AGLC4 Rule 2.2.5: Reported Decisions: Pinpoint References

Pinpoints follow rules 1.1.6 and 1.1.7 and come after a comma and a space. In a paginated report, pinpoint to the page, repeating the starting page if the passage is on it, and add paragraph numbers after the page where the report has them. After Ibid, repeat both page and paragraph unless the reference is to the very same page and paragraph.

AGLC4 page 52

Formatting

  • A comma and a space come before the first pinpoint.
  • Several pinpoints are separated by commas, never by and.
  • Page numbers follow rule 1.10.1.
  • A passage on the first page is pinpointed by repeating the starting page.
  • Where a report has pages and paragraphs, the page is always given and the paragraph may follow after a single space in square brackets.
  • Page ranges and paragraph ranges follow rule 1.1.7.
  • A judge bracket follows the pinpoint group it relates to.
  • Ibid is followed by a space and the new pinpoint; where page and paragraph are unchanged, Ibid stands alone with a full stop.

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 52
  1. 69
    Murphy v Overton Investments Pty Ltd (2004) 216 CLR 388, 402 [29].
  2. 70
    Ibid 404 [32].
  3. 71
    Ibid. [Not: Ibid 404 [32].]
  4. 72
    Ibid 404 [33].
  5. 73
    Re Mackenzie Grant & Co (1899) 1 WALR 116, 116.
  6. 74
    De L v Director-General, Department of Community Services (NSW) [No 2] (1997) 190 CLR 207, 211, 221–2.
  7. 75
    Garry Rogers Motors (Aust) Pty Ltd v Subaru (Aust) Pty Ltd (1999) ATPR ¶41-703, 43,014.
  8. 76
    Total Ice Pty Ltd v Maroochy Shire Council [2009] 1 Qd R 82, 89–92 [18]–[19], 93 [24] (Fraser JA).

In the text

The Court stated that at trial ‘the appellants had not proved that they had suffered any loss or damage’.69 On appeal, it was pointed out that the appellants may have suffered loss ‘if the outgoings for which they were liable included sums of a kind which had not been taken into account in forming the estimate they were given’.70 This was so even though the appellants may have received value for their payments.71 Yet the case had been dismissed at first instance.72

Quoted from the Guide, page 53

Not

Quoted from the Guide, page 52
  • [Not: Ibid 404 [32].]
    the pinpoint is repeated after Ibid although the page and paragraph are unchanged

Forms in the rule

Quoted from the Guide, page 52
  • ‘24 CLR 21, 21’

See also

Check your footnotes against these rules

Paste your paper into the free AGLC4 checker and each footnote is graded against the Guide, with the rule it breaks. To write a citation from scratch, use the AGLC4 citation generator.

AGLC4 citation checker AGLC4 citation generator

Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.