The Present

That's us, inside the mind of a budding student blogger.

Most bloggers love to blog with references to AustLII. That’s because AustLII was the only option for many Courts and Tribunals. Now you have a choice for your legal research. At least for some Courts and Tribunals. If we have missed some, let us know and we will do our best to obtain coverage.

JADE has almost 150,000 items in its database, we have more than 750,000 references to cases. Almost every case cited in a decision in Australia in the past few years is included. We are working to ensure complete full text coverage in important areas. We code for topics. And we support specialist panels in particular subject areas.

But, if your blog is covering recent cases, you will already find us comprehensive and timely.

Blogging with JADE (or keeping a legal electronic scrapbook)

Blogging with JADE is just as easy as blogging using AustLII. In fact, our field tests show that it is easier. Let us show you how and why.

Hey, we will even alert you to decisions so you can blog about them. Simply sign up to JADE today. It’s free and will enhance your legal blog.  Send us a note, and we will include your blog on our list of bloggers and promote it for you.

Want to find a case reference URL? You have three choices

You can construct a URL using a medium neutral citation, using the AustLII format (but with a different front domain, of course), and you can even get direct access to the format within JADE, so you can retrieve the HTML of the case directly, using a specially formulated URL

Medium Neutral Citation (/mnc/)

The first variant allows you to use a simple reference in your blog which uses a medium neutral citation, in upper or lower case, separated by forward slashes.

http://jade.barnet.com.au/mnc/<year>/<acronym>/<number>

AustLII ‘style’ (/au/cases/)

The second variant captures the beauty of the AustLII legal taxonomy. In the “<state>” section use cth or CTH for the commonwealth. Make sure that you put the “acronym” which is the Medium Neutral part in UPPER CASE.

Direct access to content for bloggers (/content/ext/mnc/)

Some bloggers have complained that JADE is slow to load. We are working on our iPad and iPhone releases of JADE which are coming in December.

If you want to get quick access to the HTML, the case text or even the source documents, you can directly by using a URL, without using JADE’s excellent legal research interface.

Example: http://jade.barnet.com.au/content/ext/mnc/2011/hca/1. This gives an HTML wrapped version of [2011] HCA 1.

If you have any questions, please email us at: jade@barnet.com.au. We have more planned, but this should get you started using JADE for all of your blogging and legal scrapbook needs.

CaseTrace meets the CLRs

BarNet’s JADE (Judgments and Decisions Enhanced) is a free professional legal research platform. JADE is designed to make it easier to find, use, share, and present accurate legal information.

JADE has been designed and built by lawyers for lawyers. It is much more than a simple repository of legal information. It is a carefully considered attempt to fix many of the things which we think have been wrong with online legal research for some time.

Why you should try JADE

There are plenty of compelling reasons why you should use JADE for legal research:

Nothing new to learn

We’ve made it really easy to get started with JADE. We dislike complex systems that require hours or weeks of study before you can use them productively. JADE’s brilliant research interface helps you get started immediately Just type and go! We think that it’s the best legal research experience and system available.

Smart (and intuitive) Search

We built a search engine with legal learning. We understand your request in a legal context. The results are presented to get what you are looking for; even if you didn’t quite know what. And quickly.

CaseTrace (our super citator)

At last, a citator that allows you to see, with pinpoint accuracy, the development of legal reasoning within case law over time. See at a glance how a particular paragraph from an earlier judgment has been considered in later decisions with the relevant text.

The CaseTrace interface saves you time by allowing you to consider the context of the citation and to click through to the subsequent relevant cases.

Annotations to help you remember

You can mark up cases and particular words with your own annotations, which you are always able to retrieve. JADE’s editorial team have created public topic and other annotations to assist you.

Look good (and get output)

JADE excels in presenting your research in many ways. Now, you can print out JADE content to take to Court (in a legible and usable PDF format), export into a word document for inclusion in your opinions or submissions, or send by email in many formats.

Our emphasis is upon accuracy and fidelity: to produce a decision with formatting as close to the original as possible.

By default, whenever you print, export, email, or view the case, you will receive the latest CaseTrace results and the latest annotations. It’s like the magic pudding of legal research.

Timely Email Alerts (summarised)

We have automatic email alerts. You can choose to receive a digested summary of all of the decisions received (for nominated courts or tribunals), or tailored to your areas of practice.

Coverage

We cover the decisions and other output of 73 Australian Courts and Tribunals. More coverage coming soon.

If you would like to do some beta testing for us, please send us an email to jade@barnet.com.au.

A further analysis of the decision, including the copyright issues and issues of authorisation will be published soon on JADE.

Roadshow Films Pty Limited v iiNet Limited [2011] FCAFC 23 (24 February 2011) (EMMETT, JAGOT AND NICHOLAS JJ)
Catchwords    INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – authorisation of copyright infringement – copyright infringement notices served on internet service provider (ISP) alleging that users of ISP’s network were infringing copyright in cinematographic films by making them available online and electronically transmitting them to the public– whether ISP authorised copyright infringement – whether ISP had power to prevent infringement – whether ISP took reasonable steps to prevent or avoid infringement – consideration of other factors relevant to authorisation – knowledge of infringement – encouragement of infringement – inactivity and indifference to infringement – whether ISP sanctioned, approved or countenanced infringement – whether s 112E of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) prevented ISP from being found to have authorised infringement INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – acts of primary infringement – whether users of ISP’s network infringed copyright in cinematographic films by making them available online or electronically transmitting them to the public – whether the whole or a substantial part of any such cinematographic film was electronically transmitted – whether individual users committed multiple acts of infringement in relation to any such cinematographic film by making it available online and electronically transmitting it. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – whether Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) compelled a finding that ISP could not reasonably be expected to issue warning notices to customers or suspend or terminate their accounts on the basis of the copyright infringement notices because the disclosure or use of information contained in them or business records of the ISP to which it would need to have regard for that purpose was prohibited by law. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – ‘safe harbour’ provisions – whether ISP complied with relevant provisions of Division 2AA of Part V of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
Jade tracks    Number of paragraphs: 807

Number of outgoing citations: 126

Please take a moment to look at our case study to see some of the power of JADE for your daily legal research.

European Bank Ltd v Robb Evans of Robb Evans & Associates, 10 March 2010 [2010] HCA 6.

To find this case yourself, simply type “robb evans” in the JADE search bar at: http://jade.barnet.com.au.

The case dealt with issues in relation to the assessment of damages and the effect of the usual undertaking as to damages. It has now been reported, and subsequent cases in JADE have referred to those reports. CaseTrace now gives you these alternate citations. (This matching is still a work in progress.) You see the CaseTrace summary on the top right hand side of each decision within JADE. Here’s an exmple from Robb Evans:

CaseTrace is so powerful because it links to the case at the cited paragraph level. Choose Paragraphs [11-13] and this is what you will see (we have shrunk it in this email to save space):

Zooming in on Paragraph [11] on the right hand side you see the context of the citation of the particular paragraph :

If the citation from the NSW Court of Appeal seems relevant you can simply click on that citation to open the complete text of the citing paragraph.

Click on the case name and you will be taken directly to that case.

We also include links to cases which are not necessarily in the JADE corpus. Take Hadley v Baxendale which is also referred to in paragraph [11]. Clicking on the link, shows you this:

Clicking on Hadley v Baxendale or the “view the citations” shows you the most recent cases citing the decision:

At the bottom of the case, you will see a summary of all citations to the case, as well as any statutory references. This is the first bit of the full report:

And you can view all of the later citations to the case collected in the one place (“View this article in the JADE Citator”. Try this by clicking here.

We are very proud of that. Please help us to make JADE even better.

We hope that you will help us to make JADE even better.

Some recent enhancements

• The JADE citator now indexes a decision, even if the full text is not in JADE.
  • We show you the citations in context. We show you alternative citations, where we can infer those. This is very much a work in progress.
    
• We provide pin-point section-based links to legislation. We are working on point-in-time linkages. Parsing of legislation is incredibly complex. It is a work in progress but we hope that you will find it already useful.
• We have further refined our case and legislation parsers to make JADE more accurate and usable.
• We have made lots of bug fixes and little enhancements to make JADE work better with computers and portable devices.
  
• You can also see the text of later citations all in the one place for a previous case. Just like the reverse of CaseTrace.
• We have enhanced printing and output of decisions.

How is JADE different from other legal research systems?

We are often asked that question. Our answer is to try JADE and you should see how it will forever change the way you do online legal research. This used to be called electronic legal research.

Unlike other online systems, JADE provides you with a format which is as easy to read and work with as a piece of paper, but with search that works, pin-point case and statutory linkages.

We are supported by the Australian Legal Community

The popularity of JADE is growing and with it, we are getting increased support from a community of legal scholars. If you are already part of our growing community of panellists and supporters, thank you!

We are obtaining direct feeds where possible

We are now receiving all recent decisions directly from the High Court of Australia and many other Australian Courts and Tribunals. Direct feeds help us to ensure the accuracy, coverage and timeliness of the cases which you access on JADE. We have many exciting enhancements planned before the beginning of Law Term 2011. This includes numerous enhancements to legislation.

Plaintiff M61/2010E v Commonwealth of Australia & Ors and Plaintiff M69 of 2010 v Commonwealth of Australia & Ors, 11 November 2010

The High Court unanimously found that the provisions of the Migration Act and Australian case law were binding in the consideration and processing of an application for refugee status conducted through an off-shore processing regime. When you click through to this case from your JADE email alert or directly at the JADE website you will also retrieve the Case Trace list of cases cited. Click on view full report to go to the list of all cases cited in the Judgement. Case Trace allows you to easily and effectively understand the decision in the context of the case law on which it is based.

This case was referred to several of the JADE expert panels for assessment and ranking as to precedential importance. Expert panels are a unique part of the JADE system. They allow the legal community which uses JADE to have direct input into the processing of identifying the most significant decisions in various areas of law and will eventually will be the basis of the JADE commentary services.

If you would like to be involved in panels in an area of specialist expertise please select from our existing panels or reply to this email to suggest a new one!

Making Search easer and more effective. The JADE google like search is designed to understand your search and return relevant and accurate results. People tell us that with JADE they find the right case, they find the hard to find cases and they appreciate the fact that they don’t need to navigate impenetrable search systems or a sea of irrelevant search results.

Search Results with which you can work. The search results feature ‘bars’ which indicate the number of cases cited by that decision, and the number of times a case has been subsequently cited. If you are starting to accumulate a list of cases to review, this can be of great assistance.  What is more, JADE allows you to print your cases in a format designed to be read on paper not on screen. A welcome change!

If you have ideas about ways in which we can improve the JADE search system please tell us now. We plan to do a major upgrade of the search system during 2011.

Please get involved. We’d love you to become involved in making JADE even better.  If you would like to become a member of one of our panels, simply click on the panels tab and apply for membership. If you wish to suggest a new panel, please let us know by replying to this email. Being a panel member is a great way of sharing your expertise with the entire Australian and international legal community.

Please tell your friends. With more subscribers to JADE, we are encouraged to make an even better system for legal professionals. Ask your friends to subscribe today: http://jade.barnet.com.au. There is no charge to use JADE. You don’t need to log into JADE to use it. However, by registering and logging in, you will be able to gain access to additional features, including our  popular JADE marks and the ability to customise your alerts. If you blog about us, please let us know! Please share your JADE searching success stories with us too.

We have lots planned for JADE for the little bit that remains of this year and hope to move mountains in the vast expanse of the new year.