How to cite a case — public domain format

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format, B10 / R10.3.3.

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format for a case — public domain format, governed by B10 / R10.3.3. Worked example, required elements, and the rules that apply.

Medium-neutral citation. R10.3.3's recommended form is year, postal code, court, sequential number; the nineteen jurisdictions with their own format in T1 use their own code and shape.

Example

Beck v. Beck, 1999 ME 110, ¶ 6, 733 A.2d 981, 983.

Governing rules

B10 / R10.3.3

• 10.2.2 — additional rules for case names in citations.
• T6 — case-name / institutional-author abbreviations (plurals derived).
• 10.3.1 — parallel citations.
• 10.3.3 — public domain (medium-neutral) citation format.
• T1 — jurisdiction-specific code name & citation form.
• 10 — cases.
• 3.3 — sections and paragraphs.

Required elements

• Plaintiff / first party
• Jurisdiction citation code — A T1 public domain code — “ME”, “Ark. App.”, “COA”, “IL App”, “NMCA”, “Ohio”, “TSPR”, “V.I.” — or, for the R10.3.3 recommended form, the state's two-character postal code.

Optional elements

• Defendant / second party
• Year of decision
• Court (T7) — Omitted where the court is the state's highest, and where the T1 code already names the court.
• Sequential number
• Appellate district — Illinois prints the district inside the code: “2016 IL App (4th) 150494-V”.
• Docket number — Louisiana and Mississippi build the citation on the docket number instead of a sequential number.
• Court and date parenthetical — Louisiana and Mississippi only — the contents of the parenthetical, without the brackets.
• Unpublished — R10.3.3 adds a capital “U” after the sequential number.
• Paragraph pincite — R10.3.3 pinpoints to the paragraph, not the page.
• Page pincite (“at”) — Arkansas pinpoints to the page: “2009 Ark. 12, at 1”.
• Page pincite (“p.”) — Louisiana pinpoints inside the citation: “97-1093, p. 2 (La. …)”.
• Parallel regional reporter citation — R10.3.3: required if one is available.
• Parallel pincite

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