When to Use Short Form Citation Bluebook

Typically, you use a short quote for a case instead of repeating the full quote if you`ve already cited that case. (This assumes that you write a short legal memorandum. There are more detailed rules for determining when an abbreviated form in a long document or in footnotes in a legal review article is appropriate.) It may be helpful to compare these short quotes with the corresponding full quotes listed here. Use id. without an exact page number if you are quoting on the same page as the previous citation. In general, use the first party`s name in short form if it uniquely identifies the case, but avoid using the name of a geographic or state entity, government official, or other joint litigant. So use Dorn for People v. Dorn and J.T. Einoder, Inc.

for People ex rel. Madigan v. J.T. Einoder, Inc. There are two basic types of abbreviated case citations. The first contains a short name of the dossier, the volume number and the reporter, as well as the exact page number. The second, id., is used to refer to the immediately preceding authority (i.e. for two or more consecutive citations on the same case).

(Id. is usually capitalized, but only because it usually appears at the beginning of a quote sentence.) .