2. Establish the Receiving Requirements

2.1 Make a requirements sheet

Before drafting a filing or graded assignment, identify the receiving court, tribunal, journal, instructor, or supervising lawyer. Record the document type, applicable date, prescribed citation approach, formatting requirements, length limits, and record-reference system. Save the actual instruction rather than a colleague's recollection of it.

A useful requirements sheet has a field for exceptions. An individual order may address a document that a general rule treats differently. A journal may have a house supplement. A professor may require a particular edition of a manual. When two instructions appear inconsistent, determine their scope and resolve the conflict with the responsible recipient or supervisor. Do not quietly average the requirements.

Question	Entry to preserve
Who receives the document?	Court and division, course, journal, or client team
What are we submitting?	Brief, motion, memorandum, article, or other document
Which instructions apply?	Exact rule, order, assignment, or house guide
When were they checked?	Date and the version or effective date displayed
How is the record cited?	Appendix, excerpts, docket entry, transcript, or other system
What remains unresolved?	Named issue and person responsible for resolving it

2.2 Keep local requirements local

Court requirement — federal appellate proceedings. Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1(a) restricts prohibitions on citing specified federal judicial dispositions issued on or after January 1, 2007. Its permission to cite does not by itself assign precedential weight. Rule 32.1(b) addresses filing and serving a copy when the disposition is unavailable in a publicly accessible electronic database. Read the rule together with the receiving circuit's applicable provisions.

Court requirement — California. California Rule of Court 8.1115(a) restricts citation or reliance on unpublished California Court of Appeal and superior court appellate division opinions in other actions, subject to the exceptions in subdivision (b). The rule separately addresses published opinions under review. The existence of a freely accessible database copy does not eliminate these distinctions.

These provisions illustrate why “I found it online” cannot answer “May I cite it here?” They address different bodies of decisions and different procedural settings. Record both the issuing court and the receiving forum.

2.3 Separate typography from source selection

A typeface instruction tells you how to display the citation. It does not tell you which decision controls, which statutory version applies, or whether a quotation is accurate. Review these questions separately.

Citation Code's default is italicized case names in running text and citations, ordinary roman type for reporter identifiers and numerical locators, and readable consistent spacing. This default is an editorial choice. A filing must satisfy the receiving court's font, spacing, and other presentation rules even when a different layout would look better in this book.

Court requirement — California briefs. Rule 8.204(a)(1)(C) calls for record references with volume and page information and similarly specific locations for electronic records. Its subdivisions on formatting and length have their own scopes. Checking the citation provision alone does not establish compliance with the rest of the rule.

2.4 Preserve the version you checked

Rules change. A bookmarked link may show tomorrow's text while your research note describes yesterday's. Preserve the effective date, retrieval date, and a saved copy when appropriate. At final review, check the official rule page again and determine whether any intervening change affects the submission.

For this draft, the official Supreme Court rules were effective March 16, 2026, and the downloaded Ninth Circuit handbook was effective June 1, 2026. Those dates identify the research baseline. They are not assurances about a later filing date.

Sources and convention notes

Supreme Court rules and guidance; Ninth Circuit rules and current handbook, FRAP 32.1; California rule 8.1115; California rule 8.204. The requirements sheet and review method are Citation Code editorial practices.