legal citation
Court decision pointer
A legal citation is a standardized reference to a legal authority—a case, statute, regulation, or other source.
Citations allow readers to locate the exact material being referenced: *Brown v. Board of Education*, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
Legal writing follows strict citation formats, with the Bluebook being the dominant American style guide.
Lawyers cite precedent to support arguments; judges cite authority to justify rulings.
- supraAbove, in documents
- court opinionJudge's formal written ruling
- statutesFormally enacted laws
- law schoolJD degree program
- LexisNexisLegal and news database
court rules · short form · ibid · constitutional provisions · parenthetical · reporter · academic scholarship · cite · volume · precedent · treaties · annotate · authority · reference · secondary source · opinion · decision · law review
- legal citationscitations, short form, citing, id., ibid.
- legal researchcase law, digests, LexisNexis, headnotes, annotations
- legal teche-discovery, LexisNexis, e-filing, document management, electronic filing
- courtroom ritualsoath, swearing in, all rise, opening statements, closing arguments
- law schoollaw school, law schools, law student, law students, law degree
- Shorteningsabbreviation, acronym, initialism, contraction, truncation
legal citationcourt ruling
Judicial decision on case
judicial opinion · case law · statute · legal precedent · primary source