Draft Declarations - 28 U.S.C. § 1746

Note that when filing a declaration in federal court, it's common to begin the declaration by making a reference to 28 U.S.C. § 1746. For example:

"Pursuant to 28 U.S.C.§ 1746, I hereby declare as follows:"

OR

"I, Clarence Darrow, hereby declare under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746 that . . . "

28 U.S.C. § 1746 provides that a matter may be supported by an unsworn declaration as being true under the penalty of perjury. The stature specifies that this language should be used:

“I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on (date). (Signature)”.

So one might begin a declaration like this:

. . . and conclude it his way:

In any event, be sure to include a reference to 28 U.S.C. § 1746.

(California Styling)

The California Style Manual specifies an alternative citation style to the common one used in the The Bluebook. The rules of the state courts in California allow either style to be used in a brief so long as one style is used consistently. However, a citation guide posted to the web site of the Judicial Council of California directs the use of the California style:

The California style is distinguished by enclosing citations in parentheses and putting the venue and year between the case name and reporter cite. A cite to a decision in the Bluebook style which appears as:

Hoosier Racing Tire, Corp., 674 F.3d 158 (3d Cir. 2012)

. . . will appear in the California style as:

(Hoosier Racing Tire, Corp. (3d Cir. 2012) 674 F.3d 158)

The California Style Manual also directs the old fashioned distinction between ibid. and .id , the former being used when the cite is to the same page in the immediately preceding authority. Citations to statutes, books, and law review articles are also enclosed in parentheses.

Court Stats

Don't miss out on the wealth of data on state court cases available at www.courtstatistics.org .

The data includes interactive tables which you can use to display statistics on trials; medical malpractice suits; case clearance rates and other metrics.

As you can see, the data shows how unlikely a civil case is to conclude in a trial. Data is not available on all metrics for all states, but there is quite extensive information on the disposition of cases in state appellate courts.

The site also includes charts illustrating the courts of limited, general, intermediate appellate, and last resort in each state.