What are Looseleaf Services?

Looseleaf services are a type of publication that is widely used in the area of law.  Looseleaf services are sometimes referred to as commentary services.  They were traditionally available in print, in ring binders that could be regularly updated by removing some pages from the binder and replacing the pages with updated versions. These days, looseleaf services are available online.  They still contain information that is regularly updated. This means they are especially useful in areas of law that can change regularly.     More Information Legal Research Skills: An Australian Law Guide (2024)

CCH iKnowConnect Database

CCH is a legal publisher that produces a wide range of looseleaf services covering many areas of law. The content is organised into practice areas including company law, employment, intellectual property, privacy, tax, torts and many more.

You can search across the whole database or within a specific practice area.

To browse a particular practice area hover over the menu on the left side of the screen and select the practice area of interest. You can then select if you are interested in Commentary, Legislation, Cases or more.

Using Secondary Sources to Find Primary Sources

It is often best to begin a legal research task by looking at secondary sources. Most CCH looseleaf services will provide an overview of a topic or concept, and also refer to relevant primary resources such as case law and legislation.  Consequently, they are an excellent place to begin researching a topic.

CCH Roadmaps

Roadmaps provide a summary of a specific area of law or task.  There are 100s of roadmaps available within CCH.  Their checklist style may be especially useful for students.

You can search specifically for roadmaps. Just include the word with your other search terms. For example: contract AND roadmap

More Looseleaf Services

More looseleaf services are available in both the Westlaw and Lexis Databases.  The easiest way to find looseleaf services that are available for a particular subject is to look at the Law Resources by Subject pages in this guide.  Most subjects have at least one looseleaf service available.

Westlaw Australia 

One of the features of the Westlaw Australia database is that it enables you to find looseleaf commentary regarding provisions in Legislation. 

Select the heading Legislation.  Next, navigate to the jurisdiction and choose type of legislation you are interested in.  Select the legislation title and browse to the provision. Finally, select 'Citing References' and then 'Secondary Sources' for a list of commentary about the selected provision.

Legal Encyclopedia / Loose Leaf Service  - AGLC4 Rule 7.7 & 7.8

Legal Encyclopedia - Online

The details required in order are: - Publisher, Title of Encyclopedia (in italics); online and date of retrieval (in parentheses); Title Number, Name of Title, Chapter Number Name of Chapter (in single quotation marks); Pinpoint (to paragraph number in square brackets) .

Example: LexisNexis, Halsbury's Laws of Australia (online at 20 October 2023) 250 Legal Practitioners, '4 Lawyers' Duty to the Court'  [250-5000].

Looseleaf Service - Online

The details required in order are: Publisher; Title (in italics); online at Date of Retrieval (in parentheses); Pinpoint (to paragraph in square brackets].