17. Case Names, Courts, and Reporter Identity

17.1 Begin with the document's identity

A case can have several names: the caption on the docket, the title on the issued opinion, a reporter's shortened title, and a database's display name. Save the issued title and docket number before selecting a reader-facing name. A shortened citation is an editorial presentation of an identified document. It should not make a different case appear to be the source.

Citation Code's default is the shortest party description that remains recognizable and distinguishes the decision from other authorities in the document. Preserve a longer name when shortening would confuse affiliated companies, consolidated proceedings, or several actions involving the same public official. Use a consistent spelling in the text, citations, and table of authorities. Retain the complete title in the research record.

17.2 Handle procedural captions without inventing parties

Some matters do not present a conventional plaintiff-versus-defendant caption. An estate, disciplinary matter, bankruptcy proceeding, or application may use an introductory phrase such as In re. Preserve the structure actually used by the source unless the receiving instructions supply a specific shortening rule. Do not manufacture an opposing party to make the citation fit a familiar pattern.

For a consolidated decision, the opinion's leading caption may identify the published decision while several docket numbers identify its components. Record those numbers when the proposition depends on which consolidated case the court discussed. A passage about one claimant does not necessarily describe every claimant covered by the decision.

17.3 Treat reporter abbreviations as identifiers

The reporter string belongs with its volume and first page. Changing a series suffix, dropping a digit, or substituting a similarly named reporter can redirect the reader to another publication. Copy the identifier from the verified publication record, then resolve the resulting full citation. An abbreviation list helps identify a publication; it cannot prove that a particular case appears there.

The research corpus contains 989 observed reporter strings. Some refer to electronic databases, specialist services, historical publications, or alternate representations. Their frequency is not an endorsement of a preferred citation form. The book's source forms deliberately use placeholders where a verified item is needed.

17.4 Distinguish the court from the publication

A reporter can contain decisions of more than one court. Preserve enough court information to identify the issuing tribunal when the reporter alone does not. If the receiving form omits an otherwise redundant court identifier, the source record should still retain it. Do not infer the court from a party's location or a docket prefix whose meaning has not been checked.

Identity example. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242 (1986), identifies a Supreme Court decision whose first reported page is 242. It does not identify a supporting passage. A proposition needs a separate pinpoint selected after reading the relevant opinion. CourtListener identity record.

17.5 Repair a mismatch systematically

When a tool reports the right reporter citation with the wrong name, check the source rather than accepting either field automatically. Compare the issued opinion, database record, and submitted string. Re-run a single citation to distinguish an extraction error from a source mismatch. Preserve the original warning and the resolution. Our research encountered a batch parser associating a preceding case name with the next citation; isolated checks resolved several warnings. This is an observed tool limitation, not a reason to ignore future warnings.