Public Domain Format - Rule 10.3.3

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Many state courts require citation to a public domain format (also called medium-neutral format). Public domain format citations do not refer to any commercial source or other reporter in any medium. Instead, they use a consecutively numbered system based on opinions as they are issued from a particular court. Check Table 1 for which states use public domain format and what form it takes. Always check local court rules when submitting any court documents.

Many states have created a system that does not fit the model below in (1), and you should follow whatever the jurisdiction in Table 1 indicates.

(1) The bluebook provides a default citation method with the following elements [rule 10.3.3].

case name, year; state abbreviation; court abbreviation; sequential number of the decision, pinpoint if relevant

(2) When referencing specific material, pinpoint to the appropriate paragraph(s) and not page numbers (normal method in commercial and official reporters).

(3) See table 10 for state abbreviations, see table 7 for court abbreviations

(4) Parallel cite to a regional reporter if available.

(5) If an opinion has been deemed "unpublished" (i.e. not in a reporter), then put a U after the sequential number.

General examples:

Richard v. Phillip Augustus, 2002 ND 145, ¶¶ 12-14, 54 N.W.2d 456, 460-62

Lusignan v. Conrad, 2003 ND Ct. App. 44, 98 N.W.2d 46

Douglas v. Percy, 2004 ND Ct. App. 34U

So in the first example, the case was the 145th in 2002 from North Dakota's highest court, with a parrallel citation to the Northwesetern Reporter. There are pinpoint cites, paragraphs for the public domain format and pages for the commercial reporter.

An example not using (1),

Bruce v. Longshanks, 2002-NMCA-333, 46 P.2d 900