Bluebook Guide: Illinois Cases

The Bluebook provides specific information on sources from Illinois.  See T1.3, pp. 255-56.

The Illinois Supreme Court adopted a new Style Manual for the Supreme and Appellate Courts of Illinois, to apply to opinions filed on or after January 1, 2025. The style manual presents several small refinements to existing practices. The longtime practice is to generally follow the standards of The Bluebook (now in its 21st edition).

The Style Manual provides guidance in the following areas: (1) Structuring an Opinion (pp. 1-24), (2) Grammatical Style (pp. 25-46), and (3) Citation Style (47-92).  

The Style Manual notes that a good practice is to stay consistent with The Bluebook rules as much as possible.

Notably, the Style Manual indicates that typeface conventions for legal writing from The Bluebook (the Bluepages) should be used in Illinois reviewing court opinions.

The Style Manual designates a preference for 12-point, Times New Roman font (and 11-point, Times New Roman font for footnotes).

Noteworthy exceptions and partial exceptions to The Bluebook are stated in italics above the relevant rules within the Style Manual. Not all rules below represent a departure from The Bluebook rules; many expand upon the rules for authorities specific to Illinois practice. Note that a good rule of thumb is to avoid deviating from The Bluebook rules as much as possible.

The Style Manual contains a key exception to R1.2, where most signals are not italicized.

The “see also” signal is not used until after “see” or another supporting signal is used.

In the past, Illinois decisions were published in official state reporters:  Illinois Reports for Illinois Supreme Court decisions and Illinois Appellate Court Reports for the appellate decisions.  Illinois Supreme Court and Appellate Court decisions are also available in the commercial reporters:  the North Eastern Reporter and West's Illinois Decisions.

In 2011, the state stopped the production of printed official reporters and started to issue electronic versions of Illinois Supreme Court and Appellate Court decisions on the Illinois courts website.  Illinois decisions are still available in the North Eastern Reporter and West's Illinois Decisions.

Always cite Illinois’s official reports (Illinois Reports (Ill. or Ill. 2d) or Illinois Appellate Court Reports (Ill. App., Ill. App. 2d, or Ill. App. 3d)) for opinions published therein. For Illinois cases filed on or after July 1, 2011, and for any case not published in the Illinois Official Reports prior
to that date and for which a public-domain citation has been assigned, the public-domain citation shall be given, and where appropriate, pinpoint citations with paragraph numbers shall be given.

For Illinois cases filed on or after July 1, 2011, the public-domain citation shall be given, and, where appropriate, pinpoint citations to paragraph numbers shall be given. The Style Manual provides helpful examples of how to cite public-domain opinions.

Full citation:  People v. White, 2011 IL 109689.
Full citation with pinpoint:  People v. White, 2011 IL 109689, ¶ 139.
Full citation with pinpoint to a footnote:  People v. White, 2011 IL 109689, ¶ 12 n.2.
Short citation:  White, 2011 IL 109689.
Short citation with pinpoint:  White, 2011 IL 109689, ¶¶ 63-64.

Parallel citations of the North Eastern Reporter (N.E. or N.E.2d), Illinois Decisions, Westlaw, and Lexis-Nexis are not used. Each of those unofficial reporters and sources contains Illinois’s official citation for cases, and so citation of parallel reporters prolongs the opinion without increasing access for the reader. 

Style Manual Examples

This is for cases in which parallel citation information is included.

Full citation:  People v. Sharpe, 216 Ill. 2d 481, 487, 839 N.E.2d 492, 498 (2005).
Short citation:  Sharpe, 216 Ill. 2d at 487.
Id. citation:  Id. at 487.

Parallel citation information may only be included for public-domain opinions' first full citation.  Note that no pinpoint citation is given to a regional reporter for public-domain cases' parallel citations.

Full citation:  Snyder v. Heidelberger, 2011 IL 111052, ¶ 1, 953 N.E.2d 415.
Short citation:  Snyder, 2011 IL 111052, ¶ 1.
Id. citation:  Id. ¶ 2.

Other Examples

• Linden Bros. v. Practical Elec. & Eng'g Publ'g Co., 309 Ill. 132, 140 N.E. 874 (1923).
• People v. Hansen, 2011 IL App (2d) 081226, 952 N.E. 82.
• People v. Hansen, 952 N.E.2d 82 (Ill. App. Ct. 2011).
• Lewis v. Rutland Twp., 359 Ill. App. 3d 1076, 824 N.E.2d 1213 (2005).
• Jastram v. Lake Villa Sch. Dist. 41, 192 Ill. App. 3d 599, 549 N.E.2d 9 (1989).

When citing decisions from Illinois Reports or Illinois Appellate Court Reports, it is important to include the appropriate references.  For decisions made in 2011 and beyond, the state's public-domain opinions citation system should be used.  While parallel citations to the North Eastern Reporter are not required, they are permitted under Illinois court rules.  Make sure to stay informed and accurate when citing legal decisions in Illinois.

The Style Manual specifically provides: "Note that various sources concatenate the Counties of De Kalb, De Witt, and Du Page (as DeKalb, DeWitt, and DuPage), but that is at odds with the statutes establishing those counties."