Citation practices and the bluebook cuny school of law. Quotations of 50 or more words should be single spaced and indented on both sides. It is essential for all legal practitioners especially students in their firstyear learning how to cite statutes and cases. District court for the southern district of new york, but f. Most of the bluebook, however, is irrelevant for many people who create legal documents. This lack of spacing violates the bluebook rule against combining abbreviations of more than one letter. Illinois courts have implemented a system of publicdomain case citation for opinions issued on or after july 1, 2011. In endnotes, citation sentences begin one space after a textual proposition. Presented by the academic achievement program october. Generally, there are no spaces between unilateral capitals, which are single letter or numerical abbreviations, such as 2d or s. Assume that the authority is being cited in citation sentences in a brief to the united states supreme court unless. Name of the case underlined or italicized and abbreviated according to rule 10. It reports only cases decided in the federal district court.
Blue pages first section of rules for practitioners, organized as. Generally, the given differences may be described as the white pages vs. Always check the blue pages in the back of the bluebook table 1 to ensure that the spacing of reporters is correct. Us federal courts reported opinions, decisions and case law from justia. Omit all other parties besides the first listed in the case name. A citation that follows a block quotation should not begin at the left margin but be intended, doublespaced, and placed below the blockquote. However, the general spacing rules found in both bluebook rule 6. Bluebook is a style of referencing which is the most used legal citation system in the united states, used at the majority of us law schools.
Appx this is where unreported circuit cases are published. Parenthetical court and date include in the parenthetical. Blue pages are mostly used in briefs, motions, memoranda, and opinions. Quotations of fifty or more words are always intended left and right, singlespaced, without quotation marks, and justified. Do not include a space between two capital letters.
Such citations and abbreviations are found in court decisions, statutes, regulations, journal articles, books, and other documents. A uniform system of citation, is the style manual for citing to legal documents within the united states. The following information regarding the bluebook citation format is an adapted. A212 1790 to 1920 mcls michigan compiled laws service.
Apr 10, 2020 case reporters are published in series, which are designated by a series number 2d, 3d, 4th, etc. Lets take a tour through our orientation case the backstory caption 88 f. An apostrophe is used before the last letter but no period. However, it is an essential book that every lawyer should know how to use. The indigo book was compiled by a team of students at the new york university school of law, working under the direction of professor christopher jon sprigman.
The 2d indicates the second series of the federal supplement. United states district court cases are reported in the federal supplement. Citation format examples for footnotes general rules times new roman, size 10, 1 line spacing, justified. There are, of course, myriad books of a similar name reaching back several centuries. Cases source in which the case can be found and pincites. Always check the blue pages in the back of the bluebook table 1 to. California style manual for many years, the california style manual has served as the official guide for styling citations to legal materials in documents filed with state courts in california. The heavy abbreviation system all words in case names, other than the first word of either partys name, is abbreviated if it is listed in table 6 on pages 30203 of the.
As men of law rely upon a great number of various sources, legal citation also covers the usage of signals that present. Navigating the bluebook quick references at front and back practitioners notes blue pages in front rules white pages in middle tables and abbreviations blue pages in. In footnotes, signals may be used as the verbs of textual sentences. Numbers, including ordinals, are treated like capital letters. Abbreviations may also be found for common words or legal phrases. What does the blue paper in front of the blue book contain. There are currently three series of the federal supplement that are cited as f. Introduction bluebook guide guides at georgetown law library. Name of the court abbreviated according to rule 10. Federal cases how to read a legal citation lawguides. Cases bluebook guide libguides at university of illinois.
If you see a case is published in the federal appendix, that case is not precedent. Remember that every citation sentence must end with a period. The scrunched technique is used when various letters of the word are chosen as the abbreviation. The 2d and 3d indicate the second and third series of the federal reporter. Effective january 1, 2008, however, california rule of court, rule 1. Federal courts bluebook guide guides at georgetown law library.
In the rest of the text, capitalize nouns referring to people or groups only when they refer to specific persons, offices, or bodies. In case the book is being published by more than one publishing house, write the. This book, available in the law librarys practical skills collection, will help you learn bluebook citation. Learning to properly format the case name and when and what words to abbreviate in the case name takes practice. Abbreviations full case names are generally too long and include too much information to make a useful citation.
Westlaw has the pdfs for all regional reporters and for the lower federal cases f. The contraction technique takes the first three letters of a word plus the last letter. If you are writing a brief or memo, look at the blue pages, rule b10 or apply the citation rules of the jurisdiction. To cite to a case in the federal supplement, list the following six elements in order. Below is a basic list of very common abbreviations. Common bluebook citations for federal courts welcome. Bluebook referencing is a uniform system of citing legal documents that are commonly used in the united states. When abbreviating courts and reporters, you may notice some funny spacing. So use the information they provide, and transform that information into an appropriate blue book.
Include material that would otherwise be included in parenthetical explanations as part of the sentence itself, and do not italicize the signals. Common mistakes bluebook citations libguides at william s. Few books cause law students as much dread, pain, anger, and frustration as the bluebook. L ed united states supreme court reports, lawyers edition. Jul 19, 2019 however, it is an essential book that every lawyer should know how to use. Federal court of appeals cases are, just to make up a book and page number, 123 f. Because each reporter series begins with volume 1, it is important to include the correct series designation in your citation if your case appears in a second, third, fourth, or later series. Judicial opinions basic legal citation cornell university. Northeastern mountain development organization versus. Everything you wanted to know that the bluebook does not tell. Coalition of appalachian environmental engineers, decided. Study 256 bluebook rules 1 11 flashcards on studyblue. Abbreviations longer than a single letter, such as supp. This reporter is commercially published by the west group.
All citations must include a pin cite, unless the citation is merely providing. There are also numerous registered marks that include bluebook or blue book. You may obtain a copy of opinions from this reporter in the same fashion as for the federal supplement. Introduction bluebook guide guides at georgetown law. All homework solutions offers a guide on how to go about bluebook referencing. Csm for cases bluebooking and legal citation libguides. United states district court for the district of connecticut is the full name, but only abbreviate the last part.
The following information regarding the bluebook citation format is an adapted version of the style and formatting guidelines found in the bluebook, 20th ed. Unfortunately, the publishers rarely use blue book form. Abbreviated reporter names can be found in table t1 of the blue book. But if you begin a new sentence after a citation, that new sentence will be two spaces after the citation. To obtain one of these opinions electronically use lexisnexis and copy the exact citation into the citation field on the appropriate page of the lexisnexis website. Finally, if anyone is familiar with this, i pulled this from bluebook rule 10. When citing a case, including a parenthetical and then including a citing to, it would be correct to end it in triple parentheses all of the time, correct.
That is, you can get the opinion either from the hsse library or on line using lexisnexis. Bluebook case guide bluebook citation generator legalease. Includes decisions of the federal district courts from 19311998. Cases argued and determined in the united states district courts, united states court of international trade, special court, regional rail reorganization act and rulings of the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation. You can ignore more than twothirds of the book if all you need to do is to cite cases and statutes which covers most of the first year of law school, and a lot of litigation.
The federal supplement is a case law reporter published by west publishing in the united states that includes select opinions of the united states district courts, and is part of the national reporter system. The indigo book isnt the same as the bluebook, but it does implement the same uniform system of citation that the bluebook does. Federal courts bluebook guide guides at georgetown law. A citation to a district court case in the federal supplement includes the following six elements. Cases bluebook guide libguides at university of illinois law. All citations must include a pin cite, unless the citation is merely providing the. When youre using only one party name for the short form citation, use the first party unless that party is a geographical or governmental unit or another party name that might cause confusion. But spaces are used when the citation includes abbreviations longer than a single letter. Though west is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the u. The idea of italicizing or bolding certain important words is not able. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
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