A properly formatted case citation contains five pieces of information in a fixed order: the case name, the volume number of the reporter, the reporter’s abbreviation, the page where the opinion begins, and a parenthetical with the court (if not already identified by the reporter) and the year. Learning how to cite law cases is largely a matter of getting those five pieces right, adding a pinpoint page when you need to point to a specific passage, and verifying the case is still good law before it goes into anything you file.
Here is the standard form, using a case most people recognize:
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
Read left to right, that citation tells you the parties, that the opinion sits in volume 347 of the United States Reports starting at page 483, and that the U.S. Supreme Court decided it in 1954. Every case citation you write will follow that same skeleton.
The Five Components
Each piece of the citation does a specific job, and each has its own conventions.
Case name. The parties, italicized, separated by an italicized “v.” Procedural phrases like “In re” and “Ex parte” are italicized along with the rest of the name.1Cornell University. Underlining and Italics
Volume number. The number of the reporter volume containing the opinion. Written as a plain number before the reporter abbreviation.
Reporter abbreviation. This is the piece that confuses newcomers most. Reporters are published sets of court decisions, and the abbreviation identifies which set. Common ones include U.S. (United States Reports, the official reporter for U.S. Supreme Court decisions), F.3d (Federal Reporter, Third Series, for federal appellate decisions), and F. Supp. 3d (for federal district court decisions). State cases appear in their state’s reporter and often in a regional reporter as well.
Starting page. The first page of the opinion within that volume. Follows the reporter abbreviation with a space.
Court and year parenthetical. The year the decision was issued. When the reporter itself identifies the court, as “U.S.” does for the Supreme Court, you only need the year: (1954). For every other court, add an abbreviation: (9th Cir. 2004) for a Ninth Circuit opinion, (S.D.N.Y. 2019) for the Southern District of New York.
The reporter abbreviation and volume number work like a library address: the abbreviation points to a set of books, the volume number points to the specific book, and the page number opens it to the right place.
Formatting the Case Name
Case names look simple until you try to abbreviate one. The rule that governs almost every judgment call: abbreviate more aggressively when the citation stands alone, less when the case name appears inside a sentence you are writing.
In a standalone citation, words like Company, Corporation, Association, and Department shorten to Co., Corp., Ass’n, and Dep’t. The Bluebook’s Table 6 lists the words that must be abbreviated in this context; Table 10 covers geographic terms.2Cornell University Law School. Words Abbreviated in Case Names When the case name appears inside your own sentence, only a short list of words gets abbreviated: &, Ass’n, Bros., Co., Corp., Inc., Ltd., and No. Even those stay unabbreviated if they open a party’s name.
The case name and the “v.” are italicized. The reporter information that follows is not.
Adding a Pinpoint Page
The basic citation tells the reader where the opinion begins. A pinpoint citation, or “pincite,” tells the reader which page contains the specific point you are relying on. Place it after the starting page, separated by a comma:
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 495 (1954)
That directs the reader to page 495. For a range, use an en dash: 495–96. For non-consecutive pages, separate with commas: 495, 501. Any time you quote from an opinion or state a specific proposition drawn from it, you need a pincite. A citation without one asks the reader to search the whole opinion for your point, and judges notice.
Short Forms for Repeat Citations
Once you have cited a case in full, later references use a shortened form. Two options cover most uses.
Id.
Id. points to the same source as the immediately preceding citation, and it only works when that preceding citation references a single source. If the prior citation strings together two or more authorities, id. is off the table.3The Bluebook Online. Rule 4.1 Id. To point to a different page in the same source, add “at” and the new page: Id. at 495. The period after “id.” is italicized along with the word.
Shortened Case Name
When other citations sit between you and the full citation, switch to a shortened case name. Pick the more distinctive party, then add the volume, reporter, “at,” and the page. After a full citation to Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), a later reference reads: Roe, 410 U.S. at 155.
One warning: supra works for books and articles, but not for cases. Use the shortened case name instead.
Introductory Signals
An introductory signal tells the reader how the cited authority relates to the point you just made. Choosing the wrong one, or omitting one that belongs, changes the meaning of the citation.
- No signal: the cited case directly states or is the source of your proposition, including any quotation.
- See: the case supports the proposition but does not state it directly; a small inferential step is required.
- See also: additional support beyond the primary authority.
- Cf.: the case supports a proposition that is different from yours but analogous to it.
- But see: the case clearly supports the opposite of your proposition.
- Contra: the case directly contradicts your proposition.
- See generally: the case provides helpful background.
Signals are italicized, and only the first signal in a citation sentence takes a capital letter.1Cornell University. Underlining and Italics A common habit is defaulting to see when no signal belongs. If the case says what your sentence says, drop the signal.
Situations That Change the Citation
A handful of situations require variations on the standard form.
Parallel citations. Some opinions appear in more than one reporter. State supreme court cases often show up in both an official state reporter and a regional reporter; the state reporter comes first. U.S. Supreme Court decisions technically appear in three reporters, but convention cites only United States Reports when available. Federal appellate and district court cases have no parallel citations. Whether you need parallels depends on the court where you are filing.
Public domain citations. Roughly 25 states have adopted a vendor-neutral format that does not depend on any commercial reporter. It uses the case name, year, two-letter state abbreviation, court abbreviation, and sequential decision number, with paragraph numbers for pincites: Kautzman v. Kautzman, 2003 ND 140, ¶ 9.4Cornell Law School. How to Cite Judicial Opinions In those jurisdictions the public domain citation typically comes first, with the print reporter as a parallel if local rules require it.
Unpublished opinions. When a case has not been assigned to a reporter, there is no volume or page to cite. Use the docket number plus information from the electronic database carrying the opinion (Westlaw or Lexis citation, court, full date), or for a slip opinion use the docket number, “slip op.,” a pincite if needed, the court, and the full date.4Cornell Law School. How to Cite Judicial Opinions Check the court’s rules before you cite an unpublished opinion; some courts restrict the practice or require you to flag it. The Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure permit citation to unpublished federal opinions issued after January 1, 2007, though individual courts may add requirements.
Subsequent history. When you cite a case in full, tell the reader what happened to it on appeal. Introduce the history with a phrase like “aff’d” (affirmed), “rev’d” (reversed), or “cert. denied” (certiorari denied).5The Bluebook Online. Rule 10.7 Prior and Subsequent History Three carve-outs save you the trouble in most situations: you can drop a denial of certiorari more than two years old unless it matters to your argument, you can skip history on remand and denials of rehearing unless they matter, and you always drop a disposition the deciding court later withdrew.
Which Manual Governs
Two reference manuals define U.S. legal citation. The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is the dominant standard, compiled by the editors of the Columbia, Harvard, Penn, and Yale law reviews; its 22nd edition was published in 2025. The ALWD Guide to Legal Citation, produced by the Association of Legal Writing Directors, offers a more streamlined system and is common in legal writing courses. The two agree on most conventions. The Bluebook applies different rules to law review writing than to court filings; the ALWD guide uses one unified format.
The rule that outranks both: your court’s local rules. Many courts specify a citation format, and some require conventions neither manual covers. Check those rules before defaulting to a manual.
Verify the Case Is Still Good Law
Before you cite any case, confirm no later court has reversed, overruled, or significantly limited it. The two main tools are Shepard’s Citations on Lexis and KeyCite on Westlaw. Both use color-coded flags: a red flag or stop sign signals strong negative treatment, a yellow flag or triangle warns of some negative treatment, and green marks positive treatment such as affirmance. Both trace every subsequent case that has cited yours and categorize how it was treated.
Google Scholar’s “How Cited” feature is a free alternative that lists later cases referencing the one you are checking.6Library of Congress. Google Scholar – How To Find Free Case Law Online It is a reasonable starting point but is not as thorough as the paid citators and lacks their analytical flags. For anything you plan to file, the commercial citators are worth the cost, or worth a trip to a law library that offers public access.
What Bad Citations Cost
Sloppy citation is not only an embarrassment. A brief with unverifiable citations loses credibility with the court, and citation errors have carried real financial consequences, especially as AI-generated legal writing has spread.
In a 2025 federal case, two lawyers were ordered to pay more than $24,000 in fees to opposing counsel after their filings contained over 50 defective citations. A California appellate court in 2025 imposed a $10,000 sanction on a lawyer whose filing included fake quotes and off-topic cases generated by AI. A 2026 Fifth Circuit decision sanctioned an attorney $2,500 after identifying 21 fabricated quotations or serious misrepresentations of law in a single brief.
Sanctions are not confined to AI-generated errors. Any citation to a case that does not exist, does not say what you claim, or has been overruled without disclosure can trigger sanctions under rules governing candor and competence. Read the case. Confirm it says what you think it says. Run it through a citator. No tool reliably replaces that work.