The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States

Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported. Although case citations are formatted differently in different jurisdictions, they generally contain the same key information. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x750, 178 KB) Several volumes of the United States Reports, the official reporter (law) of the Supreme Court of the United States, at a public law library in San Jose, California. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x750, 178 KB) Several volumes of the United States Reports, the official reporter (law) of the Supreme Court of the United States, at a public law library in San Jose, California. ... Volumes of the United States Reports on the shelf at a law library The United States Reports are the official record of the rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceeding of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the... In law, a reporter is a series of books which contain court opinions. ... The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States Law reports or reporters are series of books which contain judicial opinions from a selection of cases that have been decided by the courts. ...

Where cases are published in paper form the citation will usually contain:

• the title of the reports;
• the volume number;
• page number; and
• year of decision.

In some report series, for example in England and Australia, the volumes are not numbered independently of the year: thus the year and volume number (usually no greater than 4) are required to identify which book of the series has the case reported within its covers. In citations of this type it is usual in these jurisdictions for square brackets "[year]" to be applied to the year (which may not be the year that the case was decided: for example, a case decided in December 2001 may have been reported in 2002). For technical reasons, :) and some similar combinations starting with : redirect here. ...

The Internet brought with it the opportunity for courts to publish their decisions on web sites. Decisions of many courts from all over the world can now be found through the website WorldLII and its member institutes.^[1] // The Free Access to Law Movement is the umbrella name for the collective of legal projects across several common law countries to provide free online access to legal information such as case law and legislation. ...

Most decisions of courts are not published in printed law reports. The expense of typesetting and publishing them has limited the printed law reports to the significant cases. Internet publishing of court decisions resulted in a flood of information. The result was that a medium-neutral citation system had to be adopted. This usually contains the following information:

• year of decision
• the abbreviated title of the court; and
• the decision number (not the court file number)

Rather than utilising page numbers for pin-point references, which would depend upon particular printers and browsers, pin-point quotes refer to paragraph numbers.

Australia

The standard case citation format in Australia is:

Like in Canada, there has been divergence between citation styles. There exists commercial citation guides published by Butterworths and other legal publishing companies, academic citation styles and court citation styles. Each court in Australia may cite the same cases slightly differently. There is presently a movement in convergence to the comprehensive academic citation style of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation published by the Melbourne University Law Review. Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (commonly known as Mabo) was a landmark Australian court case which was decided by the High Court of Australia on June 3, 1992. ...

Reports

Neutral citation

Australian courts and tribunals have now adopted a neutral citation standard for case law. The format provides a naming system that does not depend on the publication of the case in a law report. Most cases are now published on AustLII using neutral citations.^[2]

The standard format looks like this:

So the above mentioned Mabo case would then be cited like this: [1992] HCA 23.

There is a unique court identifier code for most courts. The court and tribunal identifiers include:

High Court entrance The High Court of Australia is the final court of appeal in Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. ... In Melbourne, the Federal Court is housed with other federal courts such as the High Court and the Federal Magistrates Court in the Federal Court Building on the corner of La Trobe Street and William Street The Federal Court of Australia is the Australian court in which most civil disputes... It has been suggested that Australian family law be merged into this article or section. ... The Federal Magistrates Court of Australia was established by the Federal Magistrates Act 1999 (Cth), although its first officers were not appointed until 2000. ... The Federal Magistrates Court of Australia was established by the Federal Magistrates Act 1999 (Cth), although its first officers were not appointed until 2000. ...

References

• Australian Guide to Legal Citation

Canada

There are a number of citation standards in Canada. Many legal publishing companies and schools have their own practice for citation. Since the late 1990s, however, there has been a convergence among much of legal community to a single standard which has been formulated in the "The Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation", known as the "McGill Guide" after the McGill Law Journal that first published it. The following format reflects this standard.

The standard case citation in Canada looks like this:

Hunter v. Southam, [1984] 2 S.C.R. 145.

The format can be broken into its component parts: Hunter v. ...

The Style of Cause is italicized as in all other countries and the party names are separated by "v." (English) or "c." (French). Prior to 1984 the appellant party would always be named first. However, since then case names do not switch order when the case is appealed. In the case of R. v. ... Holding Section 8 of the Narcotic Control Act violates the right to presumption of innocence under section 11(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and cannot be saved under section 1 of the Charter. ...

Undisclosed parties to a case are represented by initials (eg. R. v. R.D.S.). Criminal cases are prosecuted by the Crown which is always represented by "R." for Regina (queen) or Rex (king). Constitutional references are always entitled "Reference re" followed by the subject title. R. v. ... A Reference Question in Canada is a submission by the federal or a provincial government to the Supreme Court of Canada or the provinces respective Court of Appeal in which the submitting government would like the court to answer a legal question regarding the Constitution Acts, the constitutionality of...

Usually either the year of the decision or the year of the reporter is cited, but not usually both. Only if they are different years can they both be cited at the same time. If they are the same, one should always use the reporter year.

Where available cases should be cited with their neutral citation immediately after the style of cause and preceding the print citation. For example,

Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General), 2005 SCC 35, [2005] 1 S.C.R. 791.

This format was introduced in 2006. Prior to this format, the opposite order of parallel citation was used. Holding Section 15 of the Health Insurance Act and section 11 of the Hospital Insurance Act, which outlaw private medical insurance, violate the right to personal inviolability as guaranteed by the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms Court membership Case opinions Chaoulli v. ...

Reporters

Neutral citation

In 1999 the Canadian Judicial Council adopted a neutral citation standard for case law. The format provides a naming system that does not depend on the publication of the case a law report. The Canadian Judicial Council is the regulating body for Canadian judges composed mostly of chief justices and associate chief justices of Canadas superior courts. ...

The standard format look like this:

There is a unique court identifier code for most courts. There are a few courts in Quebec and Ontario that have yet to adopt the system. A list of the court identifiers include:

The Supreme Court of Canada (French: Cour suprême du Canada) is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system. ... The Federal Court of Canada, more properly known as the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal, is the court system set up by the Canadian national government to resolve disputes that arise under the national governments jurisdiction. ... The Tax Court of Canada, established in 1983 by the Tax Court of Canada Act, is a superior court which deals with matters involving companies or individuals and tax issues with the Government of Canada. ... The Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada hears appeals from military courts which are known as courts martial. ...

References

• Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 5th edition (McGill Law Journal) ISBN 0-459-24042-0, ISBN 0-459-24068-4 (this is not available online)
• Canadian Citation Committee A Neutral Citation Standard for Case Law

England and Wales

The standard case citation format in England and Wales is:

In England and Wales as with most other Commonwealth countries, the abbreviation "R" for rex (king) or regina (queen), is used for cases in which the state is a party (typically criminal cases or judicial review cases). Donoghue (or M’Alister) v Stevenson ([1932] A.C. 562, 1932 S.C. (H.L.) 31, [1932] All ER Rep 1) is one of the most famous cases in British legal history. ... Regina v. ... Judicial review is the power of a court to review the actions of public sector bodies in terms of their legality or constitutionality. ...

Square brackets "[ ]" are used when the year is essential to locating the report (e.g. the official law reports either - as with Donoghue v Stevenson, above - do not have volume numbers or, if there are multiple volumes in a single year, they are numbered 1, 2, etc.). Round brackets "( )" are used when the year is not essential but is useful for information purposes, e.g. in reports which have a cumulative volume number such as R v Dudley and Stevens, above.

Law Reports

The term "reporter", meaning a law report or a series of them, is not widely used in England and Wales.

Before 1865, English courts used a large number of privately-printed reports, and cases were cited based on which report they appeared in. (This system was also used in the United States and other common law jurisdictions during that period).

In 1865, many English cases were reprinted in a set of volumes called English Reports, abbreviated E.R. Between 1865 and 1875, decisions were published in a single series of law reports simply known as the "Law Reports" (L.R).

Since 1875 the official law reports have been split into a number of different series, the current series are the Appeal Cases (A.C.), Chancery (Ch.), Family (Fam.) and Queen's Bench (Q.B.) (or King's Bench—K.B.—depending on the monarch of the time). These 4 series are cited in preference to all others in court. There are two main unofficial law reports which report all areas of law, the Weekly Law Reports (W.L.R.) and the All England Reports (All E.R.). In addition there are a number of unofficial specialist law reports which focus on a particular area, e.g. the Entertainment and Media Law Reports (E.M.L.R.) or the Criminal Appeal Reports (Cr. App. R.). See the table below for a list of the most common current and past law reports.

Neutral citation

Since 2001, judgments in the House of Lords, Privy Council, Court of Appeal and Administrative Court have been issued with neutral citations. This system was extended to other parts of the High Court in 2002. Judgments with neutral citations are freely available on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute website (www.bailii.org). Neutral citations identify judgments independently of any series of reports, and cite only parties, year of judgment, court and case number. For example,
Rottman v MPC [2002] UKHL 20
identifies the 20th judgment in 2002 in the UK House of Lords. UKHL stands for UK House of Lords. EWHC and EWCA identify the England and Wales High Court and Court of Appeal respectively. These abbreviations are generally followed by an abbreviation indicating the court or division (eg Admin, Ch, Crim, Pat).

How to cite a case
If a neutral citation is available for a judgment, it should immediately follow the party names. If the judgment has also been reported in a law reports series, follow the neutral citation with the 'best report', which is usually from the official Law Reports series (Appeals Cases - AC, Chancery - Ch, Family - Fam, Queen’s Bench - QB etc).

The case of Rottman v MPC was reported in the Appeals Cases, so the citation should be:
Rottman v MPC [2002] UKHL 20, [2002] 2 AC 692.

This means that a report of the case and the judgment can be found in the 2002 volumes, vol 2, of the Law Reports series called Appeals Cases, beginning at page 692.

To cite a particular paragraph from the judgment, add the paragraph number in square brackets at the end of the citation: Rottman v MPC [2002] UKHL 20, [2002] 2 AC 692 [58].

If a case is not reported in the Law Reports, the next best report is the Weekly Law Reports (eg [2002] 2 WLR 1315), and then the All England Reports (eg [2002] 2 All ER 865). In some situations, it might be preferable to cite a specialist series, eg Rottman v MPC was also cited in the Human Rights Law Reports, at [2002] HRLR 32.

For cases before 2001, cite the best report. If referring to a particular page of the judgment, give that page number after the page number on which the report begins. The following citation refers to page 573 of the Donoghue v Stevenson judgment:

Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562, 573.

[edit] References

• Oxford Standard for the Citation Of Legal Authorities, available at http://denning.law.ox.ac.uk/published/oscola.shtml

Germany

In Germany there are two types of citation, the full citation of a case and its shortened form. In e.g. scientific articles the full citation of a particular case is only used at its first occurrence, after that its shortened form is used. In most law journals the articles themselves only use the shortened form, the full citations for all articles sometimes are summarized at the beginning of that journals edition.

Federal Constitutional Court of Germany

The most important cases of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany are published by the court in its official collection. This collection is abbreviated "BVerfGE", whereas BVerfG is short for Bundesverfassungsgericht, the German court name, and E stands for Entscheidung (decision). The Bundesverfassungsgericht The Federal Constitutional Court (in German: Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) is a special court established by the German constitutional document, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). ...

Starting in 2004, the court also publishes the "BVerfGK" collection, containing decisions made only by a Kammer, a specific part of the court.

The so-called Volkszählungsurteil for example could be cited

BVerfGE 65, 1 (43), Urteil des Ersten Senats vom 15. Dezember 1983 auf die mündliche Verhandlung vom 18. und 19. Oktober 1983, Az. 1 BvR 209, 269, 362, 420, 440, 484/83.

in full and

BVerfGE 65, 1 (43).

in short.

For the meaning of the different case numbers of the BVerfG see the German article.

If decisions are not published by the court yet or will not be published by it at all, law journals can be cited, e.g.

BVerfG, NJW 2009, 1234 (1235 f.).

Where NJW stands for the law journal Neue Juristische Wochenschrift, 2009 is the year, 1234 the page of the beginning and 1235 the cited page(s) - "f." stands for "seq.". In general, citations of the official collections are preferred.

Federal Court of Justice of Germany

The Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof, short BGH) publishes the official collections BGHSt for decisions in penal law and BGHZ for those in private law. The Bundesgerichtshof or BGH (German for federal court) is the highest appeals court in Germany for cases of civil and criminal law. ... In the most general sense, penal is the body of laws that are enforced by the State in its own name and impose penalties for their violation, as opposed to civil law that seeks to redress private wrongs. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The Katzenkönigfall e.g. would be cited

BGHSt 35, 347 ff., Urteil des 4. Strafsenats vom 15. September 1988, Az. 4 StR 352/88, 35, 347.

in full and

BGHSt 35, 347 ff.

in short (in this example, not a specific page but the case as such is cited; "ff." means "sqq.").

Other federal courts

The official collection of the Federal Social Court of Germany (Bundessozialgericht, BSG) is abbreviated BSGE. This article needs to be wikified. ...

The official collection of the Federal Finance Court of Germany (Bundesfinanzhof, BFH) is BFHE. The Federal Finance Court (Bundesfinanzhof) is one of the five federal supreme courts of Germany. ...

The official collection of the Federal Labor Court of Germany (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) is BAGE. Schriftzug The Federal Labor Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) is the German federal court of appeals for cases of labour law, both individual labour law (mostly concerning contracts of employment) and collective labour law (e. ...

Other courts

For the other courts generally the same rules apply, though most of them do not publish an official collection, so that they have to be cited from a law journal.

India

India's vast federated judicial system admits to a large number of reporters, each with their own style of citation. There are over 200 law reports in India – subject-wise and state(province)-wise; authorized and unauthorized.

Supreme Court of India

The official reporter for Supreme Court decisions is the Supreme Court Reports. These reports however lag behind other journals in the speed of reporting. Whilst decisions themselves are uploaded by the Supreme Court itself on www.courtnic.nic.in, the edited versions with headnotes in the official reporter take years to compile. However, some reporters have been authorised to publish the Court's decisions. The All India Reporter is an old and respected reporter that, in addition to the Supreme Court, also reports decisions of the various State High Courts. Other popular reporters include Supreme Court Cases, the Indian Law Reports, the Supreme Court Almanac and Judgements Today.

For instance, the case of Sebastian Hongray v. Union of India can be cited thus:

AIR 1984 SC 571 - where 'AIR' is the All India Reporter, '1984' is the year of judgement (AIR does not use a volume-based classification), 'SC' is the Supreme Court of India and '571' is the page number;

(1984) 1 SCC 339 - which corresponds to the Year (of publication), Volume (of the reporter), Supreme Court Cases (name of the reporter)and Page Number (within the volume);

1984 Cri LJ 289 (SC) - which corresponds to Year (of publication), Criminal Law Journal (name of reporter) and Page Number (within the 1984 volumes). The forum is indicated in simple parentheses.

A citation of the "Supreme Court Almanac" looks like this - Additional Secretary, Government of India v. Alka Subhash Gadia (1990) 2 Scale 1352; and, "Judgements Today" like this - Premium Granites v. State of Tamil Nadu JT (1994) 1 SC 374.

The "Supreme Court Cases (SCC)" published supplementary reports for a few years in the early 1990s. Those citations looked like this - Federation of Mining Associations v. State of Rajasthan 1992 Supp (2) SCC 239, which points to page 239 of the Second Supplementary Volume of the SCC reports in the year 1992.

The SCC also have a separate series of subject-based reporting of the decisions of the Supreme Court. For instance - Rathinam Nagbhushan Patnaik v. Union of India 1994 SCC (Cri) 740, which refers to the SCC Criminal Reports, and Delhi Transport Corporation v. Mazdoor Congress 1991 SCC (L&S) 1213, which refers to the SCC Labour & Services Reports.

High Courts

All India Reporter is the most popular nation-wide reporter for decisions of the High Courts. An AIR High Court citation looks like this - Surjya Kumar Das v. Maya Dutta AIR 1982 Cal 222, where 'Cal' refers to the High Court of Calcutta (the capital of the State of West Bengal). This is a uniform style for AIR High Court reports. Only the shortened indicator of the forum changes for different High Courts.

New Zealand

The standard case citation format in New Zealand is:

Several leading law reviews in New Zealand have also adopted the Australian Guide to Legal Citation such as the Canterbury Law Review. The AGLC style is also rather similar to citation style in New Zealand. This is probably to aid exchanges in academic work between both sides of the Tasman as opposed to any sort of sense of cultural inferiority.

Reporters

Additionally, a number of other report series exist for specialist areas such as Family, Employment and Tax Law.

Neutral citation

New Zealand courts and tribunals have begun to adopt a neutral citation standard for case law. The format provides a naming system that does not depend on the publication of the case in a law report. Most cases are now published on AustLII^[2] using neutral citations, although such formats are only used for Court of Appeal and Supreme Court judgments. Outside of AustLII, only the Supreme Court uses such citations in relation to its own judgments. The Court of Appeal of New Zealand, located in Wellington, is New Zealand’s principal intermediate appellate court. ... The Supreme Court of New Zealand is the highest court of appeal in New Zealand, having formally come into existence at the beginning of 2004, and sitting for the first time on 1 July 2004. ...

The standard format looks like this:

There is a unique court identifier code only for the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. These identifiers are:

The Supreme Court of New Zealand is the highest court of appeal in New Zealand, having formally come into existence at the beginning of 2004, and sitting for the first time on 1 July 2004. ... The Court of Appeal of New Zealand, located in Wellington, is New Zealand’s principal intermediate appellate court. ...

The Philippines

Despite the long-standing civil law tradition in the Philippines, reliance on judicial precedents has become indispensable since the period of American rule. Decisions of the Supreme Court are expressly recognized as part of the internal law, and are thus cited with frequency in court decisions or legal pleadings. Even as there is only one Supreme Court in the Philippines, the citation of its decisions varies depending on which reporter of the case is relied upon. For other uses of civil law, see civil law. ... Judiciary Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno Court of Appeals · Sandiganbayan Court of Tax Appeals · Ombudsman Elections Commission on Elections 2007 | 2004 | 2001 | 1998 1995 | 1992 | 1986 | All Foreign relations Human rights Other countries Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the Philippines (Filipino: Kataas-taasang Hukuman ng Pilipinas) is the...

Official reporter

The Philippine Reports is the official reporter of decisions of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. The standard format for citation of the Philippine Reports is: Judiciary Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno Court of Appeals · Sandiganbayan Court of Tax Appeals · Ombudsman Elections Commission on Elections 2007 | 2004 | 2001 | 1998 1995 | 1992 | 1986 | All Foreign relations Human rights Other countries Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the Philippines (Filipino: Kataas-taasang Hukuman ng Pilipinas) is the...

People v. Flores, 442 Phil. 561 (2002)

where:

• People v. Flores is the name of the case
• 442 is the volume number of the Philippine Reports where the case may be found
• Phil. is the standard abbreviation of Philippine Reports
• 561 is the page number in the Philippine Reports which contains the beginning of the decision. If this number is followed by a comma then another page number (i.e., 442 Phil. 561, 563), the latter number indicates the particular page where the annotated text can be found
• (2002) is the year the case was decided.

Unofficial reporter

In the last few decades, the Philippine Reports has suffered from production problems, resulting in long delays in publication, as well as significant gaps within its published series. As a result, the privately published Supreme Court Reports Annotated (published by Central Professional Books, Inc.) has become more widely used than the Philippine Reports, even by the courts. The proper format for citation of the Supreme Court Reports Annotated is:

Fortich v. Corona, G.R. No. 131457, 24 April 1998, 289 SCRA 624

where:

• Fortich v. Corona is the name of the case
• G.R. No. 131457 is the case docket number originally assigned by the Supreme Court at the time the action was filed with the Court
• 24 April 1998 is the exact date the decision of this case was promulgated
• 289 is the volume number of the Supreme Court Reports Annotated where the case may be found
• SCRA is the standard abbreviation of Supreme Court Reports Annotated
• 624 is the page number in the Supreme Court Reports Annotated which contains the beginning of the decision. If this number is followed by a comma then another page number (i.e., 289 SCRA 624, 627), the latter number indicates the particular page where the annotated text can be found

Owing to the delays in the regular publication of the Philippine Reports, reliance on the SCRA has been tolerated, although if a case may be found at the Philippine Reports, it is preferred that the official reporter be cited in lieu of the SCRA.

When citing cases which have not yet been reported in the Philippine Reports or the SCRA, the above citation without reference to the SCRA is preferred (i.e., Fortich v. Corona, G.R. No. 131457, 24 April 1988)

Lower court decisions

As there are no official or unofficial reporters that regularly publish decisions of the Court of Appeals and other lower courts, citation of their decisions hews to the same format as cases not reported either in the Philippine Reports or the SCRA. Thus: (case name), (docket number), (Exact date of promulgation of decision). Judiciary Supreme Court Chief Justice: Reynato Puno Court of Appeals Sandiganbayan Court of Tax Appeals Ombudsman Elections Commission on Elections 2007 | 2004 | 2001 | 1998 1995 | 1992 | 1986 | 1984 1981 | 1978 | 1969 | 1965 1961 | 1957 | 1953 | 1949 1946 | 1941 | 1935 Foreign relations Human rights Other countries â€¢ Politics Portal      The Philippine Court...

Scotland

The standard case citation formats in Scotland are: This article is about the country. ...

The Supreme Court has issued a practice note on the use of neutral citation. The trial began on May 3, 2000 The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on May 3, 2000, which was 11 years, four months and 13 days after the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988. ...

United States

The standard case citation format in the United States is:

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).

where: Holding Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. ...

• Roe v. Wade is the abbreviated name of the case, (the first name Roe is the name of the plaintiff, who is the party who filed the suit for an original case, or the appellant, the party appealing in a case being appealed from a lower court, or the petitioner when litigating in the high court of a jurisdiction; and Wade is the name of the defendant, the party responding to the suit, or the appellee, the party responding to the appeal, or the respondent, when defending in the high court of the jurisdiction.)
• 410 is the volume number of the "reporter" in which the Court's written opinion in the Roe v. Wade is published,
• U.S. is the abbreviation of the reporter, here "U.S." stands for United States Reports,
• 113 is the page number (in volume 410 of United States Reports) where the opinion begins, and
• 1973 is the year in which the court rendered its decision.

These numbers are used to find a particular case, both when looking up a case in a reporter and when accessing it electronically on the Internet or through LexisNexis or Westlaw. Jane Roe and Richard Roe come from the United States legal tradition of pseudonyms for anonymous litgants. ... A plaintiff, also known as a claimant or complainer, is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an action) before a court. ... In law, an appellant is the party who after eating a vagina, having lost their claim in a lower court decision, is appealing to a higher court to have their case reconsidered. ... The plaintiff, claimant, or complainant is the party initiating a lawsuit, (also known as an action). ... High Court usually refers to the superior court of a country or state. ... For other uses, see Henry Wade (disambiguation). ... A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute. ... An appellee, or respondent, is the party to an appeal of a lower court judgment its favor. ... In Common law, a defendant is any person who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff in a civil suit or any person who has been named in a criminal information or criminal complaint and stands accused of violating a criminal statute. ... In law, a reporter is a series of books which contain court opinions. ...

This format also allows different cases with the same parties to be easily differentiated. For example, looking for the U.S. Supreme Court case of Miller v. California would yield four cases, some involving different people named Miller, and each involving different issues. Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the... Holding Obscene materials are defined as those that the average person, applying contemporary community standards, find, taken as a whole, appeal to the prurient interest; that depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law; and that, taken as a whole, lack serious...

United States Supreme Court

Cases from the Supreme Court of the United States are officially printed in the United States Reports. A citation to the United States Reports looks like this: Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the...

• Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
• Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).

Many court decisions are published by more than one reporter. A citation to two or more reporters for a given court decision is called a "parallel citation". For U.S. Supreme Court decisions, there are several unofficial reporters, including the Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct.) and U.S. Reports, Lawyer's Edition (commonly known simply as the Lawyer's Edition) (L. Ed.), which are printed by private companies and provide further annotations to the opinions of the Court. Although a citation to the latter two is not required, some attorneys and legal writers prefer to cite all three case reporters at once: Holding Segregation of students in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because separate facilities are inherently unequal. ... Holding The Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination requires law enforcement officials to advise a suspect interrogated in custody of his rights to remain silent and to obtain an attorney. ...

• Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S. Ct. 1678, 14 L. Ed. 2d 510 (1965)

The "2d" after the L. Ed. signifies the second series of the Lawyers' Edition. United States case reporters are sequentially numbered, but the volume number is never higher than 999. When the 1,000th volume is reached (the threshold in earlier years was lower), the volume number is reset to 1 and a "2d" is appended after the reporter's abbreviation. Some case reporters are in their third series, and a few are approaching their fourth. Holding A Connecticut law criminalizing the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. ...

Some very old Supreme Court cases have odd-looking citations, such as Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803). The "(1 Cranch)" refers to the fact that, before there was a reporter series known as the United States Reports compiled by the Supreme Court's Reporter of Decisions, cases were gathered, bound together, and sold by private individuals who had contracted with the Court for the right to do so. In this case, the case was first reported in an edition by William Cranch, who was responsible for publishing Supreme Court reports from 1801 to 1815. Such reports, named for the individual who gathered them and hence called "nominative reports," existed from 1790 to 1874. Holding Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 is unconstitutional to the extent it purports to enlarge the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court beyond that permitted by the Constitution. ... Seal of the Supreme Court The Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court is the official charged with editing and publishing the Courts decisions both when announced and in the bound volumes of the United States Reports. ... Categories: People stubs | Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit | U.S. Supreme Court Reporters of Decisions | 1769 births | 1855 deaths ...

When a case has been decided, but not yet published in the case reporter, the citation may note the volume but leave blank the page of the case reporter until it is determined. For example, Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. ___ (2007). Holding Case opinions Majority by: Thomas, J. Joined by: Roberts, C.J.; Scalia; Kennedy; Alito, J.J. Dissent by: Souter Joined by: Stevens; Ginsburg; Breyer, J.J. Bowles v. ...

See the Supreme Court of the United States Reporter of Decisions for other edition names. Seal of the Supreme Court The Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court is the official charged with editing and publishing the Courts decisions both when announced and in the bound volumes of the United States Reports. ...

In the caption of a Supreme Court case, the first name listed is the name of the petitioning (appealing) party, followed by the party responding (respondent) to the appeal. In most cases, the appealing party was the losing party in the prior court. This is the same practice used in cases in the federal courts of appeal.

Lower federal courts

United States court of appeals cases are published in the Federal Reporter (F., F.2d, or F.3d). United States district court cases and cases from some specialized courts are published in the Federal Supplement (F. Supp. or F. Supp. 2d). Both are published by Thomson West; they are technically unofficial reporters, but have become widely accepted as the de facto "official" reporters of the lower federal courts because of the absence of a true official reporter. (Of the federal appeals and district courts, only one, the D.C. Circuit, has an official reporter, and even that one is rarely used today.) The United States courts of appeals (or circuit courts) are the mid-level appellate courts of the United States federal court system. ... The Federal Reporter is a case law reporter in the United States that is published by West Publishing. ... Map of the boundaries of the United States Courts of Appeals and United States District Courts The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. ... The Federal Supplement is a case law reporter published by West Publishing in the United States that includes select opinions of the United States district courts. ... Thomson West is the largest part of Thomson Legal & Regulatory, which is the largest market group of The Thomson Corporation. ... The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. ...

When lower federal court opinions are cited, the citation includes the name of the court. This is placed in the parentheses immediately before the year. Some examples:

• Geary v. Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish School, 7 F.3d 324 (3d Cir. 1993) - a case in the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• Glassroth v. Moore, 229 F. Supp. 2d 1290 (M.D. Ala. 2002) - a case in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States District Courts: District of Delaware District of New Jersey Western, Middle, and Eastern Districts of Pennsylvania District of the United States Virgin Islands The court is based at... The case of Glassroth v. ... The United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is comprised of the following counties: Autauga, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Chilton, Coffee, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Elmore, Geneva, Henry, Houston, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery, Pike, Russell, and Tallapoosa. ...

State courts

State court decisions are published in several places. Many states have their own official state reporter, which publishes decisions of that state's highest court. These reporters have the same abbreviation (note: this is the traditional abbreviation, not the postal abbreviation) as that of the state's name, regardless of what the actual title of the reporter is. Thus, California Official Reports is abbreviated "Cal.".

• Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R. Co., 248 N.Y. 339 (1928) - a case in the New York Court of Appeals
• Green v. Chicago Tribune Co. 286 Ill.App.3d 1 (1 Dist. 1996) - a case in the Illinois Appellate Court, 1st District.

In addition to the official reporters, Thomson West publishes several series of "regional reporters" which cover several states each. These are the North Eastern Reporter, Atlantic Reporter, South Eastern Reporter, Southern Reporter, South Western Reporter, North Western Reporter, and Pacific Reporter. California, Illinois, and New York also each have their own line of West reporters, because of the large volume of cases generated in those states. Some smaller states (like South Dakota) have stopped publishing their own official reporters, and instead have certified the appropriate West regional reporter as their "official" reporter. Holding Defendant could not be held liable for an injury that could not be reasonably foreseen. ... The Court of Appeals is New Yorks highest appellate court, created in 1847, replacing the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and the Correction of Errors. ... The Illinois Appellate Court is the court of first appeal for cases arising in the trial courts of the state of Illinois. ... Thomson West is the largest part of Thomson Legal & Regulatory, which is the largest market group of The Thomson Corporation. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Official language(s) English[1] Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Largest metro area Chicago Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (140,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ... This article is about the state. ... Official language(s) English Capital Pierre Largest city Sioux Falls Area  Ranked 17th  - Total 77,116[1] sq mi (199,905 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 380 miles (610 km)  - % water 1. ...

Here are some examples of how to cite West reporters:

• Jackson v. Commonwealth, 583 S.E.2d 780 (Va. Ct. App. 2003) - a case in the Virginia Court of Appeals (an intermediate appellate court) published in the South Eastern Reporter
• Foxworth v. Maddox, 137 So. 161 (Fla. 1931) - a case in the Florida Supreme Court published in the Southern Reporter
• People v. Brown, 282 N.Y.S.2d 497 (1967) - a case in the New York Court of Appeals (New York's highest court) published in the New York Supplement. The case also appears in West's regional reporter: People v. Brown, 229 N.E.2d 192 (N.Y. 1967).

Abbreviations for lower courts vary by state, as each state has its own system of trial courts and intermediate appellate courts. The Florida Supreme Court is the highest court in the State of Florida. ... The Court of Appeals is New Yorks highest appellate court, created in 1847, replacing the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and the Correction of Errors. ...

When a case appears in both an official reporter and a regional reporter, either citation can be used. Many lawyers prefer to include both citations. Some state courts require that parallel citations (in this case, citing to both the official reporter and an unofficial regional reporter) be used when citing cases from any court in that state's system.

Some states, notably California and New York, have their own citation systems that differ significantly from the various federal and national standards. Citations in California style put the year between the names of the parties and the reference to the case reporter. Citations in New York style wrap the year in brackets instead of parentheses. Both New York and California wrap an entire citation in parentheses when it is used as a stand-alone sentence. New York puts the terminating period outside the parentheses, but California puts it inside. New York wraps just the reporter and page references in parentheses when the citation is used as a clause. Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... This article is about the state. ...

Either way, both state styles differ from the national/Bluebook style of simply dropping in the citation as a separate sentence without further adornment. Both systems use less punctuation and spacing in their reporter abbreviations.

For example, assuming that it is being placed as a stand-alone sentence, the Brown case above would be cited (using the official reporter) to a New York court as:

• (People v Brown, 20 NY2d 238 [1967]).

And, again, as a stand-alone sentence, the famous Greenman product liability case would be cited to a California court as: Products liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause. ...

• (Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc. (1963) 59 Cal.2d 57.)^[3]

Like the United States Supreme Court, some very old state case citations include an abbreviation of the name of either the private publisher or a state-appointed officer who collected the cases. For example, the citation in Pierson v. Post, 3 Cai. R. 175 (1804), is an abbreviation for volume 3 of Caines' Reports, page 175, named for George Caines, who had been appointed to report New York cases. Most states gave up this practice in the mid- to late-1800s, but Delaware persisted until 1920. Pierson v. ... George Caines (born in 1771; died in Catskill, New York, July 10, 1825), was the the first official Reporter of cases in the United States, appointed by the State Supreme Court of New York in accordance with legislation enacted by that state in April, 1804. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Delaware. ...

Unpublished decisions

A growing number of court decisions are not published in case reporters. For example, only 7% of the opinions of the California intermediate courts (the Courts of Appeal) are published each year. This is mainly because the editors of reports choose only significant decisions for publication, due to the cost of publishing and the importance of avoiding information overload. It is also argued that this is in part because in many states, especially California, the legislature has failed to expand the judiciary to keep up with population growth (for various political and fiscal reasons). To deal with their crushing caseloads, many judges prefer to write shorter-than-normal opinions that dispose of minor issues in the case in a sentence or two. They avoid publishing such abbreviated opinions, however, so as not to risk creating bad precedents. Court of Appeals is the title of certain appellate courts in various jurisdictions. ... This article is about the legal term. ...

Attorneys have several options in citing "unpublished" decisions:

• For recently-decided cases which will eventually be published, the docket number from the court can be used as a citation. The same method is used when drafting appeals to refer to prior case history from lower courts.
• Cases which are intentionally left officially unpublished are nonetheless often "published" on computer services, such as LexisNexis and Westlaw. These services have their own citation formats based on serial numbers (issued sequentially from 1 as documents are added to the database each year). A Westlaw citation looks like this: Fuqua Homes, Inc. v. Beattie, No. 03-3587, 2004 WL 2495842 (8th Cir. Nov. 8, 2004).

Some court systems—such as the California state court system and the federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit—forbid attorneys to cite unpublished cases as precedent. Since 2004, federal judges have been debating whether the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (FRAP) should be amended so that unpublished cases in all circuits can be cited as precedent. In 2006, the Supreme Court, over the objection of several hundred judges and lawyers, adopted a new Rule 32.1 of FRAP requiring that federal courts allow citation of unpublished cases. The rule took effect on January 1, 2007.^[4] Nexis redirects here. ... The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ... The Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (FRAP) are a set of rules, promulgated by the Supreme Court of the United States on recommendation of an advisory committee, to govern procedures in cases in the United States Courts of Appeals. ...

Vendor-neutral citations

With the rise of the web, many courts placed new cases on websites. Some were published while others never lost their "unpublished" status. The major legal citation systems required cites to the officially published page numbers, in which publishers such as West Publishing claimed a copyright interest. (In view of the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service, that the mere alphabetical listing of telephone subscribers was an inadequate amount of effort to be valid to obtain copyright, the claim of copyright on page numbering of court decisions is probably not valid.) Westlaw is one of two major fee-based online legal research systems, providing access to state and federal statutes, case law materials, public records, and other legal resources. ... Holding A telephone book did not satisfy the minimum originality required by the Constitution to be eligible for copyright protection, and effort and expenditure of resources are not protected by copyright. ...

A vendor-neutral citation movement^[5] led to provisions being made for citations to web-based cases and other legal materials. A few courts modified their rules to specifically take into account cases "published" on the web.

Pinpoint citations

In practice, most lawyers go one step farther, once they have developed the correct citation for a case using the rules discussed above. Most court opinions contain holdings on multiple issues, so lawyers need to cite to the page that contains the specific holding they wish to invoke in their own case. Such citations are known as pinpoint citations, "pin cites," or "jump cites."

For example, in Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the word "person" as used in the Fourteenth Amendment does not include the unborn. That particular holding appears on page 158 of the volume in which the Roe decision was published. A full pin cite to Roe for that holding would be as follows:

• Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 158 (1973).

And a parallel cite to all three U.S. Supreme Court reporters, combined with pin cites for all three, would produce: Holding Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. ...

• Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 158, 93 S. Ct. 705, 729, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147, 180 (1973).

But in its opinions, the Court usually provides a direct pin cite only to the official reporter: Holding Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. ...

• Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 158, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147 (1973).

Even then, such citations are still quite lengthy, and obviously look quite mysterious and intimidating to laypersons when they try to read court opinions. Since the 1980s, there has been an ongoing debate among American judges as to whether they should relegate such lengthy citations to footnotes to improve the readability of their opinions, as strongly urged by Bryan Garner, one of the leading authors on legal writing style issues. Most judges do relegate some citations to footnotes (though the refusal of jurists such as Justice Stephen Breyer and Judge Richard Posner to use footnotes in their opinions is well-known). Holding Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. ... Stephen Gerald Breyer (born August 15, 1938) is an American attorney, political figure, and jurist. ... Richard Allen Posner (born January 11, 1939, in New York City) is currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. ...

Types of citations

There are two types of citations: proprietary and public domain citations. There are many citation guides; the most commonly acknowledged is called the Bluebook, published by students at several eminent law schools, namely Columbia Law Review, Harvard Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and Yale Law Journal. Public domain citations are those which usually refer to the official reporters and not some kind of publication service such as Westlaw or LexisNexis or some particular legal journal or specialization specific reporter. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... // A law school is an institution where future lawyers obtain legal degrees. ... The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ... Nexis redirects here. ...

States with their own unique style for court documents and case opinions also publish their own style guides which include information on their citation rules.

External links

• American Association of Law Libraries Legal Citation Guide
• Introduction to Basic Legal Citation by Peter Martin
• FindLaw for Legal Professionals

Law By State

• State Laws, Code, & Statutes

See also

• Bluebook
• Category:Case law reporters
• Citator
• German legal citation
• Law report
• Legal research

The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... In legal research, a citator is a citation index of legal resources, the best-known of which is Shepards Citations. ... As in most countries, Germany has a standard way of citing its legal codes and case law; an essentially identical system of citation is also used in Austria. ... The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States Law reports or reporters are series of books which contain judicial opinions from a selection of cases that have been decided by the courts. ... // Legal research is the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. ...

References

American Bar Associations Washington, DC office The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. ...

External links

• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
• WorldLII