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• Introduction
  
  
• 1.1 What is Uniform Legal Citation?
  
  
• 1.2 Content + Form = Function
  
  
• 1.3 Citing Legal Sources: General Rules
  
  
• 1.4 Citing Legal Sources: Footnotes
  
  
• 1.5 Secondary Source Citations
  
  
• 1.6 Legal Encyclopedia Citations
  
  
• 1.7 Periodical Abbreviations
  
  
• Activity
  
  
• 1.8 Legal Periodical Citations
  
  
• 1.9 Government Document Citations: Non-parliamentary government documents
  
  
• 1.10 Legal Dictionary Citations
  
  
• 1.11 Bill Citations
  
  
• 1.12 Statute Citations
  
  
• 1.13 Federal Regulations
  
  
• 1.14 Provincial Regulations Citations
  
  
• Activity
  
  
• 1.15 Case Citations
  
  
• 1.16 The Style of Cause
  
  
• 1.17 The Neutral Citation
  
  
• 1.18 The Core Citation or Printed Reporter
  
  
• 1.19 The Parallel Citation
  
  
• 1.20 Putting the Components of Case Citation Together
  
  
• Review and Conclusion
  
  

Legal Citations – Putting the Components of Case Citation Together

Here are the various components that may make up a case citation:

Style of Cause, (Year of Decision),

Neutral Citation

Core Citation

Parallel Citation

	Style of Cause,	Italicize the style of cause.
	(Year of Decision),	In general, only include the year of the decision in parentheses after the style of cause if the citation does not otherwise include the year.
Neutral Citation	Year	Indicate the year of the decision as assigned by the court. Do not use parentheses.
	Tribunal Identifier	Include both the jurisdiction and the court level, abbreviating the tribunal identification information.
	Ordinal Number of the Decision,	A chronological number assigned by the court to each decision for the purposes of neutral citation. Followed by a comma.
Core Citation (to a printed reporter)	[Year of Reporter]	Include the year of the reporter in square brackets if the reporter is organized by year (see McGill Guide, 3.7.1).
	Volume Number	Indicate the volume of the reporter next if the reporter is organized by volume, including only the volume number (i.e. don't include the abbreviation "vol”).
	Reporter	Include the abbreviated name of the reporter. A list of printed case law reporters is included in APPENDIX C of the McGill Guide.
	(Series)	If the reporter has been published in more than one series, then include the series number in parentheses, abbreviating "2nd" and "3rd" to "2d” and "3d”, respectively. Do not use superscripted suffixes.
	Page	Indicate the first page of the judgment as printed in the reporter. Do not indicate the page range.
	Pinpoint	If necessary, pinpoint the page or paragraph being referred to. Paragraph pinpoints are preferred, and you should use the paragraph symbol "¶” or the abbreviation "para”.
Parallel Citation	[Year of Reporter]	If the reporter is organized by year, then include the year of the reporter in square brackets (see McGill Guide, 3.7.1).
	Volume Number	If the reporter is organized by volume (or if the reporter is organized by year AND volume), then include the volume directly following the year of the reporter. Only include the volume number (i.e. don't include the abbreviation "vol”).
	Reporter	Include the abbreviated name of the reporter. A list of printed case law reporters is included in APPENDIX C of the McGill Guide.
	(Series)	If the reporter has been published in more than one series, then include the series number in parentheses, abbreviating "2nd" and "3rd" to "2d” and "3d”, respectively. Do not use superscripted suffixes.
	Page	Indicate the first page of the judgment as printed in the reporter.
	(Court).	Depending on certain factors, include the court level and jurisdiction. This information is only needed if it is not otherwise included in or inferred by the citation.

NOTE: If there is no neutral citation, a second print reporter (or parallel) citation is required.

The following are some examples of case citations:

EXAMPLE 1: Neutral Citation Available

		Neutral Citation
Style of Cause,	(Year of Decision),	Year	Tribunal ID	Ordinal #,
Beals v Saldanha,		2003	SCC	72,

Core Citation
[Year of Reporter]	Vol #	Reporter	(Series)	1st Page	Pinpoint
[2003]	3	SCR		416	at para 28,

Parallel Citation
[Year of Reporter]	Vol #	Reporter	(Series)	1st Page	(Court).
	234	DLR	(4th)	1.

Beals v Saldanha, 2003 SCC 72, [2003] 3 SCR 416 at para 28, 234 DLR (4th) 1.

• The year of decision is not required in this case because the citation includes this information.
• The core citation tells you that this case is printed in an official reporter, the Supreme Court Reports (SCR). Notice how this reporter is organized by year and volume numbers. Also, note that since there is both a neutral citation (SCC) and a reporter title which infers the court level and jurisdiction (i.e. Supreme Court Reports tells us the case is from the Supreme Court of Canada), this information does not have to be listed at the end of the citation.
• The parallel citation provides an additional reporter where the case was printed. Notice how, unlike the SCR, the Dominion Law Reports (DLR) is organized by volume and series.

This example can be broken down into its components as follows:

EXAMPLE 2: No Neutral Citation
R v Morgentaler, [1988] 1 SCR 30, 44 DLR (4th) 385.

	Neutral Citation		Core Citation		Parallel Citation
Style of Cause,	Year		[Year of Reporter]	[1988]	[Year of Reporter]
(Year of Decision)	Tribunal ID		Vol#	1	Vol#	44
R  v Morgentaler,	Ordinal #,		Reporter	SCR	Reporter	DLR
			(Series)		(Series)	(4th)
			1st Page	30,	1st Page	385
			Pinpoint		(Court).

R v Morgentaler, [1988] 1 SCR 30, 44 DLR (4th) 385.

• This case is actually between the appellants Dr. Henry Morgentaler, Dr. Leslie Frank Smoling and Dr. Robert Scott; the respondent, Her Majesty the Queen; and the Attorney General of Canada as intervener. However, since this is a criminal case, the Queen is replaced by "R” for the purposes of the style of cause. Similarly, only the first named party should be included in the style of cause; thus, the style of cause of the case becomes "R v Morgentaler”.
• The official reporter (in this case, the SCR) is organized by year, so there is no need to indicate the year of the decision separately.

This example can be broken down into its components as follows:

EXAMPLE 3: Year of Decision Required
Thwaites v Ryan (1983), [1984] VR 65 (SC).

		Neutral Citation
Style of Cause,	(Year of Decision),	Year	Tribunal ID	Ordinal #,
Thwaites v Ryan	(1983),

Core Citation
[Year of Reporter]	Vol #	Reporter	(Series)	1st Page	Pinpoint
[1984]		VR		65

Parallel Citation
[Year of Reporter]	Vol #	Reporter	(Series)	1st Page	(Court).
					(SC).

Thwaites v Ryan (1983), [1984] VR 65 (SC).

• Although a parallel citation is always recommended, they are not always available; e.g. if a case has only ever been published in one reporter. In this case, it has only been published in one reporter and does not seem to be available online; therefore, there is no parallel citation.
• Because there is no neutral citation, and owing to the fact that the year of the reporter is different from the year of the decision, you must indicate the year of the decision directly after the style of cause.
• The core citation, in this case, is to the Victorian Reports (VR). If you consult APPENDIX C of the McGill Guide, you will notice that the VR is an Australian case law reporter; therefore, this is an Australian case.
• Moreover, because the level of the court is not inferable from the reporter title, you must indicate this information at the end of the core citation. The "SC” indicates that this case was heard at the "Supreme Court” level. Note that court hierarchy and names vary from country to country. For example, in Canada, the Supreme Court is the highest court in the country, whereas in Australia, the High Court of Australia is the highest court in the land, above its Supreme Courts.

This example can be broken down into its components as follows:

Thwaites v Ryan (1983), [1984] VR 65 (SC).