Legal Citation Formats

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If you are searching for a legal citation you must use the precise format shown, including exact punctuation.

Getting a Document by Legal Citation in LexisNexis

If you are looking for a specific law, legal decision, or law review article and have the citation in hand you can retrieve it immediately on the appropriate legal search form(s) or the Power Search form. If you are not sure which type of material your citation refers to, compare it to the examples below to choose the right search form.

U.S. Case Law

As a general rule, you can use citation formats found in the Uniform System of Case Citation (Blue Book). See specific examples below. You can search for U.S. case law citations on any of the following forms:

Easy Search
US Federal & State Cases
Power Search (Use the Sources menu to choose the "Federal & State Cases, Combined" source or pick a specific court.

Federal

100 F.2d 1
134 F.3d 817
19 F Supp. 2d 104
789 F. Supp. 320
139 L. Ed. 2d 25
118 S Ct. 62
514 U.S. 673
65 U.S.L.W. 3204

State

246 App Div 2d 682
19 Cal 4th 142
23 Fla. Law W. D 733
344 Ill. App. 266
344 Mich. 624
230 N.J. Super. 182
23 N.Y.S.2d 2
84 Ohio St. 3d 1457
2000 PA Super 2
150 Tex. 39

Regional

723 A.2d 852
250 Cal. Rptr. 21
100 N.E.2d 497
75 N.W.2d 19
100 P. 34
300 P.2d 19
727 So. 2d 913
150 S.W.2d 202

Canadian Quicklaw™ Citation Formats

When typing in a citation, it is not necessary to enter brackets, punctuation, capitalization or spaces.

[1997] O.J. no 4806
1997OJ no.4806
1997oj4806

39 D.L.R. (4th) 595
39DLR(4th)595
39dlr4th595

Note: exceptions to this rule include the FC citation, and some older Ontario Reports citations. FC can stand for the Federal Court reports or the Federal Court neutral citation. Some older Ontario Reports citations do not have a volume/edition number, and therefore can be confused with other citations. Be sure to always enter spaces, capitals and/or periods when using these citations. With older OR citations, simply capitalizing the OR will suffice as below.

19952f.c.544
1933OR565

Law Reviews & Journals

As a general rule, you can use citation formats and abbreviations found in the Uniform System of Case Citation (Blue Book). See specific examples below. You can also use the Law Review search forms to look for specific articles by author, title, and date.

74 Fordham L. Rev. 1475 54 Emory L.J. 1139 22 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 901 14 N.Y.L. Sch. J. Hum. Rts. 375 113 Harv. L. Rev. 1963 29 Cardozo L. Rev. 927

Code of Federal Regulations

Format your Code of Federal Regulations citation like the examples below:

40 CFR 129.4 20 CFR PART 404 APPENDIX I 17 CFR 230.429

Federal Register

Format your Federal Register citation like the examples below:

64 FR 71680 63 FR 33835 58 FR 51735

State Registers

State	Official Register Name	Citation Format
Alabama	Not Online	N/A
Alaska	Alaska Administrative Journal	24 AAJ 94
Arkansas	Arkansas Government Register	72 ARGR 40
Arizona	Not Online	N/A
California	California Regulatory Law Bulletin	2005-40 CRLB 495
Connecticut	Connecticut Law Journal	58 conn l j 14
Delaware	Delaware Government Register	40 DEGR 23
District of Columbia	District of Columbia Register	45 d c reg 7589
Florida	Florida Administrative Weekly	23 faw 463
Georgia	Georgia Government Register	10 GAGR 21
Hawaii	Hawaii Government Register	10 whgr 9
Idaho	Idaho Administrative Bulletin	97-1 iab 187
Illinois	Illinois Register	27 l reg 1154
Indiana	Indiana Register	29 ind reg 2898
Iowa	Iowa Administrative Bulletin	19 iowa admin bull 1142
Kansas	Kansas Register	18-35 kan reg 1272
Kentucky	Not Online	N/A
Louisiana	Louisiana Register	26 LR 99
Maine	Maine Government Register	71 megr 139
Maryland	Maryland Register	30-5 md reg 377
Massachusetts	Massachusetts Register	808 ma reg 79
Michigan	Not Online	N/A
Minnesota	Minnesota State Register	24 minn reg 1379
Mississippi	Mississippi Government Register	15 msgr 3
Missouri	Missouri Register	23 moreg 2503
Montana	Not Online	N/A
Nebraska	Nebraska Government Register	7 negr 39
Nevada	Nev. Register of Admin. Regulations	23-4 nev reg 1999
New Hampshire	New Hampshire Government Register	7 nh gov reg 176
New Jersey	New Jersey Register	38 njr 3095(b)
New Mexico	New Mexico Register	8 n m reg 69
New York	New York Register	2006-22 N.Y. St. Reg. 40
North Carolina	North Carolina Register	13 nc reg 621
North Dakota	Not Online	N/A
Ohio	OH - The Register of Ohio	2006 OH Reg. 7030008
Oklahoma	Oklahoma Register	19 ok reg 2299
Oregon	Oregon Bulletin	45-7 Or Admin R Bull 3
Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania Bulletin	27 pa bull 701
Rhode Island	Rhode Island Government Register	52 rigr 85
South Carolina	South Carolina State Register	30-3 sc reg 1
South Dakota	South Dakota Register	23 south dakota reg 123
Tennessee	Tennessee Administrative Register	25-7 tenn admin reg 14
Texas	Texas Register	22 texreg 1317
Utah	Utah State Bulletin	99-17 utah bull 4
Vermont	Vermont Government Register	77 vtgr 4
Virginia	Virginia Register of Regulations	15 va regs reg 2667
Washington	Washington State Register	96-24 wsr 3
West Virginia	Not Online	N/A
Wisconsin	Wisconsin Administrative Register	488 wis admin reg 43
Wyoming	Wyoming Government Register	20 wygr 19

State Administrative Codes

State Administrative Code formats vary from state to state. Find the state you are looking for in the table below to see the a sample citation:

State Citation Format

State	Citation Format
Alabama	ala admin code r 20-X-6-.04
Alaska	3 alas admin 32.390
Arizona	ariz admin r1-1-101
Arkansas	014 04 CARR 002
California	23 CCR 2915
Colorado	1 CCR 301-40
Connecticut	ct admin 12-2-1
Delaware	de admn 10-400-005
District of Columbia	cdcr 25-100
Florida	fac 12-1.001
Georgia	ga admin 560-11-5-.01
Hawaii	WCHR 2-51
Idaho	IDAPA 02.01.03.004
Illinois	1 il admin 100.100
Iowa	21 IAC 85.41(215)
Kansas	kar 4-4-920
Kentucky	306 kar 1:050
Louisiana	lac 42:XIII.3501
Maine	CMR 01-001-125
Maryland	COMAR 02.01.08.03
Massachusetts	102 cmr 7.07
Michigan	mich admin code r 318.143
Minnesota	mn r 1325.2700
Mississippi	CMSR 06-000-002
Missouri	1 CSR 20-5.020
Montana	mont admin R 4.10.1401
Nebraska	Nebraska Admin. Code Title 119, Ch. 35
Nevada	nac 97.125
New Hampshire	N.H. Admin. Rules, Cmp 301.03
New Jersey	njac 2:71-2.6
New Mexico	8.16.2.18 NMAC
New York	6 NYCRR 703.2
North Carolina	2 N.C.A.C. 7J. 0017
North Dakota	N.D. Admin. Code 7-03.1-02-01
Ohio	oac ann 901:9-1-14
Oklahoma	OAC 165:55-17-21
Oregon	Or. Admin. R. 291-011-0005
Pennsylvania	4 pac 1.313
Rhode Island	CRIR 01-025-016
South Carolina	SC Code Regs 7-500
South Dakota	ARSD 5:02:10:08
Tennessee	Tenn Comp R & Regs 0765-1-.05
Texas	1 tac 5.195
Utah	uac r23-19-7
Vermont	wcvr 10-060-009, @ 5813.2
Virginia	11 VAC 10-20-270
Washington	wac 12-10-170
West Virginia	W Va CSR 11-1A-4
Wisconsin	Wis. Adm. Code ATCP 29.41
Wyoming	wcwr 002-040-006 @ 31

Statutes

The system recognizes the following statute citation formats:

5 uscs sec 5901
101 pl 509

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 If you are searching for a legal citation you must use the precise format shown, including exact punctuation.
-==Case Law==
+==Getting a Document by Legal Citation in LexisNexis==
-As a general rule, you can use citation formats found in the Uniform System of Case Citation (Blue Book). See specific examples below.
+If you are looking for a specific law, legal decision, or law review article and have the citation in hand you can retrieve it immediately on the appropriate legal search form(s) or the Power Search form. If you are not sure which type of material your citation refers to, compare it to the examples below to choose the right search form.
+==U.S. Case Law==
+As a general rule, you can use citation formats found in the Uniform System of Case Citation (Blue Book). See specific examples below. You can search for U.S. case law citations on any of the following forms:
+*[[Academic_Help:_Easy_Search | Easy Search]]
+*[[Academic_Help:_US_Cases | US Federal & State Cases]]
+*[[Academic_Help:_Power_Search | Power Search]] (Use the Sources menu to choose the "Federal & State Cases, Combined" source or pick a specific court.
 ===Federal===