Legal Abbreviations

References to cases, statutes, and other law-related items are often in an abbreviated format. This can make locating cited material difficult for those who are unfamiliar with legal citation formats. Listed below are samples of common citation formats, and a table of some common legal citations. Also included are some sources which are helpful when translating legal abbreviations.

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Common Citations
What are Parallel Citations

Cases are often published, or reported, in more than one place. You may see several citations following one case name. These notations of all the reporters in which a case is published are called parallel citations. For example:

United States v. American Library Association, et al., 539 U.S. 194, 123 S. Ct. 2297, 156 L. Ed. 2d 221 (2003).

This is the same decision, just in different resources. With the current versions of The Bluebook, only one source needs to be cited. Table 1 of The Bluebook will identify which is the preferred citation and source.

Table of Common Abbreviations

Abbreviations	Translation	Brief Example
A. A.2d A.3d	West's Atlantic Reporter	241 A.3d 327
A.L.R.	American Law Reports	93 A.L.R. 1385
B.R.	Bankruptcy Reporter	134 B.R. 402
Cal. Rptr.	West's California Reporter	191 Cal. Rptr. 832
C.F.R.	Code of Federal Regulations	27 C.F.R. § 4.30.
F. F.2d F.3d	Federal Reporter	171 F.3d 1364
Fed. Reg. F.R.	Federal Register	45 Fed. Reg. 81251 (Dec. 10, 1980).
Fla.	Florida Reports	71 Fla. 714 (1916).
Fla. Admin. Code. Ann.	Florida Administrative Code Annotated	Fla. Admin. Code Ann. r. 9J-14.006.
Fla. L. Weekly	Florida Law Weekly	31 Fla. L. Weekly D2289a (Sept. 1, 2006).
F.R.D.	Federal Rules Decisions	141 F.R.D. 348
F. Supp. F. Supp. 2d F. Supp. 3d	Federal Supplement	119 F. Supp. 2d 1288
I. & N. Dec.	Administrative Decisions under the Immigration and Nationality Laws	3 I. & N. Dec. 209 (1950).
L.Ed L.Ed 2d	United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition (Lexis)	92 L.Ed 2d 209
N.E. N.E.2d N.E.3d	North Eastern Reporter	187 N.E.3d 373
N.W. N.W. 2d	North Western Reporter	914 N.W.2d 708
N.Y.S. N.Y.S.2d N.Y.S.3d	West's New York Supplement	58 N.Y.S.2d 140
P. P.2d P.3d	Pacific Reporter	39 P.3d 174
S. Ct.	Supreme Court Reporter (West)	102 S. Ct. 3348
S.E. S.E.2d	South Eastern Reporter	375 S.E.2d 785
So. So. 2d So. 3d	Southern Reporter	431 So.2d 515
Stat.	United States Statutes at Large	128 Stat. 644 (2014).
S.W. S.W.2d S.W.3d	South Western Reporter	816 S.W.2d 614
U. Miami L. Rev. U. Mia. L. Rev.	University of Miami Law Review	46 U. Mia. L. Rev. 119 (1991).
U.S.	United States Reports	575 U.S. 134
U.S.C.	United States Code	7 U.S.C. § 2000(e).
U.S.C.A.	United States Code Annotated	20 U.S.C.A. § 1474.
U.S.C.S.	United States Code Service	21 U.S.C.S. § 331(e).

Sources for Translating Abbreviations
- Prince's Bieber Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations (available in print in the law library)
- Bieber Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations Reversed (available in print in the law library)
- Florida Style Manual
- GovSpeak: A Guide to U.S. Government Acronyms & Abbreviations
- Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations (includes foreign, English-language resources)

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