Appendix

Understanding Legal Citations

All reported court decisions may be found in law books called reporters. The reporters have two main divisions: Federal and State. Federal reporters include decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit Courts, the Federal District Courts and the Bankruptcy Courts.

U.S. Supreme Court decisions are reported in three different reporters: U.S. Reports, Supreme Court Reporter and Lawyers’ Edition (every reported decision may be found in each of these reporters). The U.S. Circuit Courts’ decisions are reported in the Federal Reporter. The U.S. District Courts’ decisions are reported in the Federal Supplement and in the Federal Rules Decisions. U.S. Bankruptcy decisions are reported in the Bankruptcy Reporter.

State appellate decisions that are reported can be found in the National Reporter System. This system divides the United States into seven regions. A map of the National Reporter System can be found at http://www.lawschool.westlaw.com/FederalCourt/NationalReporterPage.asp?site=OA&appflag=39.

Decisions from 48 states are reported in these regional reporters. California and New York decisions are only reported in their own state reporters. Some states, including Idaho, have their decisions reported in regional and state reporters.

Every reported decision will have a citation. This citation is used to help one find the case. The common citation format is as follows: volume, reporter and series, page number.

For instance, “985 P.2d 1137” means:

• 985 refers to the volume number found on the spine of the book;
  
  
• P.2d refers to the name of the reporter and series, in this case, the “Pacific Reporter, series 2d” also found on the spine of the book;
  
  
• 1137 refers to the page number.

The federal reporters have the following abbreviations and reporters: