Format-Neutral Citations

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The Administrative Office of the Courts has gathered comments regarding possible adoption of a format-neutral citation style, but has yet to propose a system for adoption in California. This page contains helpful information about the subject of format-neutral citations.

A "format-neutral" citation style provides a method for identifying court opinions retrieved from sources that do not contain an official or other generally recognized reporter citation. The concept has gained support as more and more court opinions have become available over the World Wide Web and from other electronic resources. Such a citation might give, for example, (1) name of the case, (2) year of decision, (3) court (identified in a manner similar to current Bluebook style), (4) opinion number, and (5) if a pin-point cite is needed, a paragraph number. If available, parallel cites to generally recognized reporters should also be given.

Here are a couple of examples:

• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964 U.S. 39, para. 23 [376 U.S. 254]
• Bily v. Arthur Young & Co., 1992 Cal. S017199, para. 52 [3 Cal. 4th 370, 834 P.2d 745, 11 Cal. Rptr. 2d 5]]

On August 6, 1996, the American Bar Association adopted a resolution urging adoption of a uniform format-neutral citation system, based on a report from its Special Committee on Citation Issues. The Special Committee's draft report and other information about progress toward a uniform system may be accessed through the ABA's Web site at http://www.abanet.org/citation/home.html

See the following sites for additional information on this subject:

• Court paper monopoly challenged, a story from news.com
• March 1, 1995 Report from the American Association of Law Libraries Task Force on Citation Formats

The Arizona Supreme Court is seeking public comment on a a petition by the Arizona State Bar to adopt a uniform citation proposal like the one proposed by the ABA. You can read about the petition at the Arizona State Bar's site.

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