Citation To Legal Authorities

Citation To Legal Authorities in United States

Practical Information

Note: Some of this information was last updated in 1982

Reference to an authority that supports a statement of law or from which a quotation is taken. Citations most frequently occur in a brief (in U.S. law), memorandum of law (in U.S. law), and opinion letters (in U.S. law). The lawyer speaks of citing a case, a cited case, citing a report, and the like. The references are principally to the following sources:

1. Constitutions, statutes, codes

2. Law reports

3. Texts and periodicals

Shepard’s citations (see more in this U.S. Legal Encyclopedia) is a service that indicates whether statutes and cases to be cited as authority are in fact valid for that purpose. In matters of style and form, the most widely used book of citations is A Uniform System of Citation, published by the Harvard Law Review Association in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It covers general rules of citation and style, citation forms for various kinds of authority, and specific citation forms and abbreviations. However, some state supreme courts require a different form of citation. Always check your own supreme court rules to see how the official state reporters should be cited in appellate briefs.

(Revised by Ann De Vries)

What is Citation To Legal Authorities?

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