Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

How to Read a Legal Citation

Case Citations

General Case Citations
U.S. Supreme Court Example
Ohio Case Example

  

Case Reporters

Federal Case Reporters & Abbreviations
State Case Reporters & Abbreviations
Ohio Case Reporters & Abbreviations

 

Statute Citations

More Information

 

Case Citation, Generally

General format: Seasons Coal Co. v. Cleveland, 10 Ohio St. 3d 77(1984)

Case name Volume
No. 		Reporter* Page
No. 		Year
Seasons Coal Co. v. Cleveland, 10 Ohio St.3d 77 (1984)

*The title of the set of books containing the case. See below: Common Reporters for Federal Cases, Common Reporters for State Cases, Common Reporters for Ohio Cases

 

U.S. Supreme Court Example

Whetsel v. Sherwood, 537 U.S. 1182, 123 S.Ct. 1208, 154 L.Ed. 1013 , 2003 WL 329302, 2003 U.S. LEXIS 1072, 71 U.S.L.W. (2003).

Case Name: Whetsel v. Sherwood.

Official Reporter Citations: The first number is the volume number, followed by the reporter abbreviation, followed by the page number.

Parallel Citations: These parallel citations contain the same text of the opinion, but they are printed in reporters published by other companies, posted on the web or in LexisNexis or Westlaw.  "WL" stands for WESTLAW and "U.S. LEXIS" stands for United States Supreme Court material within Lexis-Nexis.  These parallel citations are often available before the official reporter.

Year: The year the opinion was written. 

 

Common reporters for Federal Cases: 

Decisions of Federal Courts
REPORTER NAME ABBREVIATION
United States Reports  U.S.
Supreme Court Reporter  S.Ct.
United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition L.Ed.
United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition, Second Series L.Ed. 2d
United States Law Week  U.S.L.W.
Federal Reporter F. 
Federal Reporter, Second Series  F.2d 
Federal Reporter, Third Series  F.3d
Federal Supplement  F. Supp.
Federal Rules Decisions 

F.R.D.
 

State Citations

State ex rel Walls v. Ohio Masonic Home, 98 Ohio St. 3d 285, 2003-Ohio- 370, 782 N.E.2d 581, 2003 Ohio LEXIS 151 (2003).

This example shows an Ohio Supreme Court case citation.

Case Name: State ex rel Walls v. Ohio Masonic Home.

Official Reporter Citation: Volume number, reporter abbreviation, and beginning page number of this decision.

Ohio WebCite: The electronic citation found on the Ohio Supreme Court's Reporter of Decisions Search Page. See Revisions to the Manual of Citations(July 12, 2002).

Parallel Citations: The parallel citations contain the same text of the opinion, but they are printed in reporters published by other companies or posted on the web or within one of the major legal databases.  In this example, there is no "WL" as the opinion of the court has been published in the print regional North Eastern reporter, 2nd Series (2d). Ohio LEXIS stands for Ohio Supreme Court material within LexisNexis.  These parallel citations are often available before the official reporter.

Year: The year the opinion was written.

 

Common State Reporters

REPORTER NAME ABBREVIATION
Atlantic Reporter  A.
Atlantic Reporter, Second Series  A.2d
California Reporter  Cal. Rptr.
North Eastern Reporter  N.E.
North Eastern Reporter, Second Series  N.E. 2d
North Western Reporter  N.W.
North Western Reporter, Second Series  N.W. 2d
New York Supplement  N.Y.S.
New York Supplement, Second Series  N.Y.S. 2d
Pacific Reporter  P.
Pacific Reporter, Second Series P. 2d
Southern Reporter  So.
Southern Reporter, Second Series  So. 2d
South Eastern Reporter S.E.  S.E.
South Eastern Reporter, Second Series S.E.2d  S.E. 2d
South Western Reporter  S.W.
South Western Reporter, Second Series  S.W. 2d
 

Ohio Reporters

OHIO REPORTER NAME ABBREVIATION
Ohio State Reports  Ohio St.
Ohio State Reports, Second Series  Ohio St. 2d
Ohio State Reports, Third Series*  Ohio St. 3d
Ohio Appellate Reports  Ohio App.
Ohio Appellate Reports, Second Series  Ohio App. 2d
Ohio Appellate Reports, Third Series*  Ohio App. 3d
Ohio Miscellaneous  Ohio Misc.
Ohio Miscellaneous, Second Series*  Ohio Misc. 2d
Ohio Bar Reports  Ohio B.
Ohio Opinions  Ohio Op.
Ohio Opinions, Second Series  Ohio Op. 2d
Ohio Opinions, Third Series  Ohio Op. 3d
Ohio Nisi Prius Reports  Ohio N.P.
Ohio Nisi Prius Reports, New Series Ohio N.P. (n.s.)
Ohio Decisions Ohio Dec.
Ohio Decisions, Reprint  Ohio Dec. Reprint
Ohio Circuit Court Decisions  Ohio C.C. Dec.
Ohio Circuit Reports (Jahn)  Ohio C.C.
Ohio Circuit Decisions  Ohio Cir. Dec.
Ohio Circuit Court Reports, New Series  Ohio C.C. (n.s.)
Unreported Ohio Appellate Cases Ohio App. Unrep.

* The title on the physical volumes is Ohio Official Reports: Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of Ohio.

 

 

Statute Citation

Example: Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (The popular name of an act)

United States Code: Topical arrangement of United States statutes:

42 U.S.C.A. §12101 (West 2005) 

42 U.S.C.S. §12101 (LexisNexis 2003) 

Title Number - Name of Code - Code section - Publisher - Date of volume or supplement.

If the cite is just to U.S.C., this means the official edition of the United States Code, published by the Government Printing Office.

Public Laws: When a law is passed, it is called a public law or slip law. The citation indicates the Congress number and the Public Law number: 

P.L. 101-336

Statutes at Large: The Statutes at Large contains the public laws in chronological order, with margin notations indicating where parts of the public law will appear in the U.S. Code.

103 Stat. 327

( Volume Number, Abbreviation for the Statutes at Large, Page Number).

For more information, see Federal Legislative History - How newly enacted law are published.

 

More Information:

 

SMC (2/03), SA 6/17/2008.
links checked 8/7/2009 aeb


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