The Bluebook is the authoritative style manual among legal professionals working in the U.S. Using a system of clearly defined rules, it provides structure for legal citations of all types.
A reference to a legal authority, such as a case or statute
Cases are published in reporters. A case citation is generally made up of the following parts:
Below is an example of a case citation:
Cases move up through either the state or federal courts depending on the legal issue being considered. Cases at each level of the court system are published in their own separate reporter. |
Court |
Where Published |
Abbreviation |
California Supreme Court |
Official California Reports
West’s California Reporter
All decisions published |
C, C.2d, C.3d, C.4th or Cal. Rptr., Cal. Rptr. 2d, Cal. Rptr. 3d
|
California Appellate Courts (Courts of Appeal, Appellate Dept. of the Superior Court) |
Official California Appellate Reports
West’s California Reporter Some decisions published
|
Cal. App., Cal. App.2d, Cal. App. 3d, Cal. App. 4th Cal. Rptr., Cal. Rptr.2d, Cal. Rptr. 3d |
Trial Courts If your case started in a state court, it was first heard in a minor court (In CA, for example: municipal or superior court). |
The decisions from these Courts are not published. They are public information, and could only be seen by going to the court where the case was tried and looking at their archives. |
|
Unlike case law which is made by judges in specific court cases, statutory law is made by the federal and state legislative branches of the government. Statutory law is published in codes. The United States Code contains statutes that have been passed by Congress. In addition, every state publishes its own statutory code. Citation format for statutes varies widely across the state and federal systems, however, there are similarities.
A federal statutory citation generally contains the following elements:
Below is an example of a United States Code citation:
42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2006).
In this citation 42 is the Title of the Code where this statute can be found. U.S.C. is the abbreviation for the United States Code. § is the section symbol. 1983 is the section of title 42 of the code where the statute can be found. 2006 is the year of the code.