3. Build a Source Record

3.1 Capture identity before presentation

Record a source in full before abbreviating it. For an opinion, retain the displayed case name, issuing court, decision date, docket number, citation identifiers, document URL, and the particular opinion within the case. For a statute or regulation, preserve the jurisdiction, publication, provision, version date, and relevant history. For commentary, retain the author, title, publication, edition or issue, date, and locator.

A full record lets the writer later adapt the display to a court, journal, or publisher. An aggressively shortened citation may lose facts that cannot be reconstructed reliably. Keep the research record richer than the final footnote.

3.2 Record dates by function

Dates can describe different events: decision, filing, publication, enactment, effective date, amendment, update, or retrieval. Preserve the label with the date. A database upload date is not necessarily a decision date. A publication year is not necessarily an effective year. “Last visited” is not a substitute for the date of a document when the date is available.

For a changing web source, keep both the displayed publication or update date and the retrieval date if they serve different purposes. For a legal provision applied to historical events, identify the version governing those events. The newest source is not automatically the relevant one.

3.3 Distinguish the document from its container

A database hosts documents; a reporter publishes decisions; an agency page may link to a regulation, a notice, and a guidance document. Cite the item that supports the proposition. Do not let the surrounding website's name replace the identity of the underlying material.

For example, a CourtListener opinion page may group a lead opinion and separate opinions. The page is a useful access point, but a statement attributed to the court requires inspection of the relevant judicial text. Likewise, a GPO page may provide several formats of the same publication. The HTML and PDF can be access formats for one source rather than two independent authorities.

3.4 Save a source packet

Our recommended source packet contains the source file or permitted saved copy, its public access link, a short metadata record, and your proposition notes. Use a consistent file name such as court-date-shortname-version. Avoid names such as final-final2 that conceal what the file contains.

For important digital sources, a checksum helps identify whether a later file is byte-for-byte identical. A checksum does not establish authenticity or legal validity. It answers a narrower question: whether the saved bytes match the bytes previously recorded. Describe that check accurately in a research log.

Do not place confidential client documents in an open research repository. Public case examples and private matter records belong in appropriate separate storage. A public citation does not require public distribution of the entire underlying client file.

3.5 Mark verification stages honestly

Use distinct statuses such as “located,” “metadata checked,” “passage read,” “quotation checked,” and “history reviewed.” A single green checkmark tends to conceal which work remains. If someone else will rely on the source packet, name the reviewer and the date of each meaningful review.

Working example — fictional. A research assistant finds an opinion through a search engine and enters its title and URL. That item is located. After comparing the opinion's first page with the database record, it is metadata checked. After reading the cited passage and surrounding discussion, it is passage read. Its procedural history and subsequent treatment still require separate attention.

Sources and convention notes

CourtListener case-law data model; GPO authentication explanation. The source packet and staged review labels are Citation Code editorial recommendations.