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Legal citation is a unique method of citing to primary and secondary legal sources. Legal citations have specific structures that are different from other citation formats.
In legal citations, there are specific abbreviations for: courts of law, court reporters, code abbreviations, and even secondary sources.
The following citation formats are examples of the frameworks of different types of legal citations.
Citation Formats for Primary Legal Sources
Federal Statutes:
Statute Name, Title# U.S.C. § Section# (Year).
U.S. Supreme Court Cases:
Party v. Party, Volume# Reporter Page# (Year).
U.S. Court of Appeals Cases:
Party v. Party, Volume# Reporter Page# (Court Year).
U.S. District Court Cases:
Party v. Party, Volume# Reporter Page# (Court Year).
State Statutes:
StateCode § Section# (Year).
State Court Cases:
Party v. Party, Volume# Reporter Page# (StateCourt Year).
Citation Formats for Primary Legal Sources
Articles:
Author Name, Title, Volume# Journal Page# (Year).
Books:
Volume# Author Name, Title Page# (Edition Year).
Each court has its own unique abbreviation for citations.
For example, the United States Supreme Court is abbreviated as U.S.
The U.S. Courts of Appeals are abbreviated as:
The State Supreme Courts are abbreviated as:
Source
These abbreviations along with additional ones for federal and state courts can be found in the free, open access book The Indigo Book in the T-3 Tables under Section J of the book.
The most common guides to legal citation include The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation and The ALWD Guide to Legal Citation.
The enitre list of abbreviations can be found in Prince's Bieber Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations (see the "Legal Citation Sources" box below) but here are listed some of the most commonly used abbreviations along with the full title of the source.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.