There are various factors within any case citation, specific to the each case cited. These various factors include, but not limited to, jurisdiction and type of case. However, the list below provides general elements that can be found in a legal case citation.
1. Case Name
2. Reporters and Other Sources
3. Court & Jurisdiction
4. Date or Year
5. Parenthetical Information
6. Prior & Subsequent History
Rule 10 (Rule B10 in the Bluepages) governs how to cite cases. It provides instructions on how to properly format a legal case citation, as well as guidance on citing briefs, court filings, transcripts, and unreported cases.
Table 1 (T1) contains a list of the full name and abbreviations for reporters and courts, as well as a list of preferred sources to cite for federal courts and each state's courts
Table 6 (T6) provides the abbreviations for terms used in case names (e.g., Association = Ass'n)
Table 7 (T7) includes abbreviations of court names in the event the abbreviation is not provided in T1 (e.g., Administrative Court = Admin. Ct.)
Table 10 (T10) contains abbreviations for geographical terms (e.g., Illinois = Ill.)
When citing in court documents, the full case name is either italicized or underlined.
When citing in a law review article footnote, the first citation of a case name is not italicized or underlined.
Case Name: a judicial proceeding involving a controversy between two, or more, parties whose name or organization is located on a side of the "v"; the name on the left of the "v" is the plaintiff (or appellant if in appellate jurisdiction), and the name on the right of the "v" is the defendant (or appellant if in appellate jurisdiction)
Reporter: a series of books containing a collection of court decisions designated for publication by a court and arranged in chronological order
Decision: the court's judgment after considering the facts and the law
Opinion: the court's explanation for its decision, application of the law, and reasoning on which the decision is based upon
Parallel Citation: a citation reference when the same case is published in two or more reporters (e.g., Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 72 S. Ct. 863 (1952)) (see Rule 10.3 for more information)
