In this third edition, we realize the impact of being able to find many of the articles, cases, and other references in this book on the World Wide Web (WWW). As our computer-savvy readers know, website addresses inevitability change. By searching the WWW with the information provided in traditional citation forms, our readers may locate the materials we reference online if still available so we have kept the traditional forms of citation. WWW citations are provided only for those references only available on the web.
A word of caution, the material our reader may find online could be an updated version of our originally referenced document (so pay attention to the date given with the citation) or the online document could be “corrupted.” Corrupted documents can be caused by failure in technology, “hackers,” or any of the other innumerable problems faced by organizations providing documents over the WWW.
Below is a list of frequently cited abbreviations, followed by an explanation of the sequence used in citing articles, books, cases, and other reference materials.
| Am. Jur. 2d | American Jurisprudence Second (a general legal encyclopedia) |
| C.J.S. | Corpus Juris Secundum (a general legal encyclopedia) |
| *C.F.R. | Code of Federal Regulations (a subject-matter/agency-matter compilation of federal regulations) |
| *Fed. Reg. | Federal Register (the daily publication of the federal government; contains new and proposed federal regulations and notices of other current federal agency business) |
| *Stat. | Statutes at Large (a chronological compilation of U.S. statutes) |
| *U.S.C. | United States Code (the official publication of U.S. statutes, organized by subject matter) |
The following regional reporters of state court decisions are published by the West Company, St. Paul, Minnesota. The “2d” after the initial(s) of the reporter means “second series.” In addition, many states have their own reporter system for decisions. The titles of these reporter systems usually contain the name of the state.
| A. | Atlantic Reporter |
| N.E. | North Eastern Reporter |
| N.W. | North Western Reporter |
| P. | Pacific Reporter |
| S.E. | South Eastern Reporter |
| So. | Southern Reporter |
| S.W. | South Western Reporter |
Official reporters of decisions made by federal courts follow. These are published by the U.S. Government Printing Office.
| F. | Federal Reporter (reports decisions of the U.S. courts of appeals) |
| F. Supp. | Federal Supplement (reports decisions of the federal district courts) |
| U.S. | Supreme Court Reporter (reports decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court) |
Other reporters of U.S. Supreme Court decisions are the following:
| S. Ct. | Supreme Court Reporter (a West Company publication) |
| L.Ed. | Lawyer’s Edition (a Lawyer’s Cooperative publication) |
First Initial and Surname of Author, “Article Name,” volume number, Journal Name beginning page number (issue number, date).
First Initial and Surname of Author or Editor, Book Title (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication).
Name of Case, volume number / Name of Reporter / beginning page number (court if not known through reporter, year of decision).
Title number / U.S.C. or C.F.R. / section or part number.
Volume number / Fed. Reg. or Stat. / beginning page number.
When another number appears after the beginning page number, this number is the page from which the material was actually taken.
*Published by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) in Washington, D.C. GPO provides many of its publications online; accessed May 31, 2011, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/.