How do I cite a case or court decision that is unpublished?

Answer

With the proliferation of legal databases and websites, it is more and more common to find "unpublished" or "unreported" court decisions.  A court decision is considered "unreported" when a court decides not to include the decision in the published case reporter for the court.  In some cases, a court decision may be "unpublished" if it is so new that it has yet to be published in the court reporter.  These are called "slip opinions."

The References list citation for an unpublished or unreported decision follows this format:

Name v. Name, No. docket number (Court Month Day, Year).

Russ v. Causey, No. 10-2016 (4th Cir. Feb. 24, 2012).

Note: Reference list citations are typed in one of six approved typefaces (Calibri -11 point, Arial-11 point, Lucida Sans Unicode-10 point, Times New Roman-12 point, Georgia-11 point, Computer Modern-10 point), are double spaced, and use the hanging indent if needed.

Matching in-text citations for the example are:

...(Russ v. Causey, 2012).            parenthetical in-text citation
Russ v. Causey (2012), ...            narrative in-text citation

The References list citation for an unpublished decision found in a legal database follows this format:

Name v. Name, No. docket number, Year Court Database record number, at *screen page number (Court Month Day, Year).

Grant v. Colvin, No. 1:12CV1159, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1159, at *1 (N.D. Ohio, June 24, 2013).

Matching in-text citations for the example are:

...(Grant v. Colvin, 2013).               parenthetical in-text citation
Grant v. Colvin, 2013,...                 narrative in-text citation

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  • Last Updated Jun 03, 2021
  • Views 20273
  • Answered By Suzanne Schriefer, Librarian

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