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Fullerton College Library

Paralegal Studies Research Guide

Library materials and services supporting the Paralegal Studies program at Fullerton College

About Legal Citations

What Are They?

A reference to a legal authority, such as a case or statute

Reading a Case Citation

Cases are published in reporters. A case citation is generally made up of the following parts:

  1. the names of the parties involved in the lawsuit
  2. the volume number of the reporter containing the full text of the case
  3. the abbreviated name of that case reporter
  4. the page number on which the case begins the year the case was decided; and sometimes
  5. the name of the court deciding the case.

Below is an example of a case citation:

From the BYU Howard W. Hunter Law Library

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., Cal.2d, Cal. 3d, Cal.4th

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.

 

Reading a Statutory Citation

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:

  • the title or chapter number of the code
  • the abbreviated name of the code
  • the section or part number of the title or chapter; and
  • the year of the code

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.

From the BYU Howard W. Hunter Law Library