.

International Content

• Over 1000 overseas titles will now be available through the LNAU platform.
• To access the content use the source directory and browse by jurisdiction.
• Includes content from UK, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia and other countries.
• You can also search for overseas and Australian cases at the same time if you subscribe to the relevant products.

LexisNexis also advised that they are working on releasing new products for mobile platforms (i.e. iphone/ipad). The next offering is likely to be a Casebase app.

So, plenty of interesting new stuff coming from LNAU. For more details we would recommend contacting you local LNAU rep.