How to cite an agency adjudication

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format · B14 / R14.3 · Cases & decisions

Administrative decisions and arbitrations (NLRB, FTC, tax, labor).

Example

Conway Family Tr. v. Dorman Trading, LLC, CFTC No. 12-R002, 2014 WL 2001047 (May 9, 2014).

More examples

Each of these is checked against the rules on every change to the tool.

• In re J.P. Morgan Sec. LLC, CFTC No. 14-19, 2014 WL 3817865 (July 29, 2014).
• KAMP Sys., Inc., ASBCA No. 55317, 08-1 BCA ¶ 33,748.
• Def. Sys. Grp., B-240295, 1990 WL 293536 (Comp. Gen. Nov. 6, 1990).
• SSR 00-4p, 2000 WL 1898704 (Dec. 4, 2000).
• Grain-Oriented Silicon Elec. Steel from It. & Japan, Inv. Nos. 701-TA-355, 731-TA-659-660, USITC Pub. 3396 (Feb. 7, 2001) (Preliminary).

What the citation needs

Required

None.

When they apply

• Case or party name — The source’s name, as the rule for this type gives it.
• Volume — The volume number, which comes before the reporter, code or periodical name.
• Official reporter — The reporter’s abbreviation, from T1.
• First page — The page the source begins on. The page you are citing goes in the pincite.
• Pincite — The exact page (or section, or paragraph) your point is on — not the first page. R1.2(f): pincites are required except after “see generally”.
• Case / docket number — The agency’s case or docket number, as it appears on the decision.
• Deciding body — The body that issued the document.
• Arbitrator — R14.3.1(b): the arbitrator's name is given parenthetically: “(Doering, Arb.)”.
• Full date — The date the rule for this source calls for, with the month abbreviated per T12 (“Nov. 24, 1978”).
• Year — The year that goes in the date parenthetical at the end of the citation.
• Parallel / looseleaf citation — Another reporter or source printing the same material, cited after the first (R10.3.1).
• Database citation — A commercial-database citation, where the source is cited to one — “2010 WL 12345”.
• Explanatory parenthetical — An explanatory parenthetical: what the source says or holds, in a phrase (R1.5).
• Type of ruling — T1.2: after the docket — “Secretary’s Decision and Order of Remand”.
• Ruling that leads the citation — T1.2: “ALJ’s Decision and Order, RAG Emerald Res., Dkt. No. 2002-MSA-3 …”.
• URL — The web address, where you cite the source online (R18.2).
• On file with — Where a reader can get an unpublished or hard-to-find source: what follows “on file with” — “author”, or the library or journal holding it (R17.1).

In a brief and in a law review

The Bluebook sets citations two ways: the Bluepages for court documents and legal memoranda, the Whitepages for law review footnotes. Here is the first example above as each one prints it, in its typeface.

Court documents (Bluepages)

Conway Family Tr. v. Dorman Trading, LLC, CFTC No. 12-R002, 2014 WL 2001047 (May 9, 2014).

Law review footnotes (Whitepages)

Conway Family Tr. v. Dorman Trading, LLC, CFTC No. 12-R002, 2014 WL 2001047 (May 9, 2014).

The words are the same in both; only the typeface changes.

Common mistakes

Each of these is a citation the checker refuses, with what it says is wrong and the corrected form.

Governing rules

B14 / R14.3

• 14.3 — administrative adjudications & arbitrations.
• 14.3.1 — names (procedural phrases omitted).
• 14.3.2 — which source to cite (official reporter, release, service).
• 14.5 — commercial electronic databases.

Build this citation with the generator, check one you have already written, or paste a whole list of footnotes to check them in order.

Related source types

Cases & decisions:

• Case
• Case — public domain format
• Court filing / record
• Case — unreported (docket number)
• Case — Tribal court