Anatomy of a Case and Basic Case Citation

Orientation Fall 2017

An Introduction to What You Will Read and

How You Will Cite It
 Today’s Objectives

 Basic Structure of an American Legal Opinion

 Basic Citation Forms- Beating the Blue Book

A Case– what is it?
 A Case Is a Legal Opinion

 Written for someone other than you

 Presumes knowledge of the law
 Focused on resolution of a particular circumstance
 Becomes part of the “law”
Our Task ….

 Understand case
structure
 Save time
 Work smart
 Use the case
 Find the rule of law
 Understand the court’s
thinking to predict future
outcomes
 Tool for additional research
Sidebar--- What gets published?
Let’s take a tour through our orientation case…

 How did the case arise?

 Need for resolution
 What is backdrop of our case at hand?
 Let’s see!
The Backstory…
Caption
88 F. Supp. 2d 116
88 F. Supp. 2d 116, 118
U.S. District Court for S.D.N.Y.

-- 13 appellate courts (U.S. Court of

Appeals) sit below the U.S.
Supreme Court

-- 94 federal judicial district courts.

 Why do we care what court issued the decision?

 Stare Decisis
 “Lat. To stand by decided cases; to uphold precedents; to maintain
former adjudications.” Black's Law Dictionary citing 1 Kent, Comm.
477.
 Mandatory Authority
 Cite must tell us what weight the reader should give it.
 Insert the Blackboard and Maureen’s Bad Drawing…
Nos. 96 Civ. 5320(KMW), 96 Civ. 9069(KMW).
What is this?
 Headnotes-- Substance

 Summarize
 Who writes them?
 Lexis v. Westlaw
 Can you cite them?
Headnotes-- Components
OR…
Why are they useful?
Page 7 of case---
Pinpoint &
Structure--
Page 3…
Page 6…
Page 15…
Yet?
Read, Understand, Digest, Rest
 Using the case to find more cases…

 Common law v. civil law

 Precedent
 Rule synthesis
 Use case to find a case
How do you do it?

(Page 1)
Use the Key Numbers (West) or Headnotes (Lexis)
Courts cite cases too…

(Page 14)
Much to discover
without even reading
the case…
Now onto….
Yet?
Creation of the Case
Citation
 Creating a Case Citation

 Most students and case citation….

 What is Legal Citation?

 Method which lawyers refer to sources that they rely

upon when writing.
 Identifies the location of a particular source
 Resources for Citation

 THE BLUEBOOK: A
UNIFORM SYSTEM OF
 CITATION (Columbia
Law Review Ass'n et al.
eds., 20th ed. (2015)
("BLUEBOOK").
 Other Sources

 ALWD
 Online resources
 http://www.bu.edu/av/lawlibrary/9781467906265.pdf
 BU Library Guide to Legal Citation– note 19th edition.
 Basic Case Citation

 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).

 Case names
 Last name of each party as first name on both sides of the “v.”
 Notice- no “State of” (economy of words)
 Other elements
Our Favorite Case ….

 Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc., 88 F. Supp. 2d 116

(S.D.N.Y. 1999).
 What info does this give us?
 Note- spacing
Short Citation Forms
 Enacted Law--- Citing to Statues

 Generally includes:
 Title, chapter or subject area
 Statutory complication in which section is found
 Section number itself
 Year of the code
 Entire statute-
 Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C. §§ 77a-77aa (2006).
 Single statutory provision
 28 U.S.C. § 1367 (2006).
 State Statutes
 Vary widely by state. Must check Blue Book T1.
 When in doubt– cite.
A non-conforming cite is better than no cite at all.
 Bottom line….

 Do what you can

 Use your resources!