Legal Citation

Almost every legal article, judicial decision, book, treatise or encyclopedia contains citations to other legal authorities. To fully utilize these sources, and to know how to locate a particular legal source within a publication, you must know how to decipher legal citations.

Most citations to statutes, encyclopedias, digests and treatises will look like this: 

123 XXX. 456 (2003).

• 123 is the volume number.
• XXX is the abbreviation of the source.
• means "section."
• 456 is the section number.
• (2003) is the year of the publication or year the decision was issued.

Citations to judicial decisions will look like this:

Smith v. Jones, 123 XXX. 456, 789 (3rd Cir. 1953).

• 123 is the volume number.
• XXX is the abbreviation of the reporter.
• 456 is the page number on which the decision begins.
• 789 is the page number on which the quoted or referenced language is found - this is also referred to as the pinpoint cite.
• (3rd Cir. 1953) is the court that the case was decided in and the year the decision was issued.

Although some legal citations vary, once you understand the basics, the entire world of legal citation will be open to you. For example:

While in court, Drew and Sam, attorneys for the plaintiff and defendant, respectively, engage in oral argument, both citing the case State v. Andrews. The court, wishing to review the case on its own, requests the citation for the case. Both attorneys know that the case is found in volume 83 of the U.S. Reports, beginning on page 201. Drew tells the court that the citation is 201 U.S. 83; Sam states that Drew’s citation is misstated, and that the correct citation is 83 U.S. 201. The court instructs its clerk to pull both volumes from the library and learns that the proper citation is in fact 83 U.S. 201.

A book that has been deemed essential is The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (commonly referred to as the “Bluebook”). Many law schools require their students to learn citation formats set out in the Bluebook, and many law journals, reviews and other periodicals require their citations to conform to the Bluebook’s formats. Almost every citation you could ever need is contained in the Bluebook, and it is commonly and often referred to by attorneys and paralegals to decipher uncommon references. 

The following is a list of common abbreviations for various legal sources you are likely to encounter quite often. The citations may sometimes vary from how they are listed here, but the list is a good base from which to distill the meanings of other citations.

Reporters

Federal citations:

State citations:
Regional reporters: 

Alabama:

Alaska:

Arizona:

Arkansas:

California:

Colorado:

Connecticut:

Delaware:

District of Columbia:

Florida:

Georgia:

Hawaii:

Idaho:

Illinois:

Indiana:

Iowa:

Kansas:

Kentucky:

Louisiana:

Maine:

Maryland:

Massachusetts:

Michigan:

Minnesota:

Mississippi:

Missouri:

Montana:

Nebraska:

Nevada:

New Hampshire:

New Jersey:

New Mexico:

New York:

North Carolina:

North Dakota:

Ohio:

Oklahoma:

Oregon:

Pennsylvania:

Rhode Island:

South Carolina:

South Dakota:

Tennessee:

Texas:

Utah:

Vermont:

Virginia:

Washington:

West Virginia:

Wisconsin:

Wyoming:

Courts

Like reporters, courts have their own abbreviations. Following is a list of common abbreviations:

Federal

United States Court of Appeals for the:

United States District Court for the:

Because there are so many state courts, it is best to review the jurisdictions rules to determine the appropriate citation before actually citing a state court decision. Examples of state courts are: N.Y. App. Div. (New York Appellate Division), N.M. Ct. App. (New Mexico Court of Appeals, Mass. App. Ct. (Massachusetts Appellate Court), La. Ct. App (Louisiana Court of Appeals).