Legal practitioners across Australia will benefit with the upcoming release of the Victorian Reports on the Thomson Reuters legal research platform.

SYDNEY 30 June 2016

Thomson Reuters has struck an agreement to publish the authorised Victorian Reports on its online legal platform, Westlaw AU, for the first time.

The agreement between Thomson Reuters, the Council of Law Reporting in Victoria and Little William Bourke Pty Ltd (LWB), the appointed publisher of the Victorian Reports, provides Thomson Reuters with online rights to the authorised law reports. The collection will include the backset reports since 1957, including PDFs for submission in Court, and all upcoming reports published by LWB.

"The Council of Law Reporting in Victoria is delighted to be joining for the first time with Thomson Reuters to publish the Victorian Reports online at Westlaw AU," the Chairman of the Council of Law Reporting in Victoria, the Hon Justice Cameron Macaulay, said.

"The agreement with Thomson Reuters is part of a wider reorganisation of publishing arrangements for the VRs to take effect from July 2016 onwards," he said. "Under these arrangements, new publisher, Little William Bourke Pty Ltd, will publish the VRs both online, at a website dedicated to the reports, as well as in hard copy. Additionally, in line with the Council’s guiding philosophy of publishing the VRs with the widest dissemination and at the lowest cost, they will also be available online through other commercial publishers including Thomson Reuters."

"The Council looks forward to a long and productive relationship with Thomson Reuters," Justice Macaulay said.

The Managing Director of Thomson Reuters Legal (Australia & New Zealand), Jackie Rhodes, said: "This agreement demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing authoritative and trusted legal content across Australia."

"The addition of the Victorian Reports reinforces our position as the publisher of a wide collection of authorised and specialist reports in Australia, and further completes our primary and analytical collection for the Victorian market."

The Victorian Reports will be published on Westlaw AU alongside the Commonwealth Law Reports, the Federal Court Reports, and the authorised reports of other Australian legal jurisdictions.

"Thomson Reuters has a long-term commitment to the role of law reporting and legal practice in Victoria," Ms Rhodes said. "The Victorian Reports will be fully integrated with our existing suite of online research tools, further strengthening Westlaw AU as a platform of choice for some of Australia’s top legal institutions, lawyers, law firms and barristers."