Automatic Bluebook® Citations to Legal Dictionaries
Using Citrus to automatically generate correct Bluebook citations to legal dictionaries is as easy as typing your brief or legal document and using the F2 key to mark your citations as you go. This example will show you how to this software will automatically help you write Bluebook legal citations to Black's Law Dictionary or Ballantine's Law Dictionary.
Automatic Citation to Black's or Ballentine's Law Dictionary in Bluebook Form
Begin by starting Microsoft Word 2003, Word 2007, or Word 2010 on a blank document. Then type this opening sentence:
There are at least eleven different legal terms describing different types of knowledge.
Now you need to cite to a legal authority. Whenever you enter a legal citation, use the F2 function key to mark it. For this example, press F2, then the following citation, then F2 again.
F2 Blacks law dictionary, 888 (Deluxe Eighth Edition, 2004) F2
When you press F2 a second time to indicate the end of your legal citation, Citrus will automatically generate a correct legal citation to the page you cited:
There are at least eleven different legal terms describing different types of knowledge. Black's Law Dictionary 888 (Deluxe 8th ed. 2004).
Citrus will automatically correct the name to "Black's Law Dictionary" and remove the comma before the page reference. Although one would ordinarily use "Eighth Edition" because that is what appears on the title page, Citrus applies the special Bluebook rule for legal dictionaries that requires writers to use "8th ed."
The same things that work for Black's also work for Ballentine's Law Dictionary. Just press F2, enter your citation, and press F2 again and Citrus will automatically generate a legal citation in Bluebook format.
Using Citrus to Bluebook Existing Citations
If you enter a citation but forget to press F2, you can still have Citrus automatically manage the citation for you. Simply use your mouse or keyboard to highlight the citation, then press F2. Try entering the following sentence into your document now:
The language is ambiguous because in pari delicto might refer either to the relationship of the defendants or to the doctrine of the same name. See Blacks 352 (Pocket 2nd ed 2001).
Highlight the citation starting with Blacks and ending with the final closing parenthesis and then press F2. Citrus will correct the citation just as if you had pressed F2 while entering it.
The language is ambiguous because in pari delicto might refer either to the relationship of the defendants or to the doctrine of the same name. See Black's Law Dictionary 352 (2d Pocket ed. 2001).
