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In this lesson, you will learn how to cite your sources, what websites help with citing, and the different rules for citing each type of legal authority.
Proper Use and Citing of Statutes, Codes, and Rules
- Basic citation style
- Citation rules
- U.S. Code citation rule
- Postal Service example
- Federal Rules of Civil Procedure citation rule
- Summons example
- State citation rule
- Easement example
Transcript
One of the most tedious jobs of a legal rider is to keep up with sources and pointing the judge and other parties to where you found information.
This is called citing sources.
Online resources have made that job much easier. University law libraries like Cornell and Georgetown provide citation guides that help you properly cite legal resources. Some even have pictures.
This chart looks intimidating, but it\’s not. Really? Each statute, law, code, rule, and regulation is cited differently. But when you get right down to it, it\’s all simply a code, as you can see from the numbers on the right.
There\’s even a standard way of writing state statutes, even though there are many different names for them. Let\’s look at ways to add laws to your legal documents.
This is how to cite U.S. code. When you need to add U.S. code to your document, you\’ll want the title of the code, the abbreviation, USC section symbol, a space, section number, and year of the code. The result should look like the citation on the right.
In the snapshot on the left, a section of the postal code is circled in yellow. That is the section and the example of use on the right. In the example, the circled part is quoted and part of a larger argument. After that, a citation is included to pinpoint exactly where the quote came from.
This is how to cite the federal rules of civil procedure. The rule is slightly different from the rule for U.S. codes.
Like the previous example, in this sample, the federal rules of civil procedure regarding a summons is quoted and cited to support a legal argument. Since the example uses a quote, the citation must show exactly where the words are located in the statute. So the citation isn\’t just quoting the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 4. It\’s quoting Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 4(a)(1)(d).
Let\’s look at a state statute now. There are some similarities and differences in citation style from federal cases. But again, it\’s all the formula. Just plug in information where necessary.
In this Tennessee statute regarding easements, there are no quotes, and the example appears to refer to the entire statute. In this case, simply plug in the numbers from the face of the statute.
It\’s not necessary to use subsections or sub-parts. In fact, there are none. In the future, be prepared to use them properly where necessary.