Citations for Case Law
X
vs. Y ___a____ ____b____ ____c____ (d)
a.
Volume
b.
Title
of publication (see sample abbreviations at left)
c.
Page
number
d.
Date
in parenthesis
Citations for Statutes
____a____
____b____ ____c____
a.
Title
number
b.
Title
of Publication
c.
Section
“Parallel citations” means an entry show
two sources
Example: 452 N.M. 383, 822 P.2d 535
(this is the same statute, one entry is
in NM Reports and the other in Pacific Reporter)
For legal citations to be mentioned in a
body of writing: use the “Blue Book”, which is titled A Uniform System of Citation (Ref KF245 U55).
Law reports or reporters are series of books that contain judicial opinions from a selection of case law decided by courts. When a particular judicial opinion is referenced, the law report series in which the opinion is printed will determine the case citation format. The Pacific Reporter comprises all the decisions of the Supreme Courts of California, Kansas, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Montana, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, District Courts of Appeal and Appellate Department of the Superior Court of California and Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma.
Digests are organized alphabetically by topic. Each Topic begins with a scope note (Subjects Included and Subjects Excluded and Covered by Other Topics), then an outline of the Topic (Analysis). Abstracts of points of law are then arranged in order by Key Number. Each digest has a Descriptive Word Index and a Table of Cases. Most also have Defendant-Plaintiff Tables (earlier regional and decennial digests do not). This digest directly supplements the Pacific digest, 1850-1931.