Chicago (notes and bibliography) · Court Case
How to cite a court case in Chicago (notes and bibliography)
A court-case citation points at a judicial decision through its reporter or docket information. The classic mistakes are citing a news summary of the ruling instead of the decision, and mixing up the decision date with the year of the events it describes.
Worked example · Chicago (notes and bibliography)
Exampleland v. Lovelace, Example Law Reports ___ (2022).
Rendered with the official Chicago (notes and bibliography) style file from a placeholder source (reserved example DOI and domain), so the format is exactly what the style produces. In text: Numbered footnotes or endnotes, with a bibliography at the end.
What to collect before you cite a court case
- The case name (the parties)
- The year of the decision
- The reporter volume and page, or the docket number
- The court that decided it
- The database or official source you used
Have a DOI? Generate the reference instantly
Journal articles, many books and reports carry a DOI. Paste it and get the Chicago (notes and bibliography) entry from the same engine that produced the example above.
Citing a whole thesis, not one source?
CiteDash keeps your bibliography in Chicago (notes and bibliography) automatically, verifies every citation against a real paper, and compiles to DOCX, PDF or LaTeX.
Citing a court case in Chicago (notes and bibliography): FAQ
My style has no court-case format. What now?
General styles often defer legal materials to a legal citation manual: Bluebook in the United States, OSCOLA in the United Kingdom. Ask your department which applies before improvising.
Do case names get italics?
In most styles, yes, the party names are italicised in text. The reference entry follows your style's legal-materials rules, which can differ from ordinary sources.
Which date do I use for a case?
The decision date, not the filing date and not the events in dispute. Appeals produce multiple decisions; cite the specific decision you relied on.
What does the in-text citation look like in Chicago (notes and bibliography)?
Numbered footnotes or endnotes, with a bibliography at the end.
Is the example on this page hand-written?
No. It is rendered by the same citation engine and official CSL style file CiteDash uses for full thesis bibliographies, from a clearly-marked placeholder source, and a test re-renders it on every release so the page can never drift from the engine.