1. Anatomy of a Case and Basic Case Citation Orientation Fall 2017
An Introduction to What You Will Read and
How You Will Cite It

2. Today’s Objectives Basic Structure of an American Legal Opinion
Basic Citation Forms- Beating the Blue Book

3. A Case– what is it?

4. 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”

5. Understand case structure
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

6. Sidebar--- What gets published?

7. 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!
Like all cases, it arose from circumstances in the world which now need resolution in court because other means to resolve it have failed.

8. The Backstory…

9. Caption

10. 88 F. Supp. 2d 116

11. 88 F. Supp. 2d 116, 118

13. U.S. District Court for S.D.N.Y.
-- 13 appellate courts (U.S. Court of Appeals) sit below the U.S. Supreme Court federal judicial district courts.

14. 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…

16. Nos. 96 Civ. 5320(KMW), 96 Civ (KMW).

17. What is this?

21. Headnotes-- Substance
Summarize
Who writes them?
Lexis v. Westlaw
Can you cite them?

22. Headnotes-- Components

23. OR…

24. Why are they useful?

25. Page 7 of case---

26. Pinpoint & Structure-- Page 3…

27. Page 6…

28. Page 15…

29. Yet?

30. Read, Understand, Digest, Rest

31. Using the case to find more cases…
Common law v. civil law
Precedent
Rule synthesis
Use case to find a case

32. How do you do it?
(Page 1)

33. Use the Key Numbers (West) or Headnotes (Lexis)

34. Courts cite cases too…
(Page 14)

35. Much to discover without even reading the case…
Now onto….

36. Yet?

37. Creation of the Case Citation

38. Creating a Case Citation
Most students and case citation….

39. What is Legal Citation?
Method which lawyers refer to sources that they rely upon when writing.
Identifies the location of a particular source

40. Resources for Citation
THE BLUEBOOK: A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF
CITATION (Columbia Law Review Ass'n et al. eds., 20th ed. (2015) ("BLUEBOOK").

41. Other Sources ALWD Online resources
BU Library Guide to Legal Citation– note 19th edition.

42. 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

43. Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc., 88 F. Supp. 2d 116 (S.D.N.Y. 1999).
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

44. Short Citation Forms

45. 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.

46. When in doubt– cite. A non-conforming cite is better than no cite at all.

47. Bottom line….
Do what you can
Use your resources!