10.3

State Cases: Short Form

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INTRODUCTION

Short form is more and more popular with attorneys, but Bluebook form states that long form should be used if parallel cites exist. Once you master state citation long and short forms, you will find most other citations relatively simple.

STATE CITATIONS: Short Form
Some states either never published or have stopped publishing the official publication for their states. For instance, Colorado stopped publishing official reports in 1981. This means that any case published after 1981 will have only the unofficial cite.

Smith v. Jones, 535 P.2d 570 (1996)

But this is not an appropriate cite. The problem is that we can no longer tell what court decided the case by the abbreviation. We must therefore tell the reader in parenthesis.

Smith v. Jones, 535 P.2d 570 (Colo. 1996)

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ViewPoint

ViewPoint
The Structure of Short Form State Citations





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Citation Labs

Citation Labs
Be sure to use the Citation Labs as you progress through this chapter. Just click the Labs link at the top of the page. The first Citation Lab you might want to visit is the State Long Form Citation Lab. Just click here.






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InterActive

Demonstration
State Citation Construction





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Exercise Answers

Instructions

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