WestlawNext and The Bluebook Citation Format

The WestlawNext site has some informative user guides and brochures, including a chart that compares features of the current Westlaw and WestlawNext. I was interested to read their comments about the use of The Bluebook citation format in WestlawNext. In one of the brochures, they talk about having

Copy and paste with citation, including Bluebook. You can paste text
into your work product with the official citations -- including The Bluebook, ALWD, California, New York and other leading formats.

It seems that if you "copy with reference" it will include a Bluebook citation by default, and you can choose other formats by clicking on the preferences option at the bottom of the screen. I am looking forward to seeing a live preview of the new interface!

$100 Fine For a Wrong Case Citation

Via ABA Journal Law News, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals fined an attorney a $100 for a wrong citation to a case in the submitted brief.

The lawyer cited an unpublished case that supposedly upheld a stipulated damages clause in a vending machines contract. But a search for the case based on the name provided by the lawyer turned up a misrepresentation case brought by newlyweds against a wedding photographer.

The cite wasn’t helpful, either. It was listed as “2005 AP 160,” which sent the appeals court to 2005 WI App 160 and another “dead end,” the footnote said. When the court finally found the real case—which had an entirely different name—it learned “2005 AP 160” was the docket number.

Still Struggling With Bluebooking? Check Out the Bluebook Helpers

State Bar of Wisconsin has a post about bluebooking titled Bluebook Helpers: Tool for creating legal citation. Bonnie Schucha, the head of reference at the University of Wisconsin Law School points out the following Bluebook helpers:

CiteGenie - "Automagically copy text with correct citations from Westlaw, Lexis, and other websites."

CiteGenie is a new add-on for the Firefox web browser that automatically creates Bluebook-formatted pinpoint citations when copying from Westlaw or LexisNexis. Highlight some text from a document, right click, and choose “Copy with CiteGenie.” The text and citation are then placed in your clipboard where you can paste them into your word processor or other application.

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation by Peter W. Martin

This work first appeared in 1993. It was most recently revised in May 2007 to reflect changes appearing in the third edition of the ALWD Citation Manual, published in 2006. It is also keyed to the most recent edition of The Bluebook, published in 2005.

Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations

Legal abbreviations can be a puzzle to both new students and experienced professionals. This web-based service allows to search for the meaning of abbreviations for English language legal publications, from the British Isles, the Commonwealth and the United States, including those covering international and comparative law. A wide selection of major foreign language law publications is also included. Publications from over 295 jurisdictions are featured in the Index. The database mainly covers law reports and law periodicals, but some legislative publications and major textbooks are also included. The Index is still under development.

Let us know what you think and which one was your favorite? We'd love to hear your opinions.

Alternative Source Citing

How about this one!? Post Modern Language Association (PMLA) has a funny section covering possible alternative sources of citing. In case your Bluebook was not completely up to date, check out the new ruling on alternative source citing including sources like Rest-Stop Restroom Graffiti, Magic 8-Balls, Tattoos, or Alien Mind Transmissions.

JUREEKA!

Jureeka! is a Firefox add-on that looks for legal citations in ordinary webpages and turns them into hyperlinks that lead to a free version of the cited source (mostly U.S. law), as featured on Legal Writing Prof Blog. The JUREEKA! blog lists the recognizable citations, such are citations to US cases in regional reporters (A.2d, P.2d, P.3d, N.E.2d, N.W.2d, S.E.2d, and S.W.3d). Jureeka! retrieves materials only by the recognizable citation; however it is a dynamic tool because it is not known where the case is going to come from. It seems to work like a crawler searching for citations and linking to the freely available legal materials on the Internet, which can be useful when one does not have an access to a subscription legal database.
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