How to cite a case — public domain format

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format · B10 / R10.3.3 · Cases & decisions

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.

More examples

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

• Gregory v. Class, 1998 SD 106, ¶ 3, 584 N.W.2d 873, 875.
• Jones v. Fisher, 1998 OK Civ. App. 120U.
• Smith v. Hickman, 2009 Ark. 12, at 1, 273 S.W.3d 340, 343.
• Callahan v. Janoshev, 2012 COA 14, ¶¶ 5–12.
• People v. Jolly, 2016 IL App (4th) 150494-V, ¶¶ 7–11.

What the citation needs

Required

• Plaintiff / first party — The first party on the first side. In a citation, R10.2.2 abbreviates the words T6 and T10 list.
• 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.

When they apply

• Defendant / second party — The first party on the other side, abbreviated the same way.
• Year of decision — The year that goes in the date parenthetical at the end of the citation.
• Court (T7) — The deciding court, abbreviated per T1 and T7, in the parenthetical with the date (R10.4). Leave out what the reporter already makes clear.
• Sequential number — The number that identifies the document in its series.
• Appellate district — Illinois prints the district inside the code: “2016 IL App (4th) 150494-V”.
• Docket number — The docket number as it appears on the court’s papers (R10.8.1(a)).
• Court and date parenthetical — Louisiana and Mississippi only — the contents of the parenthetical, without the brackets.
• Paragraph pincite — R10.3.3 pinpoints to the paragraph, not the page.
• Page pincite (“at”) — Set the pincite off with “at”, where the page could otherwise be misread (R3.2(a)).
• Page pincite (“p.”) — Louisiana pinpoints inside the citation: “97-1093, p. 2 (La. …)”.
• Parallel regional reporter citation — Another reporter or source printing the same material, cited after the first (R10.3.1).
• Parallel pincite — The pincite in the parallel reporter, matching the paragraph cited in the public-domain citation.

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)

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

Law review footnotes (Whitepages)

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

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

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.

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
• Court filing / record
• Case — unreported (docket number)
• Case — Tribal court
• Agency adjudication