Here is a basic overview on how to use case citations. If you are well-versed in legal research, you may want to skip this blog. But if reading and citing legal citations is intimidating to you, this is a great place to start to understand this big part of most students first year of law school.

CITATION IS A FANCY WAY TO SAY LOCATION
It helped me to look at legal citations like addresses. Each component tells you how to locate the citation depending on where it is listed in the citation. Just like an address. Once I looked at it this way, it became easier for me. 

When citing judicial opinions (which most citations are), each component is separated by a comma. The four basic parts of a legal citation are: 

1. Name
2. Location 
3. Date
4. Court

This is the format they are listed in:

   Name, Location, (Date), Court

Name
The name of the case, statute or article being cited. 

The name is also known as the:

• Caption
• Title 
• Style 

Names should always be:
      Italicized or Underlined 
      Condensed 
      v. should replace versus 
      End with a comma

Address
The specific place you can find the citation goes by all of these names:

• Address
• Cite
• Citation 
• Location
• Retrieval ID 
• Reporter

Whatever you call it, it is a series of numbers and letters that gives you information regarding where to find the citation, such as the name of the publication, volume or series and page number you can find the particular citation.

If available, a medium neutral citation should be listed. If not, it should be listed in the following format:

   Reporter Volume Number, Abbreviated Reporter Name, First Page of the Case in Volume

Pinpoint or Jump Citations 
If the reference is to a portion of an opinion, as it usually is.  You will want to get as specific as possible if you want your citation to convince the reader to agree with your argument. In which case after the location you will list the paragraph number(s) in the citation, or at least the page number(s). 

For numerous reasons it is beneficial for you to lead your reader to exactly the point you want to cite to support your argument. The main reason is that you always want your pleadings to be respectful of the judicial efficiency. Which means you want to be mindful of the judge’s time. But it does you more good than anyone.

First of all, you may not want the judge to read through the entire opinion you are citing. The entire opinion may not support your exact argument. If you direct the reader to the point you are trying to make, the chances of this are less likely. Further, you want every pleading you put before the court to do its job and persuade the judge to rule in your favor. This is not done by burying your good points in lengthy irrelevant case law.

Date
The date is always listed in parenthesis. Sometimes the date can already appear in the citation when you are listing other components of the citation. In that case, you do not need to list the date again.

I hope this helped you to better understand how to read citations and you continue to learn more about citing cases. I suggest you subscribe to your local state’s judicial website for updates as well, or whatever area of law you specifically work in or have an interest in. You will get all the latest court opinions fresh off the press and straight to your inbox. 

Don’t forget to check out the handy-dandy guide to common reporter abbreviations we made for you all in this blog.