Free Legal Citation Generator for Cases, Statutes, and More
A free bluebook citation generator for law students, paralegals, pro se litigants, and attorneys. This legal citation generator builds case, statute, regulation, and secondary-source citations to widely used 21st edition conventions, with automatic party-name abbreviations, correct reporter and court parentheticals, signals, and short forms. No signup, nothing stored.
Quick answer: A Bluebook-style case citation runs case name, volume, reporter abbreviation, first page, pincite, then a court and year parenthetical: Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 115 (1973). Party names are abbreviated per table T6 (Corp., Co., Inc., Ass'n), and the court is omitted when the reporter implies it. Pick a source type below, fill in the fields, and copy the formatted result.
Implied by the reporter, omitted
A citation sentence stands alone after the sentence it supports: the signal is capitalized and the citation ends with a period. A citation clause sits inside your sentence, set off by commas: the signal stays lowercase and no period is added.
Built on the conventions in the Bluebook 21st edition. The current edition is the 22nd edition; the core abbreviation tables and short-form rules used here are long-standing and rarely change between editions, but check anything unusual against your own copy before filing.
Generated citation
Enter the party names, reporter volume, and first page to build the citation.
What This Generator Follows, and What It Does Not
This tool applies the widely used conventions of the Bluebook system (21st edition norms) for the most common source types. "Bluebook" is a trademark of its publishers; we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by them, and no output here is a compliance guarantee. Local court rules and state style manuals (the California Style Manual, the Texas Greenbook, and others) override these conventions where they differ, and unusual sources, foreign materials, and database-only decisions need the manual itself. Every generated part can be edited by hand before you copy it.
How to Cite a Case: Bluebook Case Citation Format, Piece by Piece
Every full case citation is assembled from the same parts in the same order. Take Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 115 (1973). The case name comes first, italicized or underlined in court documents, with only the first-listed party on each side and with common words abbreviated: Corporation becomes Corp., Incorporated becomes Inc., Association becomes Ass'n, Department becomes Dep't. Then the volume (410), the reporter abbreviation (U.S.), the first page of the opinion (113), and the pincite to the page you actually rely on (115). The parenthetical closes with the court and year; here the court is omitted because the United States Reports publish only Supreme Court decisions.
Lower federal courts show the court inside the parenthetical: a court of appeals case ends (9th Cir. 1997), a district court case ends (S.D.N.Y. 2015). State cases cited to a regional reporter such as P.3d or N.E.3d carry the state court abbreviation, for example (Cal. 2005) for the state supreme court or (Cal. Ct. App. 2014) for the intermediate court. If the case was later affirmed, reversed, or overruled in a way that matters, the subsequent history follows the parenthetical after a comma, with the phrase italicized: aff'd or rev'd and then the later citation. Getting each part right by hand is tedious, which is exactly why cite-checking is a standing task in every litigation shop; our legal brief writing services include full citation formatting and verification on every draft.
Reporter and Court Abbreviation Chart
The major reporters and the courts they cover. Cite the official United States Reports (U.S.) for Supreme Court cases when the U.S. cite exists; use the regional reporter for state cases unless your state requires its official reporter.
| Abbreviation | Reporter | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. | United States Reports | U.S. Supreme Court (official reporter, cite it when available) |
| S. Ct. | Supreme Court Reporter | U.S. Supreme Court (used before the U.S. cite exists) |
| F.4th / F.3d / F.2d | Federal Reporter | U.S. Courts of Appeals (circuit courts) |
| F. App'x | Federal Appendix | Unpublished U.S. Court of Appeals decisions |
| F. Supp. 3d / 2d | Federal Supplement | U.S. District Courts |
| A.3d | Atlantic Reporter | CT, DE, D.C., ME, MD, N.H., N.J., PA, R.I., VT |
| N.E.3d | North Eastern Reporter | IL, IN, MA, N.Y., OH |
| N.W.2d | North Western Reporter | IA, MI, MN, NE, N.D., S.D., WI |
| P.3d | Pacific Reporter | AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, MT, NV, N.M., OK, OR, UT, WA, WY |
| So. 3d | Southern Reporter | AL, FL, LA, MS |
| S.E.2d | South Eastern Reporter | GA, N.C., S.C., VA, W. Va. |
| S.W.3d | South Western Reporter | AR, KY, MO, TN, TX |
Court Abbreviations in the Parenthetical
| Court | Abbreviation | Format example |
|---|---|---|
| Supreme Court of the United States | Omitted (U.S. or S. Ct. implies it) | 410 U.S. 113 (1973) |
| U.S. Court of Appeals | 1st Cir. through 11th Cir., D.C. Cir., Fed. Cir. | 123 F.3d 456 (9th Cir. 1997) |
| U.S. District Court | District abbreviation, e.g. S.D.N.Y., N.D. Cal. | 123 F. Supp. 3d 456 (S.D.N.Y. 2015) |
| State supreme court | State alone, e.g. Cal., Tex., Fla. | 123 P.3d 456 (Cal. 2005) |
| State intermediate appellate court | e.g. Cal. Ct. App., Tex. App., N.Y. App. Div. | 123 A.3d 456 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2015) |
The numeric examples above illustrate format only; they are not citations to real decisions.
Id. vs Supra: Short-Form Citations Done Right
Once you have cited an authority in full, later references use a short form, and the two workhorses are routinely confused. Id. points to the immediately preceding authority and nothing further back: if your last citation was Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 115 (1973) and your very next citation is the same case, write Id., or Id. at 117 for a different page. The moment any other authority intervenes, id. is no longer available and you drop to the short case cite: Roe, 410 U.S. at 116, built from one distinctive party name, the volume and reporter, and the word at with the pincite. Do not use a governmental litigant such as United States or State as the short name; use the other party.
Supra reaches further back, but only for secondary sources. Books, journal articles, and reports cited earlier in the document can be recalled as Reich, supra, at 737 (in footnoted writing, supra note 12, at 737). Cases, statutes, and regulations are not cited with supra under Bluebook convention; they take their own short forms. The generator above produces the matching short form and id. variant for each source type automatically. When a brief has dozens of authorities and every short form has to trace back cleanly, that discipline is half the work of the cite check, and it is a core part of our legal research support for attorneys and firms.
Citing Statutes, Regulations, Constitutions, and Court Rules
Federal statutes cite title, code, and section: 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Current convention widely omits the code year for the U.S.C. State statutes use each state's code abbreviation from table T1 with a publisher and year parenthetical where conventional: Cal. Civ. Code § 1542 (West 2024). A statute not yet codified is cited as a session law by Public Law number and Statutes at Large page. Regulations follow the same pattern: codified rules cite the C.F.R. with the edition year, 29 C.F.R. § 1604.11 (2024), while a rule fresh from the agency cites the Federal Register with its full date and, where helpful, a parenthetical noting where it will be codified.
Constitutions cite the document, subdivision, and number, with Roman numerals for articles and amendments: U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3, or U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. No date is needed for a provision currently in force. Court rules are among the shortest citations in the book: Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), Fed. R. Evid. 403, Fed. R. App. P. 32(a)(7). State procedural rules follow the same shape with their own abbreviations. If you are drafting the underlying motion rather than just the citation, start from our motion to dismiss template or the motion for summary judgment template, both of which show these citation forms in context.
Pro Tip: Signals Are Ranked, and Cf. Wants a Parenthetical
When one citation sentence carries several authorities, order the signals by strength: direct support with no signal, then see, see also, cf., and only then the contrary signals but see and but cf. Authorities within each signal are separated by semicolons. And whenever you lean on cf. or but cf., add a short explanatory parenthetical telling the reader what the analogy is; an unexplained cf. reads as a citation the writer could not quite justify.
Why Citation Accuracy Decides Credibility in a Brief
Judges and their clerks read citations the way accountants read ledgers: a wrong reporter, a dead pincite, or a case cited without its unfavorable subsequent history tells the reader the rest of the document deserves skepticism too. Appellate courts are strictest of all, because record cites and authority cites are load-bearing in an appeal; many appellate rules prescribe citation form outright. A generator handles the formatting mechanics, but a real cite check also verifies that every authority says what the brief claims and is still good law, which is reading work, not formatting work.
That is the line where a free tool ends and drafting support begins. We draft and cite-check briefs for attorneys, firms, and pro se litigants every week: trial motions, oppositions, and full appellate briefs with tables of authorities built from verified citations. See what a finished product looks like in our appellate brief example, or read how the appellate brief writing service handles the record, the standard of review, and the citation apparatus end to end.
Check Your Court's Rules, and This Is Not Legal Advice
Citation format is ultimately set by the court you are filing in. Local rules, standing orders, and state style manuals (including the California Style Manual and the Texas Greenbook) override the conventions this tool applies, and some courts restrict citation of unpublished decisions entirely. This generator formats what you enter; it does not verify that an authority exists, says what you think it says, or remains good law. It is a formatting utility, not legal advice, and using it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Confirm every authority in the source itself before you file.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you cite a case in Bluebook format?
A full case citation has five parts in a fixed order: the case name (italicized or underlined in court documents), the volume number of the reporter, the reporter abbreviation, the first page of the opinion (plus a pincite to the exact page you rely on), and a parenthetical with the court and year. Put together: Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 115 (1973). The court is omitted from that example because the U.S. reporter only publishes Supreme Court decisions; a court of appeals case adds the circuit, for example (9th Cir. 2021), and a district court case adds the district, for example (S.D.N.Y. 2020).
What is the difference between id. and supra?
Id. refers to the immediately preceding authority and nothing else: if your last citation was to a case and the very next citation is to the same case, write Id. (or Id. at 117 for a different page). Supra refers back to an authority cited earlier but not immediately before, and under Bluebook convention it is used for secondary sources such as books, articles, and reports: for example, Reich, supra, at 737. Cases, statutes, and regulations are not cited with supra; they get a short-form citation instead, such as Roe, 410 U.S. at 116.
When do I need a pincite in a legal citation?
Whenever you rely on specific material rather than the case as a whole, which in practice means almost always. A pincite (also called a pinpoint or jump cite) directs the reader to the exact page: in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 115 (1973), the 115 is the pincite. If the material spans pages, give the range with the last two digits of the closing page, for example 115-16. Judges and clerks routinely check pincites, and briefs that cite whole opinions without them read as unverified. To cite the first page itself, repeat it: 113, 113.
Do I italicize or underline case names in a brief?
In court documents, either italics or underlining is proper for case names, signals, and phrases like id. and supra; pick one and be consistent through the whole document. Underlining is a survival of the typewriter era and some courts and older local rules still expect it, while most modern practice uses italics. Law review footnotes follow a different convention in which full case names appear in ordinary roman type. Check your court's local rules first; where they speak, they control the typography.
How do you cite a federal statute in Bluebook format?
Cite the title, the code abbreviation, and the section: 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Older convention added the code edition year in a parenthetical, but current practice widely omits the year when citing the current official U.S. Code, and the 21st edition norms reflect that. State statutes follow each state's own code abbreviation from table T1, usually with a publisher and year parenthetical, for example Cal. Civ. Code § 1542 (West 2024). A law not yet codified is cited as a session law: Pub. L. No. 116-136, 134 Stat. 281 (2020).
Why is the court omitted when citing a Supreme Court case?
Because the reporter already tells the reader the court. The U.S. reporter (United States Reports) and the S. Ct. reporter (Supreme Court Reporter) publish only Supreme Court decisions, so writing (U.S. 1973) would be redundant; the parenthetical carries the year alone: (1973). The same logic applies whenever the reporter unambiguously identifies the court, which is why some official state reporter citations also drop the court abbreviation. Regional reporters like P.3d and N.E.3d cover many states, so they always need the court in the parenthetical.
What do the signals see, see also, cf., and but see mean?
Signals tell the reader how strongly the cited authority supports your statement. No signal means the authority directly states the proposition. See means it clearly supports the point by inference. See also adds further support after other authority. Cf. means the authority supports by analogy, and courtesy calls for an explanatory parenthetical. But see and but cf. flag contrary authority. See generally points to helpful background. Signals are italicized, and they are ordered by strength when several appear in one citation sentence.
How are party names abbreviated in a case citation?
Bluebook table T6 lists words that are always abbreviated in citations: Corporation becomes Corp., Company becomes Co., Incorporated becomes Inc., Association becomes Ass'n, Department becomes Dep't, National becomes Nat'l, and so on through roughly a hundred common words; the word and becomes an ampersand, and The is dropped as the first word of a party name. Only the first-listed party on each side is named, and procedural phrases like In re and ex rel. are kept and italicized with the name. This generator applies the widely used core of that table automatically and lets you override any result.
Is this an official Bluebook citation tool?
No. Bluebook is a trademark of its publishers (the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review Association, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal), and this free tool is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by them. It applies the widely used conventions of the 21st edition for the most common source types so you can format everyday citations quickly. For unusual sources, foreign and international materials, or anything the tool does not cover, consult the manual itself or a professional citation check.
Do all courts follow the Bluebook?
No, and this matters more than most new legal writers expect. California courts prefer the California Style Manual, Texas practice layers the Texas Rules of Form (the Greenbook) on top of the Bluebook, and many other states and individual judges publish their own citation rules through local rules and style manuals. Federal courts generally accept Bluebook-style citations, but local rules still govern details like typeface and short forms. Always check the rules of the specific court you are filing in; where a local rule conflicts with the Bluebook, the local rule wins.
How do I cite an unpublished case or a Westlaw-only decision?
Unpublished federal appellate decisions from 2001 forward often appear in the Federal Appendix and are cited like any reporter cite with F. App'x as the reporter. A decision available only on Westlaw or Lexis is cited with the docket number and the database identifier, for example a case number followed by a WL number and a full-date parenthetical; the exact format has enough moving parts that you should follow the manual for it. Also check your court's rules on citing unpublished decisions at all: some courts restrict or condition their use.
What is the difference between a citation sentence and a citation clause?
A citation sentence stands on its own after the proposition it supports: it begins with a capital letter (including a capitalized signal, such as See) and ends with a period. A citation clause is embedded inside your textual sentence, set off by commas, supporting only part of the sentence: its signal stays lowercase and it takes no final period of its own. This generator formats both; toggle the placement setting and the capitalization and end punctuation adjust automatically.
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