InfoGuides: BUSI 3312: Business Law: Introduction

Basic Information

To search for a case, the citation is:

volume number
name of book (the “case reporter”—often abbreviated)
first page number of the case
- Example: 542 U.S. 1
- Example: 124 S. Ct. 2301
- Example: 159 L. Ed. 2d 98
542 U.S. 1 is a U.S. Supreme court case.It is printed in volume 542 of United States Reports. Page 1 in the book happens to also be the firstpage of the case.

TIP: All the above citations are for the same case, but printed in different books by different publishers!

Syllabus: Written by Supreme Court employee, not judge. Has summary & holdings. Not the “Opinion.” Do not brief it.
Opinion: Appears after Case Summary, Headnotes, Decision Summary, Syllabus, Counsel, Judges. Any information before Opinion (except syllabus) is written by the publisher and could be incorrect, so do not rely on it. Brief the Opinion. Do not brief the information before the Opinion.
Concurring or dissenting opinions: IF written for a case, will have the heading “CONCUR” or “DISSENT”. These are printed after the Opinion of the case, so may appear to be part of the text of the opinion. But not the Opinion. However you may want to brief.
Footnotes: Sometimes easier to read a case by penciling an “X” through every footnote. Then read the case. Next, go back to read the footnotes.

Some recent Supreme Court cases have links to PDFs!

The APA style manual 6th edition includes Appendix 7.1: References to Legal Materials, pages 216 - 224.

Westfield State University has an excellent online guide to Citing Legal Materials, specifically:

(Ask your instructor if case names should be underlined or italicized.)

Meritor Sav. Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986).

Envtl. Def. Fund v. EPA, 465 F.2d 528 (D.C. Circ. 1972).

United States v. Jardine, 364 F.3d 1200 (10^th Circ. 2004).

W. St. Group LLC v. Epro, 564 F. Supp.2d 84 (D. Mass. 2008).

Harris v. Roderick, 933 F. Supp. 977 (D. Idaho 1996).

People v. Armour, 590 N.W.2d 61 (Mich. 1999).

Chaudhary v. Gen Motors Corp.,649 P.2d 224 (Cal. 1982).

Kaplan v. Ziff, 530 N.W.2d 807 (Minn. Ct. App. 1995).

Campbell v. Sellers-Morris Corp., 82 Cal.Rptr. 2d 202 (Ct. App. 1999).

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