Judges Really Do Notice Legal Citations

Paralegals across the country who have toiled away checking citations in lengthy briefs will likely have wondered at some point if the judges receiving the briefs pay much attention to the citations. Judge Jonathan Goodman of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida certainly does. The Tip of the Night for January 29, 2019 discussed Sosa v. Carnival Corp., No. 18-20957-CIV, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12283 (S.D. Fla. Jan. 25, 2019). In a footnote to his decision, Judge Goodman faulted both parties for failing to provide a case docket number with citations to unreported Westlaw citations.

"The Undersigned does not view the Bluebook requirement of a parallel case docket number in a Westlaw citation in an unreported case to be a hyper-technical, nit picky-type obligation. To the contrary, there may well be a need or desire to evaluate the docket sheet and record evidence from the unreported case -- and the case docket number makes it easier to track down the case on PACER." Id. at *8 n.1. Refer to Bluebook Rule 10.8.1(a)

HeinOnline's Law Journal Library

Lexis has an extensive library of law journal articles, but its resources generally don't go back further than the 1980s. Articles from the Boston University Law Review are only available from 1982 to the present. The volumes of the Rutgers Law Review only date from 1992 onwards. Even Harvard Law Review articles have only been uploaded beginning with volume number 96, published in 1982.

If you're reviewing a brief or expert report that cites to law journal articles from the 1970s and earlier use HeinOnline's Law Journal Library. Hein has scanned and text searchable copies of hundreds of law review articles dating back to the 19th century. The Boston University Law Review's articles are available from 1921 onwards; Rutgers Law Reviews articles go back to 1947; and a full set of the Harvard Law Review from its first volume in 1887 can be downloaded. Articles published in recent years including 2018 are available for each journal as well.

Hein allows you download specific articles as individual PDFs.

Peter W. Martin's Legal Citation Guide

Peter W. Martin's legal citation guide, Introduction to Basic Legal Citation, has been posted to the web site of Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute. The guide was revised in December 2017. Martin's guide takes into consideration the rules of not only the Bluebook but several other citation reference manuals. Most paralegals still work with hard copy Bluebooks, so it's great to have easy access to a searchable guide with a hyperlinked table of contents and index.

It includes a cross reference guide between its sections and those of the Bluebook. The headings for sections in Martin's guide include links to the cross reference table for Bluebook and the Association of Legal Writing Directors Guide to Legal Citation, and direct links to corresponding sections of the Indigo Book: A Manual of Legal Citation.

One of the key benefits of the guide its detailing of when the rules for citations differ between various citation guides and court rules. Sample documents are included which show how citations should appear in documents filed in particular jurisdictions.