I have yet another law question. When you guys reference a specific case, you sometimes say something like: see Jones v. Lipshitz, 284 F. Supp 165, 83 Cal App 6547 (1991). My question is, how exactly do all the reference numbers work? Is there a big book called 284 F. Supp, and on page 165 is the case, or what?
Today for you, tomorrow for me.
Actually, Angel, you have it just about right. Case Reporters come in series of volumes, each of which is abbreviated in the citation. For instance, one series is called the Federal Supplement (F. Supp. for short) which reports on cases from Federal District Courts. 284 F. Supp. would be the 284th volume in the series, usually identifiable by a big ‘284’ on the spine. A case with the citation 284 F. Supp. 165 would start on page 165 of 284 F. Supp.
Sometimes cases are reported in two series of reporters, and therefore have two citations. In your example, the Jones case would be cited in both F. Supp. and the California Appellate Reports (Cal. App.). This actually would never happen because Cal. App. reports cases from the California Appellate Court (I may have the name wrong), a state court, and F. Supp. reports federal cases.
Actually, yes. 
284 F. Supp 165, 83 Cal App 6547 (1991) would mean a case reported in the Federal Supplement, volume 284, page 165. Yhe 1991 refers to the year.
Cal. App. refers to the California Court of Appeals – if the case had gotten all the way to the California Supreme Court, it might look something like 83 Cal 131, as opposed to Cal. App. In real life, you wouldn’t see a federal case reported in the state reporter, and vice versa.
I like your sig, by the way! I saw Rent with Wilson Jermaine Heredia in that role, and he was amazing.
None of my business… but should I use ‘he’ or ‘she’ in referring to you? I wouldn’t mormally ask, but your handle is Angel in you’re quoting that character in your sig… which, I think you’ll agree, raises the question.
Yep. In your example, the book you’d be looking for is the 284th volume of the Federal Supplement, page 165. There you’d find the case of Jones v. Lipshitz, if that cite is correct.
The general format for citations is Firstparty v. Secondparty, volume# Reporter page# (court, year). But there’s a lot of freaky permutations. The year, by the way, is the year of the decision, not necessarily the year in which the case was tried.
Supreme Court cases are published in the United States Reporter (U.S.), circuit courts in the Federal Reporter (F.), and district courts in the Federal Supplement (F. Supp.). There are also regional reporters, among them Southern, Atlantic, Pacific, and Northwestern (So., A., P., and N.W. respectively).
Often you’ll see a cite like “F.3d”. West (the company that publishes the reporters) prints the volumes in series, from volume 1 to volume 999, then they start another series. So, yeah, there are over two thousand total volumes of cases in the Federal series. The cite “F.3d” tells you to go to the third series.
I don’t know where you’re going with that second number, but there are some state rules that govern these citations. Some states require that, when you submit briefs to courts in that state, you include a citation to the state reporter as well as the regional reporter. Me, I stick to the big regionals when I can and follow the state rules when I must.
One final thing: what you’d get upon looking up that cite is the opinion of the court, as written by the judge, not a transcript of the trial or anything. There’s always a summary of the facts of the case, though.
I’m in the thick of learning this stuff, so it’s pretty fresh in my mind…still, I’m not infallible. If I made any mistakes, feel free to call me on them.
You can always just call a law library and ask someone to explain the abbreviations. There are keys that explain all of this stuff and the librarians will be happy to tell you where to find the reference.
Then you get to figure out the meaning of the opinion or statute.