When filing a brief or writing a memorandum, be sure to follow these rules.
Basic Structure of a State Case Citation
In a basic citation to a case found in a reporter, a lawyer must efficiently convey four basic pieces of information:
- the name of the case;
- where the case can be found;
- the court that decided the case;
- the year the case was decided.
The name of the case comes first, followed by where it can be found. The court and the year come last in parentheses.
Party Names in State Court Citations
When a party is a person, use only the last name of the person. When there are multiple plaintiffs or multiple defendants in a case, use the name of the first one.
For example, take the following fictitious citation:
DeLuca v. Frederick, 207 S.E.2d 724 (Va. 2009).
“DeLuca v. Frederick” is the name of the case.
The case name should always be underlined or italicized.
When a party is a company, an organization, or other type of entity, use its complete name, but abbreviate words in the name according to Rule 10 and as provided in table T.6.
For example, if your parties are: National First Southern Engineering Coalition (plaintiff) and Azalea Limited Company (defendant), the case name is: Nat’l First S. Eng’g Coal. v. Azalea Ltd.
Drop the word “company” from the defendant’s name due to Rule 10.2.1.(h), which allows only one corporate designation per party name.
Case Location: Volumes, Reporters, and Pages in State Court Citations
Often the only source you have to cite for a state court case is a regional reporter. A reporter is a collection of cases bound together in a book. The regional reporters are multivolume sets published by West. They include the Atlantic, Pacific, North Eastern, South Eastern, Southern, North Western, and South Western Reporters. Each contains cases from several states.
However, if you are citing to a case in the same state where you are appearing, you will need to use a parallel citation if the case is reported in both an official state reporter and the regional reporter. You should separate the reporter names with a comma, and the state reporter should always precede the regional reporter.
After the case name and before the name of the reporter, you must include the volume number of the reporter.
After the reporter name, you should insert the number of the first page on which the case appears. If you are citing a particular page in the opinion, called a pinpoint cite, you should insert that page number in the citation.
For example: DeLuca v. Frederick, 207 S.E.2d 724, 727 (Va. 2009).
Court Names in State Court Citations
The “Va.” in the parentheses tells you the Virginia Supreme Court decided the case. A state abbreviation in parentheses with no other abbreviation indicates the highest court in the state decided the case.
Table T.10 contains a full list of state abbreviations. You’ll also find these abbreviations in parentheses after the name of each state’s highest court in table T.1.
If the case was decided by a court other than the highest court in the state, you must add the abbreviation of the court’s name to the abbreviation of the name of the state.
For example, the New Mexico Court of Appeals is “N.M. Ct. App.,” and the Connecticut Appellate Court is “Conn. App. Ct.” The abbreviations of the names of lower state courts can be found in parentheses after the names of the courts in table T.1.
Adding the Court's Decision Date to a State Court Citation
The “2009” in the parentheses in the citation tells you the year of the court's decision.
Punctuating a Citation to a State Court Case
Memorize the punctuation for a basic case citation. The case name is followed by a comma. No comma appears either between a page number and the first parenthesis or between the name of the court and the year.
Finally, note that “versus” is abbreviated as “v.” in case names, not “vs.,” and it is in lower case.
Following this simple prescription will allow you to comply with the Bluebook rules for citing a state case.
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