Library guides: Legal Research Skills: News & current awareness

Keeping up to date

Current awareness (or keeping up to date) is an important aspect of practising law.

There are multiple ways to keep up to date with changes to the law:

Search alerts: be notified when new legislation, cases or articles are published matching your search terms
Journal table of contents alerts: be notified when new issues of particular journals are published
Newsletters: often published by commercial legal publishers and covering specific topics, newsletters may include new cases, legislation, policy updates and other legal industry news
Legal publisher alerts: e.g. CCH News, LexisNexis LegalExpress, Alert24 (Thomson Reuters)
Podcasts: Try a podcast if you prefer to listen to rather than read your news

Note: Individual logins (which are required for most alerts) cannot currently be created for CCH iKnowConnect.

Search & table of contents alerts

Most subscription databases allow you to create a free individual account so you can save searches and set up various types of alerts.

It is not currently possible to set up individual accounts or alerts in CCH.

The databases below are only a small sample. Contact the Library for additional suggestions.

Lexis+ (Australia) This link opens in a new window
Create search, topic or publication alerts.
Westlaw AU This link opens in a new window
Create WestClip (search), publication and KeyCite alerts
InfoRMIT This link opens in a new window
Create a free Informit account, then set up search alerts or journal alerts.

Jade
Create a free account with Jade, then set up alerts by keywords, citation, legislation and more.

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Create a free MyHein account, then set up search alerts or journal table of contents alerts.

Legal publisher alerts

LexisNexis LegalExpress
LexisNexis customers can register for daily email alerts; topics can be customised to your areas of interest.
Alert24 (Westlaw AU)
Frequently updated news alerts from Thomson Reuters. This link allows you to browse the 10 most recently added documents under each topic. Follow these Westlaw instructions to create Alert24 alerts.
CCH iKnowConnect News and Articles
News and practitioner articles in a range of practice areas. Browse to 'News and articles' in the left-hand navigation panel, then filter by practice area or article type. It is not possible to create an individual login & subscribe to news alerts via CCH.
LawTracker (Timebase)
Legislative Daily Activity Reports by jurisdiction. RSS feeds are also available by jurisdiction or subject. It is not possible to create an individual login & subscribe to alerts via LawOne.

Capital Monitor (LexisNexis) This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive documentary coverage of federal, state and territory parliaments, government departments, agencies, courts and key stakeholders in public policy, including industry, associations and not-for-profits. Subscribe to alerts and newsletters to receive the latest government and policy updates via email.

Suggested podcasts

ABC Law Report: Accessible program about the law, airing Tuesdays at 6pm, or catch-up on the podcast.

Selden Society Lecture Series Podcast: cover a variety of topics that explore Australian legal heritage and the common law—presented by expert and experienced judicial officers, legal professionals and academics.

Law for community workers podcast
Keeping community workers up-to-date with legal topics and changes to the law.