What does a legal citation look like?

A citation (or cite) in legal terminology is a reference to a specific legal source, such as a constitution, a statute, a reported case, a treatise, or a law review article. A standard citation includes first the volume number, then the title of the source, (usually abbreviated) and lastly, a page or section number.

What is the purpose of a case citation?

Case citation is a system used by legal professionals to identify past court case decisions, either in series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral style that identifies a decision regardless of where it is reported.

What is the case name?

The name of a case is a short version of the names of the parties involved in the case. For cases involving more than two parties, the case name will only include the first plaintiff and defendant. All this case name tells you is that it is a criminal case (R v …) and the first defendant’s surname is Smith.

What does a neutral citation look like?

Neutral citations (2001 – ) A citation is “neutral” if it doesn’t refer to a particular law reports series; it is independent of the law reports system. Cases are not identified by reporter, volume and page number but instead use the name of the court and the case number.

When would you not abbreviate a case name?

It states that only “widely known acronyms” (such as CIA, FDA, per Rule 6.1(b)) and eight words (&, Ass’n, Bros., Co., Corp., Inc., Ltd., and No.) are to be abbreviated. A further exception, though, is that the eight words are not to be abbreviated if they begin a party’s name.

How do you cite references in Turabian style?

In this system, sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and year of publication. Each citation in the text matches up with an entry in a reference list, where full bibliographic information is provided.

How do you write a neutral citation?

Neutral citation is simplified and includes only these elements:

  1. case name (also known as style of cause) in italics followed by a comma,
  2. v to separate names (indicates language of case is English) in italics.
  3. year or date of decision without any brackets.
  4. court identifier abbreviated without periods.

How do you cite a case in text?

To cite a court case or decision, list the name of the case, the volume and abbreviated name of the reporter, the page number, the name of the court, the year, and optionally the URL. The case name is italicized in the in-text citation, but not in the reference list.

How do you pinpoint cite a case?

A pinpoint citation, often called a pincite, is necessary to point the reader to specific the page(s) within the case. Pincites are placed after the page on which the case begins, separated by a comma and a space. A pincite may consist of a page range or multiple pages that are not consecutive.

What citation style do lawyers use?

Bluebook

How do you reference a statute?

Therefore, the proper citation format is:

  1. The title number.
  2. The abbreviation of the code used (here, U.S.C.A. or U.S.C.S.)
  3. The section symbol (§) followed by a space and the section number containing the statute.
  4. The name of the publisher (West or LexisNexis)
  5. The year of the code.

How do you name a criminal case?

The title in criminal cases always contains at least two names. The first name refers to the party that brought the action. It is always the government at the trial stage because the government initiates all criminal cases in the United States.

How do you cite a website in Turabian style?

Website citations should include: author, title, owner or sponsor of the site, date of publication, modification or revision and URL (14

What are citation sentences?

A sentence consisting entirely of one or more citations. A citation sentence always begins with a capital letter and ends with a period. Semicolons divide multiple sources in a citation sentence. The sentence may or may not begin with a signal.

Who uses Turabian style?

APA (American Psychological Association) is used by Education, Psychology, and Sciences. MLA (Modern Language Association) style is used by the Humanities. Chicago/Turabian style is generally used by Business, History, and the Fine Arts.

What is medium neutral citation?

What is medium neutral citation? Medium neutral citation (“MNC”) is a citation assigned to judgments by the Court or Tribunal. It is independent of any other citation that the commercial publishers may give to a judgment or decision.

Do you abbreviate case names in text?

All words in case names, other than the first word of either party’s name, is abbreviated if it is listed in Table 6 on pages 302-03 of the Bluebook (Rule 10.2. 2). Used for case names appearing in citations, i.e., one that is not part of a grammatical sentence.

How do you find a neutral citation?

2.3 The neutral citation will be the official number attributed to the judgment by the court and must always be used on at least one occasion when the judgment is cited in a later judgment. Once the judgment is reported, the neutral citation will appear in front of the familiar citation from the law reports series.

What does a case citation consist of?

Case citations include the party names, sometimes called the name or title of the case, and a unique reference which you can use to locate the case.

How are court cases written?

  • Title and Citation. The title of the case shows who is opposing whom.
  • Facts of the Case. A good student brief will include a summary of the pertinent facts and legal points raised in the case.
  • Issues.
  • Decisions.
  • Reasoning.
  • Separate Opinions.
  • Analysis.

How do you abbreviate case names?

Some (including the U.S. Supreme Court) do not abbreviate the first word in a party name….§ 4-100. Words Abbreviated in Case Names. [ BB | ALWD | IB ]

Term Abbreviation Example
Associate Assoc. «e.g.»
Association * Ass’n «e.g.»
Atlantic Atl. «e.g.»
Authority Auth. «e.g.»

How do you write a legal citation?

A case citation is generally made up of the following parts:

  1. the names of the parties involved in the lawsuit.
  2. the volume number of the reporter containing the full text of the case.
  3. the abbreviated name of that case reporter.
  4. the page number on which the case begins the year the case was decided; and sometimes.

How do you write a case name?

Basic Case Citation Note: In court documents (briefs, motions) and legal memoranda, a full case name is usually italicized or underlined. In academic legal writing (i.e., a law review article), full case names are generally not underlined or italicized.

What does in re mean?

in the matter of