11. Cite Litigation Documents and Records

11.1 Separate authority from evidence

A judicial opinion supplies legal reasoning or a disposition. A complaint records allegations. A declaration supplies a declarant's statements. A transcript records proceedings. A citation to one document does not transform its contents into another type of material.

Use verbs that preserve the distinction: the complaint alleges, the witness testified, the order directed, the court held. If a matter is disputed, a citation to a party's statement does not make it undisputed. The prose should describe what the source establishes and what remains contested.

11.2 Use the receiving court's record system

The same underlying document may appear in the docket, an appendix, excerpts of record, and a working binder, each with different numbering. Use the location the receiving court requires. Keep a crosswalk internally so the team can find the original quickly.

Court requirement — Ninth Circuit. Circuit Rule 28-2.8 addresses citations to excerpts of record for record assertions, with specified treatment of background facts and filers exempt from the excerpts requirement. Check the actual rule and applicable exemption before using direct docket citations as a substitute.

Court requirement — California appellate briefs. Rule 8.204(a)(1)(C) requires volume-and-page record references and comparably specific locations in electronic records. The fact that a document is attached to a brief does not itself answer whether the required record citation has been supplied.

11.3 Make docket citations reproducible

For a docket document, preserve its title, docket entry number, attachment number if any, filing date, and relevant internal page or paragraph. Distinguish the main filing from its exhibits. Docket entry 18 and attachment 18-2 can be different documents.

Fictional model: Declaration of Lena Ortiz ¶ 7, ECF No. 18-2. This model presupposes that the receiving context already identifies the case and accepts this record-reference system. In an article discussing multiple cases, include enough case and docket identity to distinguish the filing.

If the document has both a printed page number and an electronic header page number, follow the court's instructions and identify the system clearly. Do not alternate between systems without telling the reader.

11.4 Cite transcripts and exhibits precisely

For testimony, record the transcript date, witness or proceeding, page, and line numbers when available and appropriate. Fictional model: Ortiz Dep. 42:6–43:2 (June 9, 2026). That identifies a passage crossing a page boundary; it should not be compressed into an ambiguous line range.

For exhibits, identify the exhibit designation and the location within it. A Bates number may be useful, but confirm that the recipient has a record copy using those numbers. If a file contains multiple documents, the file name alone is a poor locator.

For audiovisual evidence, preserve the exact recording and use timestamps tied to that version. Editing the opening of a recording shifts every later timestamp. A transcript can aid access, but a transcript and a recording are distinct materials; cite the one that actually supports the proposition.

11.5 Audit after assembling the record

Record assembly can change page numbers. Recheck every affected reference after pagination, redaction, exhibit insertion, or replacement of a scanned file. Confirm that the final filed record contains the cited page and that the page remains legible.

Working check — fictional. The draft cites appendix page 87. A corrected cover and two missing pages are inserted ahead of the document. The new appendix places the passage on page 90. Updating the table of contents without updating the brief leaves a broken reference. Check both the citation and the actual final page.

Sources and convention notes

Ninth Circuit rules, circuit rule 28-2.8; California rule 8.204. All named witnesses, docket entries, transcript coordinates, and appendix scenarios in this chapter are fictional training examples.