Citing court opinions typically includes which elements?

• A. Case name, volume number, the court's name, the page number, and the court term
• B. Judge's initials and docket number
• C. The statute chapter and section only
• D. The county and municipality where decided

Answer: (A)

Citations are built to uniquely identify a court opinion and point you to its exact source. The case name names who’s involved, so you know which decision you’re looking at. The volume number and the page number tell you where it appears in the published reporter, the standard collection lawyers and judges use. The court’s name indicates which court issued the ruling, which matters because the same case name can appear in different jurisdictions or at different court levels. The court term, or the year of decision, provides temporal context and helps distinguish between similarly titled opinions produced in different years. Together, these parts let you locate the opinion in print or online and confirm you’ve retrieved the correct document. Other elements like a judge’s initials or a docket number, or references to a statute’s chapter and section or to county and municipality, don’t serve the same locating purpose for the opinion itself.