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Citrus
Automatic Bluebook Citations to Cases
Getting started with Citrus is as easy as typing your legal brief and using the F2 key to mark your citations as you go. This example will get you started on a sample brief about a case involving allegedly threatening speech.
Enter Full, Short, or Id. Case Citations
Full Citations
Begin by starting Microsoft Word 2003 or Word 2007 on a blank document. Then type this opening sentence:
The Court held that the speech could not be considered a true threat.
Now cite the statement to an authority. Whenever you enter a citation, use the F2 key to mark it. For this example brief, press F2, then the following case citation, then F2 again.
The Court held that the speech could not be considered a true threat. F2 Watts v. United States, 394 US 705, 708 (US, 1969). F2
(Later in this example, you will see ways to use abbreviations and shortcuts to enter citations in this sample brief and in your actual legal writing much more quickly.)
When you press F2 a second time to indicate the end of the citation, Citrus will automatically generate a correct Bluebook citation as shown below:
The Court held that the speech could not be considered a true threat. Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705, 708 (1969) (per curiam).
When you are citing a case, Citrus will automatically apply Bluebook formatting such as underlining the names of the parties. It will also automatically append the notation "(per curiam)" to this legal citation because Watts was published as a per curiam case. In addition to putting the given information into Bluebook format and adding missing information like per curiam, Citrus also automatically removes unnecessary information. You do not need the court name when citing to Supreme Court cases that are reported in the U.S. reporter, so Citrus will remove the "US" from the "(US, 1969)" parenthetical.
Use the F2 key to indicate the case to which you are citing, not the statement itself. In the example above, do not include "The Court held...threat." in the range of text surrounded by F2. Include only the case citation "Watts v. United...1969)" in the legal citation that you want Citrus to put into correct Bluebook form.
Id. Citations
Now type this second sentence:
The Court considered the context in which the speech had been delivered and the reaction of the listeners.
Cite to an authority for this sentence. Use a simple Id. cite by pressing F2, typing id, and pressing F2 to indicate that you are done with the citation.
The Court considered the context in which the speech had been delivered and the reaction of the listeners. F2 Id.F2
When you press F2 to indicate that you are done, Citrus will underline the Id. for you.
The Court considered the context in which the speech had been delivered and the reaction of the listeners. Id.
Although merely underlining the Id. is not overly helpful, you will see in the section about editing documents why it is very valuable to have Citrus manage Id. citations for you.
After following the steps above for entering the argument and citing the case, the sample brief with the first two sentences looks like this:
The Court held that the speech could not be considered a true threat. Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705, 708 (1969) (per curiam). The Court considered the context in which the speech had been delivered and the reaction of the listeners. Id.
Short Citations
Once you have entered a citation, you may refer to it by any of several short forms and Citrus will handle the citation correctly. You can even enter short forms where a short form would be incorrect and Citrus will make the necessary adjustments.
Position your cursor at the beginning of the example and enter this:
The case concerned speech allegedly containing a threat against the life of the President.
F2 Watts at 705. F2
Even though it is improper to use a short form as the first citation to a source in a legal memorandum, Citrus recognizes Watts as a source that it has already seen in the document and handles it correctly by generating this:
The case concerned speech allegedly containing a threat against the life of the President. Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705, 705 (1969) (per curiam). The Court held that the speech could not be considered a true threat. Id. at 708. The Court considered the context in which the speech had been delivered and the reaction of the listeners. Id.
Follow this link to see how Citrus continues to manage case citations as you edit the sample legal brief. You will also see how to use Citrus to manage citations in legal memoradanda that were not created with Citrus.
