About the register

Independence. Courts Australia is an independent, privately operated register. It is not a court, a tribunal or a government agency, and it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated on behalf of any of them. The name describes the subject matter, not the operator.

What the register is

Australian courts publish daily lists: the matters scheduled before each court on a given day, with the names of parties, the room, and the type of listing. These lists are public, but they are published in different places and formats, are usually only available for the current day, and are not searchable across courts.

Courts Australia collects those published lists each morning and keeps them, so that a list can be read after the day has passed and a name can be searched across all collected courts at once. Each line of a published list becomes one entry on the register.

What an entry means

An entry shows that a matter involving the person named was scheduled before a particular court on a particular date. That is all it shows. It does not mean the person was charged with, found guilty of, or convicted of any offence. It does not record the outcome of the matter, or whether the matter proceeded at all. Many listings are procedural (a mention, an adjournment, a directions hearing), and parties listed may be applicants, respondents, witnesses or victims rather than defendants. Every person is presumed innocent.

Where entries come from

Only from the publishing court's own website. The Courts and sources page lists every court whose list is collected, the publisher, and the address the list is read from. Each entry carries a source block naming the list and the time it was retrieved. Nothing is added from other sources, and fields are reproduced as published.

Accuracy

Courts amend their lists during the day. The register reads each list once, in the morning, and will not reflect later amendments until the following collection. Where this register and a court's own list differ, the court's list is authoritative. Known transcription issues and how to report one are described under Corrections and removals.

Who uses it

Journalists checking what is listed; legal practitioners and their staff confirming a listing; researchers studying the work of the courts; and members of the public who wish to attend or follow a matter. The register is not designed for, and must not be used for, background screening of individuals. See the Terms of use.

Contact

Enquiries and corrections: see Contact.