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Paralegal Studies

Citing Judicial Opinions

1. When viewing a case, click on the Copy Citation box in the middle of the page under the title.

screenshot showing the Copy Citation box in the middle of the page under the title.

 

The box that pops up (pictured below) provides options to remove hyperlinks and parallel citations. 
Nexis Citation Options

The case citation provides the following critical pieces of information:

1. The Parties' Names
2. The physical volumes where the case can be found (If it has been published)

ie. 230, Kan. 262. 

  • reporter volume number
  • the standard abbreviation of the reporter name.
  • the first page of the citation

3. The year of decision (does not need to be repeated if listed earlier)

4. The abbreviation of the deciding court.  (does not need to be repeated if listed earlier). 

You will often find secondary or parallel citations in Nexis Uni. This is a holdover from pre-electronic information. You do not have to include the secondary citations. They might be regional publications. 

 

Sample Supreme Court Citation: 

(PLAINTIFF or First Party) v. (DEFENDANT or 2nd Party) Vol #. Reporter. Starting Page. Date of Opinion.    

(PLAINTIFF or First Party):  International Shoe Co.  v. (DEFENDANT or 2nd Party): State of Washington et al.
Vol. #:  
 326  Reporter:  U.S. Starting Page:  310 Date of Opinion: 1945    

 

International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington et al., 326 U.S. 310, 1945       

 


 


Federal Appellate Case Citation: 

 (PLAINTIFF or First Party):  United States  v. (DEFENDANT or 2nd Party): MacDonald.
Vol. #:  
 531  Reporter:  F.2d Starting Page:  196 Deciding Court: 4th Cir. Date of Opinion: 1976

United States v MacDonald, 531 F.2d 196, (4th Cir. 1976).

 

 

*Nexis Uni provides extra information; cases can be found in multiple reporters. Highlighted is all you need to create your citation. 


Statutes

When citing statutes in-text, use the popular or official name of the act.  In the reference list, be sure to include the source and section number of the statute. The year cited, should be the year of the compilation the statute was located in, which might be different from the year in the name of the act.

Sources are typically abbreviated.  

Format:

Name of Act § Section number, Volume number U.S.C. § Section number (Year).

Example:

U. S. Copyright Law § 17, U.S.C. § 107 (2011).

Note: To add the Section (§) using Microsoft Word, place your cursor in the location you wish to insert the symbol in your document.  Go to the Insert tab and click on Symbol in the Symbols menu.  In the dialogue box that opens, click on the tab for Special Characters and click on the symbol to insert it into your document.

 

Law Reviews

63 U. Cin. L. Rev. 1275
Translation: Volume 63 of the University of Cincinnati Law Review, starting on page 1275.

Example for Works Cited: Calabresi, S.G., & Rhodes, K.H. (1992). The structural constitution: Unitary executive, plural judiciary. 105 Harv. L. Rev. 1155, 1158. Retrieved from http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/.

-ONLY include the page number if you cited exactly from that page; as for page number range, that is optional. As for the end part of the citation, if you have a DOI number use it - if not, then simply list the URL for the database you used to retrieve the article or law review. The format I list is how Nexis Uni requests users to list articles/review retrieved from their database.

For in-text citation, just use the author name(s) - (Calabresi & Rhodes, 1992, page number). Only use a page number if citing directly from the tex

Google Scholar Case Law Search

Google Scholar includes Case Law.

For each case, they provide a Bluebook citation.  (APA uses Bluebook for Legal citations).

You can use this citation but note that will all automatic citations, there may be errors. Make sure it has information that matches what you see in Nexis Uni for the court numbers and publication information. 

 

Go to scholar.google.com, search for your case,

Under the search box, Click the button for Case Law 

 

Once you find your case, click the Cite link, and the citation will appear.