Using This Reference

A useful legal citation helps another person find the material you used, locate the part that matters, and understand the role it plays in your argument. Those are separate jobs. A correct reporter citation can point to a passage that does not support a sentence. An accurate quotation can come from a dissent rather than the court's holding. A working link can open a version that did not govern the events being discussed.

The Citation Code begins with these decisions. It is designed to remain useful as the work changes: a first research memorandum, a journal assignment, a clinic filing, an appellate brief, an article, or an internal practice guide. Read the opening chapters to establish a method. Use the source chapters while drafting. Use the closing checklists when the document is nearly finished.

This is an original research draft. It offers a coherent editorial system and selected verified court requirements. It is not a certification of conformity with every court, journal, instructor, or separately required style manual. When the receiving authority prescribes a form, apply that requirement. Retain the method of identifying, locating, checking, and explaining the source even when its presentation must change.

Three labels describe the instructions in this book:

Label	Meaning	What to do
Court requirement	An instruction tied to an identified court rule and its scope	Read the controlling provision and check for amendments or case-specific orders
Source fact	Information about a publication, document, or database	Confirm that the particular item matches the description
Citation Code practice	Our editorial recommendation for clear, consistent work	Use it when a controlling instruction does not require another approach

Unlabeled drafting recommendations are Citation Code practices. They are choices made for this reference, not assertions that every legal writer uses the same convention. Bracketed placeholders such as [first page] describe a pattern; they are not completed citations. Examples expressly labeled fictional are training materials and must not be offered as legal authority.

CourtListener supplies case metadata, opinion text, and research links for this project. Official court and government publications supply the identified requirements and source descriptions. A metadata match establishes identity; it does not establish that a case is current, binding, citable in a particular forum, or supportive of a proposition. The research record preserves the distinction.