Queensland Bar – AustLll’s Top 5 Commercial User

AustLII contains a range of Queensland content including the decisions of the Queensland Industrial Relations Court and Commission, Supreme Court, District Court, many tribunals that will soon form a part of QCAT as well as many other case databases and Queensland legislation. In 2008, AustLII received over 14 million hits to Queensland legislation and over 1.2 million hits to Queensland cases. In the ten months ending October 2009, AustLII has already received more than 14.5 million hits to Queensland legislation and more than 973,000 hits to Queensland cases.

At a recent seminar at the Queensland Bar, Professor Graham Greenleaf, Co-Director AustLII presented on “Free access on-line legal research for busy practitioners” and showed Queensland barristers tips and techniques to more effectively search AustLII. In addition, he highlighted two of AustLII’s new free-access services: LawCite, AustLII’s free-access international case citator and the English Reports available for free-access back to the 13th century on CommonLII.  CommonLII is one of three international services AustLII operates which are predominately being developed with research and grant funding. The other two sites are AsianLII and WorldLII.

In the last couple of years, AustLII has been changing its structure to ensure it remains sustainable as a free-access service.  It has incorporated as a company limited by guarantee, with the University of Technology, Sydney and the University of New South Wales as its members. The company operates as a charity and is registered as the AustLII Foundation Limited and has its own deductible gift recipient status, hence donations are tax deductible.

Donations are used to maintain AustLII’s Australian operations, infrastructure and existing services. To date, AustLII has 370+ databases available for free-access. AustLII needs over one million dollars in donations each year to be sustainable, with the amount increasing each year as the number of users and databases increases. As such, it seeks support from all its major users. Donors are acknowledged on AustLII’s sponsors’ page.

Funding to date from Queensland is not in proportion to usage. Eighteen percent of AustLII’s users come from Queensland, which is in line with population figures, yet in 2008 only 6% of funding came from Queensland, most of which came from Queensland’s Law Schools. AustLII seeks support from Queensland lawyers to assist in rectifying this imbalance. Donations to the AustLII Foundation Limited can be made through AustLII’s contribution form located on AustLII’s front page.

For further information on search tips please refer to AustLII’s user guide and its recent newsletters for new content developments. Please contact Annelies Moens, AustLII’s External Relations Manager on 02 9514 4930 or annelies@austlii.edu.au regarding donations, seminars, training etc.

AustLII’s User Guide: http://www.austlii.edu.au/austlii/guide/user/Userguide_AustLII.pdf
AustLII’s Newsletters: http://www.austlii.edu.au/austlii/news/
AustLII’s Contribution Form: http://www.austlii.edu.au/austlii/sponsors/contribute.pdf
AustLII’s Sponsors: http://www.austlii.edu.au/austlii/sponsors/
Lawcite: http://www.austlii.edu.au/lawcite/