Citation Style Guide: Case Law Citation

Cases are published by reporters. Typically, a case citation is comprised of:

1. Names of the parties involved in the lawsuit
2. Volume number of the reporter containing the full text of the case
3. Abbreviated title of that case reporter
4. Page number of which the case begins the year the case was decided
5. Name of the court deciding the case (not always included)

Example of a case citation:

Hebb v. Severson, 201 P.2d 156 (Wash. 1948).

In this example, the names of the parties involved in the lawsuit are Melde and Reynolds. This particular case can be found in volume 201 of the Pacific Reporter, Second Series beginning on page 156. The information in parenthesis tells you that the case was decided by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1948.

Often, a case is reported or printed in more than one set of books and then all of the citations to that opinion are given; these are known as parallel citations.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange v. Deaktor, 410 U.S. 111, 93 S.Ct. 705, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973).

In this example, the United States Reports citation, the official reporter, is given first and is followed by the Supreme Court Reporter and the United States Supreme Court Lawyer’s Edition citations, commonly referred to as the Lawyer’s Edition. The second and third citations are known as parallel citations.

Some of the information that is omitted in Case Law citations include the word “the” when it is present in the party name. Words like, “trustee” and “administrator” are also omitted in a Case Law citation. Below are some common abbreviations pertaining to Case Law citations.

For a full list, check out the “Abbreviations & Omissions” link located in the Need More In-Depth Info? box located on the top, far right side of this page.

Case Histories Abbreviations

• acquiescing – acq.
• affirmed – aff’d
• jurisdiction – juris.
• memorandum – mem.
• reversing – rev’g

State Abbreviation

• California – Cal.

Journal Abbreviations

• Harvard Law Review – Harv. L. Rev.
• Rutgers Law Review – Rutgers L. Rev.
• Supreme Court Review – Sup. Ct. Rev.
• UCLA Law Review – UCLA L. Rev.

Book Citation Core Elements in their respective order:

1. Volume number (if applicable)
2. Author name
3. Title (italicized)
4. Cited portions of the book (section, paragraph, or page number)
5. Edition number and the publication year (in parenthesis)

Book Example: 

Wayne R. LaFave & Austin W. Scott, Criminal Law § 5.4 (2d ed. 1986).

* If an electronic resource is available in print, follow the print citation format.

Electronic Resource Example:

Steve Kenney & John Borking, The Value of Privacy Engineering, 2002(1) J. Info. L. & Tech., http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2002_1/kenny.