Case Law

An example of a case citation: Rescuecom Corp. v. Google, Inc., 562 F.3d 123 (2d Cir. 2009)

• Rescuecom Corp. v. Google, Inc. = Names of the parties in the case. (In the trial court, the first name listed is the plaintiff, the party bringing the suit. The name following the "v" is the defendant. If the case is appealed, as in this example, the name of the petitioner (appellant) is usually listed first, and the name of the respondent (appellee) is listed second. If the defendant in the trial court case brings an appeal, the defendant's name may be listed first in the appellate case.)
   
• 562 = Volume number of the reporter containing the full-text of the court's opinion.
   
• F.3d = Bluebook abbreviation for the reporter (in this example, Federal Reporter, Third Series) containing the court's opinion.
   
• 123 = First page of the court’s opinion in the reporter.
   
• 2d Cir. = If a set contains the decisions of more than one court or jurisdiction, additional information might be needed in order to identify the court issuing the decision. In this case, the Federal Reporter contains decisions of all of the United States Courts of Appeals, and thus, information specifying that the Second Circuit issued this opinion is provided.
   
• 2009 = Year the case was decided.

The same case can be printed in a variety of different reporters, so there may be more than one acceptable citation.  Even though the text of the decision will be the same in each reporter, the editorial enhancements will differ (e.g. headnotes) by publisher.  If citing to a case, be sure to consult the Bluebook to determine the preferred citation.  An example of parallel citations for a United States Supreme Court case is:

393 U.S. 503, 89 S. Ct. 733, 21 L. Ed. 2d 731

The elements that are generally abbreviated in a case citation are the party names, the reporter that contains the decision, and the court that heard the case.  Use the tables in the Bluebook to decipher the party names and court abbreviations.