Bluebooking and Legal Citation

In print, the front and back of the title page usually provide all of the information you need. The format for the book below is:

Weller, Contested Statehood: Kosovo's Struggle for Independence (2009)

Author and Title Shown on Front of Title Page

Publication Date Shown on Back of Title Page

Westlaw provides the basic citation for Witkin at the top of the screen. However, in the title, only Cal. should be abbreviated. Additionally, the edition should be moved into the date parenthetical, the date parenthetical should be updated to include the supplement (See the box below on Finding the Year), and the entire date parenthetical should be moved before the pin. Within the pin, a comma should be inserted between the subject (Appeal) and section symbol. (CSM § 3:1.) The final format is:

9 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (5th ed. 2008 & 2016 supp.) Appeal, § 507 

Westlaw provides the basic citation for Cal. Jur. at the top of the screen. However, CSM §3:3 requires minor formatting corrections: delete the spaces in Cal.Jur.3d, add a comma between the subject (Secured Transactions) and section symbol, and add the date parenthetical before the pin (see the box below on Finding the Year.) The final format is:

57 Cal.Jur.3d (2010) Secured Transactions, § 183

Westlaw provides the basic citation for Rutter at the top of the screen. However, CSM § 3:1 also requires you to provide the author's last name(s), a title with no abbreviations other than Cal., a pincite to the paragraph rather than the chapter, a year, and the publisher for Rutter. The authors (Weil et al.) and title (Cal. Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial) are shown just below the basic citation. Look further down to identify pincites to the individual paragraph (¶) or paragraphs (¶¶). Before the pin, add a parenthetical with the publisher and year. For Rutter guides, you can generally use the year shown in the last updated date on top of the screen and in the copyright date at the end of the section. (See the box below on Finding the Year for more details.) The final format is:

Weil et al., Cal. Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial (The Rutter Group 2017) ¶¶ 3:487 to 3:488

Basic Citation Information

Identifying Specific Paragraphs

Lexis provides the basic citation for the treatise at the top of the screen. However, CSM § 3:1 also requires you to identify the author and edition, usually found at the beginning of treatise, and the year. For treatises and practice guides on Lexis, you can generally use the copyright year shown at the end or before the footnotes of each section. (See the box below on Finding the Year for more details.) Additionally, CSM § 3:1's example formats for many treatises and practice guides (including California Torts) include subjects, shown beneath the basic citation.  Because sections of treatises on Lexis are often long, you may also want to cite to a specific subsection, shown within the text (e.g. [2][a].) You will also need to re-format the volume- Lexis commonly provides the chapter after the volume (here, 4-45) but CSM only requires the volume (here, 4.) The final format is:

4 Levy et al., Cal. Torts (rev. ed. 2017) Defamation Defenses and Privileges, § 45.12[2][a]

Basic Citation At Top of Screen, with Subject and Subsections Beneath It

Check Beginning of Book for Additional Information, Such As Authors and Edition

Lexis provides the basic citation for the jury instructions at the top of the screen. The most recent edition of the CSM was published before the official California jury instructions were introduced and does not provide rules for them. However, the CSM rules for the unofficial jury instructions (CSM § 3:5) and the official jury instructions themselves suggest using the format:

CACI No. 2302

Check the Date of the Main Volume Where the Section Is Found

Locate the main volume where the section is found and check for the text of your section. If you can't find the text of your section in the main volume, it's likely in the supplement only (see next step.)

If you do find the text of your section, identify the year of publication. Here, it is shown on the title page as 2008.

Check For A Supplement in the Back of the Book or Next to the Book

Here, the supplement is inserted in the back of the book and is dated 2016.

Check If Your Section Is Edited or Added In the Supplement

Here, the supplement jumps directly from § 507 to § 509, indicating that § 507 and § 509 have been edited but § 508 has not.

Accordingly, the dates are:

9 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (5th ed. 2008 & 2016 supp.) Appeal, § 507 

9 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (5th ed. 2008) Appeal, § 508 

Witkin is unusual because it provides the print date online. The year of the main volume is shown at the top of the page- here, 2008. The year of the most recent supplement is shown just beneath it- here, 2016. If your section is updated in the supplement, a large link labeled Supplement appears at the top of the page indicating that you need to cite the supplement- here, as:

9 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (5th ed. 2008 & 2016 supp.) Appeal, § 507 

If there is no Supplement link, your section is not in the supplement and can be cited to the main volume, such as:

9 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (5th ed. 2008) Appeal, § 508 

CSM § 3:1[a] allows you to consult online versions of sources but does not clearly explain how to find the year. On Westlaw, your best bet is probably to use the year shown in the last updated date on top of the screen and in the copyright date at the end of the section. For looseleaf publications such as Rutter, this will generally be the same as the date on the print title page. For publications that use supplements such as CalJur and AmJur, this date will provide the reader with a sense of how current the information is but generally will not be the same as the date for the print. 

Here for example, the date shows that CalJur was last updated in May 2017, so you might use the format:

57 Cal.Jur.3d (2017) Secured Transactions, § 183
57 Cal.Jur.3d (2017) Secured Transactions, § 104

However, because Westlaw does not provide the main volume date for CalJur, you will not be able to provide the same year as you would if you used the print. Checking the print reveals that the print years for these sections are:

57 Cal.Jur.3d (2010) Secured Transactions, § 183
57 Cal.Jur.3d (2010 & 2017 supp.) Secured Transactions, § 104

Date of Last Update Shown at Top of Screen

Copyright Date and Supplement Shown at Bottom of Screen

Scrolling to the end of §104 shows you the copyright date and reveals that this section is included in the print supplement. However, because Westlaw only provides the year of the supplement, not the main volume, there is not enough information to replicate the print date.

CSM § 3:1[a] allows you to consult online versions of sources but does not clearly explain how to find the year. On Lexis, your best bet is probably to use the copyright year shown at the end or before the footnotes of the section. Here, for example, the source is copyright 2017, so you might cite it as:

4 Levy et al., Cal. Torts (rev. ed. 2017) Defamation Defenses and Privileges, § 45.12[2][a]

Like most sources on Lexis, California Torts is a looseleaf- a binder with hole punched pages that are removed and replaced at the same time as the online version is updated. Checking the title page of the print version confirms that 2017 is also the correct year for the print.

For looseleafs, CSM § 3:1[a] allows but does not require you to provide an extra parenthetical at the end of the citation identifying the date the individual page you are citing was last replaced, usually show at the bottom of the page in print. For example, the page below can be cited as:

4 Levy et al., Cal. Torts (rev. ed. 2017) Defamation Defenses and Privileges, § 45.12[2][a] (rel. 58-4/2015)

The more detailed citation tells readers that the treatise as a whole was last updated 2017 but this specific page was last replaced in 2015.