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Bluebook Guide: Bluepages 17

This guide introduces the Bluebook's uniform system of legal citation. This guide is best used in conjunction with the Bluebook.

Deviation

The Bluebook throws a curve at us concerning Rule 17, where the Bluepages and Whitepages address different subjects.  Here, there is a slight deviation in materials on court and litigation documents.  The Bluepages cover this topic in B17, pp. 24-26.  This section will highlight the materials covered by the Bluepages.  To cite court and litigation documents for legal academic writing, a review of R10.8, pp. 112-15, will provide helpful guidance.  Also, recall that case names are not italicized or underscored in legal academic writing.

Court and Litigation Documents

A full citation of a court document includes (1) the name of the document (abbreviated when appropriate); (2) the pinpoint citation; and (3) the date of the document (if required).  The Bluebook notes that the citation should also include any Electronic Case Filing (ECF) number found in Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER ) (if applicable).  Note that PACER is a service of the federal government.  Analogous information may be available through state court websites.  See B17, pp. 24-26.

The titles of court documents will be abbreviated in accordance with BT1, pp. 29-30.  When an official record is available, like the "Record on Appeal" in appellate litigation, the "Record" should be abbreviated to "R."  However, an abbreviation should not be used if it will confuse the reader.

The Bluebook permits the option to enclose citations of court documents in parentheses.

With respect to pinpoint citations, The Bluebook offers some direction, as well as several examples.  See B17.1.2, p. 25.

  • Give the precise reference to the cited document, like the page, line, or paragraph where the material appears in a deposition or trial transcript
  • Use commas only to avoid confusion
  • Page, line, and paragraph references should be separated by a colon
  • Page references should not be preceded by "p." but other subdivisions should be identified
  • Generally, there is no requirement to precede pinpoint citations with "at" 
  • However, it is customary to use "at" to reference to certain sources like appellate records (e.g., R. at 5)

As noted above, The Bluebook presents some examples of how to do pinpoint citations. See B17.1.2, p. 25.

To provide a date for a cited court or litigation document, The Bluebook advises to follow these guidelines.  In short, a date should be provided when any of following circumstances appear:

  • When more than one document has the same title
  • When the date is relevant to the discussion
  • When the date is needed to avoid confusion

See The Bluebook’s examples related to providing a date for court or litigation document citation.  B17.1.3, pp. 25-26.

Federal court documents filed with the electronic case management system used by the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system (PACER) are assigned document numbers.  An Electronic Case Filing (ECF) number will be added to the citations of electronically federal filed documents.  The Bluebook provides the following two examples to illustrate this point:

  • Feder Dep. 5:30–12:10, ECF No. 6.
  • Def.’s Mot. Summ. J. 2, ECF No. 15.

Note that PACER documents are imprinted with an ECF header.  If these page numbers differ from the page numbers of the filed document, then use the page numbers of the original document.

Short Form Citation

The Bluebook directs that a short form citation may be used following a full citation if three conditions are satisfied:

  • It will be clear to the reader what is being cited
  • The full citation falls in the same general discussion
  • The reader will have little trouble locating the full citation

Note that id. should only be used if significant space will be saved for court or litigation documents.  Ultimately, any space saving may be insignificant as demonstrated by the example in The Bluebook.  See B.17.2, p. 26.