How to Cite Court Cases in APA Style | Format & Examples
Published on
February 4, 2021
by
Jack Caulfield.
Revised on
December 27, 2023.
Legal citations (e.g. court cases, laws) in APA Style look somewhat different from other APA citations. They generally don’t list authors, and abbreviations are used to make them more concise.
Citations for court cases refer to reporters, the publications in which cases are documented. To cite a court case or decision, list the name of the case, the volume and abbreviated name of the reporter, the page number, the name of the court, the year, and optionally the URL.
The case name is italicized in the in-text citation, but not in the reference list. In the reference, specify only a single page number—the page where the coverage of that case begins—instead of a full page range.
Most words are abbreviated in legal citations. This means that a very large number of standard abbreviations exist. Consult resources like this page to familiarize yourself with common abbreviations.
Pages where case information is found online also tend to show the correct form of citation for the case in question. You can check these to make sure you use the right abbreviations.
Note that “v.” (for “versus”) is used between the names of the parties in a case title, though APA recommends “vs.” outside the context of legal citations.
Federal court cases are those that take place at the national level in the U.S.—in the U.S. Supreme Court, a circuit court, or a district court.
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court is the highest federal court, and its decisions are reported in the United States Reports (abbreviated to “U.S.” in the reference). You don’t need to specify the court in parentheses in this case, since the name of the reporter already makes this clear.
APA format
Name v. Name, Volume number U.S. Page number (Year). URL
Decisions from the U.S. circuit courts are reported in the Federal Reporter. This reporter has appeared in three series; the first is abbreviated as “F.”, the second as “F.2d”, and the third and current series as “F.3d”.
There are 13 circuit courts, so specify which one you’re citing in the parentheses, e.g. “9th Cir.”
APA format
Name v. Name, Volume number F. or F.2d or F.3d Page number (Court Year). URL
Decisions from the U.S. district courts are reported in the Federal Supplements. Like the Federal Reporter, it has appeared in three series, abbreviated as “F. Supp.”, “F. Supp. 2d”, and “F. Supp. 3d”.
There are many different district courts, so specify which one is being cited in the parentheses, e.g. “N.D. Ohio.”
APA format
Name v. Name, Volume number F. Supp. or F. Supp. 2d or F. Supp. 3d Page number (Court Year). URL
State courts are those that operate in specific states rather than federally. The two kinds of state court that are commonly cited are supreme courts and appellate courts. They are both cited in a similar format.
APA format
Name v. Name, Volume number Reporter Page number (Court Year). URL
In APA Style, when you’re citing a recent court case that has not yet been reported in print and thus doesn’t have a specific page number, include a series of three underscores (___) where the page number would usually appear:
Chicago v. Fulton, 592 U.S. ___ (2021). https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-357_6k47.pdf
With APA legal citations, it’s recommended to cite all the reporters (publications reporting cases) in which a court case appears. To cite multiple reporters, just separate them with commas in your reference entry. This is called parallel citation.
Don’t repeat the name of the case, court, or year; just list the volume, reporter, and page number for each citation. For example:
Brown v. Collins, 541 U.S. 948, 2004 U.S. LEXIS 2215, 124 S. Ct. 1684, 158 L. Ed. 2d 377, 72 U.S.L.W. 3598 (U.S. 2004).
No, including a URL is optional in APA Stylereference entries for legal sources (e.g. court cases, laws). It can be useful to do so to aid the reader in retrieving the source, but it’s not required, since the other information included should be enough to locate it.
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Jack is a Brit based in Amsterdam, with an MA in comparative literature. He writes for Scribbr about his specialist topics: grammar, linguistics, citations, and plagiarism. In his spare time, he reads a lot of books.
