LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING I

Citing Court and Litigation Documents – For Practitioners’ Briefs

When you write a document for a court, you must cite to the court and litigation documents
related to your client’s case. These citations tell the reader where to find the facts and other
information that you rely upon.

Citations to court and litigation documents are discussed in Bluepages B7 and table BT1 on
pages 19-22 and 28-29 in The Bluebook (19th edition).

A citation to a court or litigation document includes several types of information:

(1) the name of the document, abbreviated according to rule B7.1.1 and table BT1
(2) a pinpoint citation, as shown in rule B7.1.2
(3) the date of the document, if required by rule B7.1.3

Examples: Compl. ¶ 7.
Smith Dep. 30:4-18, Feb. 5, 2001.
Trial Tr. vol. 2, 51-52, Dec. 12, 2002.

Name of the Document (Bluepages B7.1.1 and table BT1)

Avoiding confusion or ambiguity is the most important consideration when abbreviating the
name of a document. The introduction to table BT1 provides some guidance:

 The table lists suggested abbreviations for many words in titles of court documents.
 Some words (as shown in the table) should not be abbreviated.
 Words of more than six letters that do not appear in the table may also be abbreviated.

Pinpoint Citation (Bluepages B7.1.2)

Citations to court and litigation documents must include a pinpoint to the place in the document
where the cited information appears. Depending on the type of document, pinpoint citations may
be to pages, to paragraphs, or to page and line numbers.

Pinpoints to Pages
If the document has only page numbers, then cite to them.
 A comma and the word “at” are used if the page number could be confused with another
part of the citation. E.g.: Jones Aff. Ex. A, at 2.

Pinpoints to Paragraphs
If the document has numbered paragraphs (or sections), cite to them because they are a more
precise pinpoint than the page number.
 Do not use the word “at” before a paragraph symbol, and put a space between the symbol
and the number that follows it. E.g.: Compl. ¶ 7.
Pinpoints to Page and Line Numbers
If the lines on the pages are numbered, cite to both the page and line numbers in the pinpoint.
 Separate line and page numbers with a colon. E.g.: Yee Dep. 15:21.
 To cite information that begins on one page and ends on another, include the beginning
and ending pages and lines.
E.g.: Yee Dep. 15:21–16:4. or Yee Dep. 15:21-16:4.
 By analogy to other pinpoints, separate nonconsecutive pinpoints with commas.
E.g.: Hr’g Tr. 6:5, 9:8–12, 14:19–22. or Hr’g Tr. 6:5, 9:8-12, 14:19-22.

Date of the Document (Bluepages B7.1.3)

Provide the date in a full citation to these documents: depositions, trial or hearing testimony, and
judgments and orders. Example: Perryman Dep. 34:15-18, Aug. 7, 2002.

For other documents, provide the date when (1) more than one such document has the same
name, (2) when the date is significant to the discussion, or (3) as needed to avoid confusion. For
example, if a witness has given two affidavits, then all citations to those affidavits must include
the date in order to distinguish between the two documents.
Example: Toms Aff. ¶ 9, May 10, 2003.
Toms Aff. ¶ 2, June 2, 2003.

Short Citations (Bluepages B7.2)

Give a full citation to each document the first time you cite it in both the Statement of Facts and
the Argument sections of a brief.

If the citation includes a date, then you can drop the date in a short cite:
TRO Hr’g Tr. 21, Jan. 9, 2003. becomes TRO Hr’g Tr. 24. or Hr’g Tr. 24.

“Id.” is acceptable for citations to court and litigation documents to save space.

Previous editions of The Bluebook did not permit the use of “id.” with citations to court
documents. The 19th edition specifically allows you to use “id.” for court documents.