1

Citations

Legal Research & Writing II

Mike Brigner, J.D.

2

Today 4 Things

• Why do we need a Citation Manual?

• Intro to ALWD• An introduction to

the most frequent citation forms

• Bonus: Style stuff

3

Why a Citation Manual?• Purpose is to guide legal writers in

proper formatting and style in:– Court documents – main text– Court documents – footnotes/endnotes– Law review articles– Etc.

4

Source Document

Why a Citation Manual?Within your doc point reader to

Your Document

In the proper format to correctly identify the Source Document

5

What Is Covered?

• CITATIONS: Citation manuals explain how to write citations (in your legal memorandum, for example) for other sources you are citing to:– Cases– Statutes– Reporters, Newspapers, Books– Footnotes, Endnotes

6

What Is Covered?

• STYLE: Citation manuals also explain legal writing style rules for such items as:– Abbreviations– Capitalization– Symbols– Latin words– Quotations

7

Introduction to

• The ALWD Citation Manual

• This is the Citation Bible for this Quarter

8

This Quarter We Use ALWD

NOT

The Bluebook

NOT

The Ohio Manual

Almost identical to ALWD, but hard to read

Mandatory in Ohio courts

9

Before Next You Sleep• Read:

– ALWD Citation Manual– Parts One & Two– Text Chap 8A, B, F, G, I

• Right now, look at– TOC– Covers– Appendices– Index

• Look at Quick References to ALWD & Ohio Manual:

• http://people.sinclair.edu/mikebrigner/

10

Next, Third Thing• An introduction to the

most frequent citation forms. This will take a while.

11

Citing Case Law

• Italicize (or underscore) names of cases in text of documents

• Citations go in this order– Name of Case– Where to Find Case– Court that Decided Case

• Meaning which jurisdiction

– Year Case Decided

12

Case Names• Cite only last names of parties: Day v. Jax• Omit titles (Appellee, Guardian, etc.)• Omit multiple parties (omit et al.)• Cite full names of businesses & organizations

– Lima Hospital Guaranty Co. v. Southern Division Ltd.– NOT: Lima Hosp. Guar. Co. v. S. Div. Ltd.

• Abbreviate “United States” as “U.S.”• For criminal cases decided in your state, use

State v. Gripe• For other states, use Kansas v. Gripe

13

Citing Case Law

• Memorize the punctuation, order, & spacing for each type of citation

• How to organize a citation:– See ALWD, pp. 5 & 65

• Parallel Citations:– See ALWD, Rule 12.4(a)(2)– See ALWD, pp. 78-80

14

Citing Case Law

• The court is usually identified by the name of the reporter. If not, you must identify the court in the parenthetical with the date.– Rose v. Gown, 234 F. Supp. 345 (S.D. Ohio 1967)– John v. Bear, 96 F.2d 823, 829 (6th Cir. 1998)

• Identify court div, dist, dept, etc if known– Arc v. Coy, 3 N.E.2d 14 (Ohio 1999)– Arm v. Bay, 2 N.E.2d 12 (Ohio App. 2nd Dist. 1998)

15

Short Form

• After the first use of the full citation in any document, you can use Short Form of Citation– See ALWD Rule 11.3 & Rule 12.21– Examples:

• Id. at 924• Seel, 971 P.2d at 924

– (Note: Id. is only for immediately preceding authority)

16

Citing Federal Case LawFedera l C ourt System

Federal District CourtsR ep orte r: F . S u p p .

E xam p le : (S .D . O h io )

Federal Courts of AppealsR ep orte r: F ., F .2 dE xam p le : (6 th C ir.)

U.S. Suprem e CourtR ep orte rs : U .S ., S . C t., L . E d .

o r U .S .L .W .

17

Citing Federal Case Law• See ALWD, page 63

• Citing U.S. Supreme Court Cases– 3 publishers: U.S., S. Ct., L. Ed.– Cite to the official reporter, United

States Reports, only• 223 U.S. 45 (1972)

– ALWD Rule: No parallel cites

18

Citing Federal Case Law• Citing U.S. Circuit Court Cases

– John v. Bear, 96 F.2d 823 (6th Cir. 1998)

• Citing U.S. District Court Cases– Rose v. Gown, 234 F. Supp. 345 (S.D.

Ohio 1967)

• Notes: -- 6th or 6th is okay– Use 2d & 3d, not 2d & 3d, not 2nd & 3rd – No space between “F.” and “2d”– Space between “F.” and “Supp.”– Inside parentheses, we ID the court

19

Citing a State Statute• State statutory citations go in this order

– Abbreviated name of code– Section number of statute– Year of the code volume (& “Supp.”)

• Go to Ohio’s Table in ALWD (pp. 361-362). See Ohio statute format. Use this

• (Note: Be aware of, but don’t use for this class, the normal practice in Ohio:)– Cite the Ohio Revised Code as R.C. (not

O.R.C.), & omit the section sign

20

Citing Federal Statutes

• Federal statutory citations go in this order:– Title number– Abbreviate name of the code– Section symbol & section number– Year of code volume

21

Citing Federal Statutes• See ALWD, pg 107. Examples:

– 30 U.S.C. § 523 (1994)– 30 U.S.C. § § 523-528 (1994)

• NOTE:– No underlines– Use section symbol(s), followed by a space

• U.S.C. is the official code for federal statutes, and is the preferred cite

• But use U.S.C.A., & U.S.C.S. for research, because they are annotated

22

Citing Administrative Rules

• Administrative Rules– See ALWD pg. 176

• We use ALWD format – Ohio Admin. Code 123-08-04 (1999)

• (Note: Be aware of, but don’t use for this class the usual practice in Ohio:)– Abbreviate the Ohio Administrative

Code as O.A.C., & omit the section sign

23

Citing Legal Encyclopedias

• In italics, use the complete title of the major encyclopedia topic for the material cited. – 67 Am. Jur. 2d Robbery § 91 (1985)– 35 Ohio Jur. 3d Condominiums and Co-

operative Apartments § 20 (1979, Supp. 1983)

• Do not use titles of sections or subsections• Date is publication date of volume or supp.

24

Citing Law Reviews

• Author’s Name (w/o titles)

• Name of article in italics

• Volume, publicatn abbrev, page, date

– Cass R. Sunstein, Affirmative Action, Caste, and Cultural Comparisons, 97 Mich. L. Rev 1311, 1315 (1999)

25

Citing A.L.R.

• Author’s Name (w/o titles)

• Name of article in italics

• Volume, publicatn abbrev, page, date

– Milton Roberts, Civil Liability of Physician for Failure to Diagnose or Report Battered Child Syndrome, 97 A.L.R.2d 338, 342 (1980)

26

Citing Atty Gen Opinions

• Ohio Attorney General’s office uses:– 1981 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 81‑039

• Ohio Manual uses this format:– 1971 Ohio Atty.Gen.Ops. No. 71-079

• ALWD uses this format: Use this– Ohio Op. Atty. Gen. 1165 (1946)

27

Citing Electronic Sources

• New technology brings new problems: How do you cite a page of something that has no pages?

• See ALWD, Part Four• Do not cite LEXIS or Westlaw, or

include a parallel citation to either, if the case is available in a printed reporter

• White v. C.J. Coakley Co., 1999 Va. App. LEXIS 261 (May 4, 1999)

28

Citing Other Sources• Constitutions

– See ALWD, Chap. 13

• Rules of Procedure & Evidence– See ALWD, Chap. 17

• Books– See ALWD, Chap. 22

• Law Review Articles– See ALWD, Chap. 23

• A.L.R. (NOT just “4 A.L.R. 517” !)– See ALWD, Chap. 24

29

Quick Reference

• ALWD CITATION FORMATS — A Quick Reference

• Prepared by Mike Brigner, J.D., Sinclair Community College Paralegal Program

• Go to My. Sinclair My.Sinclair– Then Course Materials– Then home page for this course

30

Take a Break

31

4th Thing: Rules of Style(Text Chap. 8 & ALWD, Parts 2 & 6)

Signals Case Parenthetical

Pages

Footnotes Endnotes Section Marks

Paragraph Marks

Internal cross-references

Id., Infra & Supra

Quotations Abbreviations Numbers & Symbols

Italicization Capitalization Judges’ Titles

32

Style: Pages

• See ALWD Chap. 5• Give page # showing where item

begins, just before giving date• Also give page # of specific info• Don’t use “p.” or “p.p.” unless

referring to other pages in your document

• Use “at” if needed to avoid confusion

33

Style: § and ¶

• See ALWD Chap. 6• At start of sentence, use the word,

not the symbol• When symbols are used, put space

between symbol and numeral• Use 2 symbols when citing more than

one section or paragraph– Ex: 18 U.S.C. § § 1201-1206

34

Style: Id.

• See ALWD Chap. 11

• Id. from Latin idem, “in the place previously mentioned “

• Use when citing the immediately preceding authority

• Example:– . . . as Justice Poe said. Id. at 563.

35

Style: Quotations

• See ALWD Chap. 47

• You must cite the page quoted from

• Cite page for each parallel citation– Clue: look for page #s in brackets

• Use block quotations (indented left & right) for quotes over 50 words, with no quotes around block

36

Style: Quotations• See ALWD Chap. 49• If omitting language within or at the end of a

quotation, use an ellipsis ( . . . ) – (space-dot-space-dot-space-dot)

• Omission at end of sentence, 4 periods– Ex: “then the plaintiff was deposed . . . .”

• Never begin a quotation with ellipsis• Instead, show omission at beginning of a

sentence by changing first letter to upper case and using brackets:– Ex: “[T]he plaintiff was deposed . . .”

37

Style: Alterations• See ALWD Chap. 48• An alteration is a change you make in

some quoted material • Use brackets [ ] when:

– changing the case of a letter– omitting a word or letter– substituting a word

• [sic] = a significant mistake in a quoted original. Insert after the mistake.– Ex: “He are [sic] a student.”

38

Style: Abbreviations• See ALWD Chap. 2

• Close up adjacent single capitals (N.E.)

• Don’t close up in longer abbrevs. (S. Ct.)

• Treat single numerals as capitals (F.2d)

• Most abbrevs. are followed by period

• When entity is commonly referred to by initials, omit periods (CBS, CIA, FBI)

• U.S. always gets periods

39

Finding Abbreviations• See ALWD

– Appendix 1: Ohio abbreviations (and other states’ abbreviations)

– Appendix 3: General abbreviations– Appendix 4: Court abbreviations– Appendix 5: Law review abbreviations

40

Style: Numerals & Symbols

• See ALWD Chap. 47 • Spell out numbers zero to ninety-nine• Use numerals if it has decimal point• Any number at beginning of sentence

must be spelled out• Use $ & % symbols with numerals. Spell

out when spelling out the number, or when beginning a sentence.

• No space between $ or %, and numeral

41

Style: Italics• See ALWD Chap. 1

• Use italics for foreign words, except those used in common language– Illegitimi non carborundum BUT:

• quid pro quo (“one thing in return for another”)• e.g. (“for example, such as”)• i.e. (“that is”)

• “Id.” is always italicized

• Use italics for equations (E=mc2)

42

Style: Capitalization

• See ALWD Chap. 3

• Capitalize “Court” ONLY when:– Referring to U.S. Supreme Court– When using a court’s full title– When referring to the same court you

are directing the document to• “Some court once said. . .”• “This Court will want to know. . .”

43

Style: Judges• Capitalize title: Justice Holmes, Judge

Rice, Chief Justice Moyer

• Don’t use double titles:– Judge Walter H. Rice OR– The Honorable Walter H. Rice– NEVER:– The Honorable Judge Walter H. Rice– The Honorable Walter H. Rice, Judge

44

Citations

Concluded Thank You

Mike Brigner, J.D.