To cite a court case, you will need to recognize the citation of the case listed just ABOVE the document you see in LexisNexis. For legal and government documents, MLA defers to the procedures established by The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation published by the Harvard Law Review Association. A court case would read as below:
Last name of first plaintiff v. Last name of first defendent. Reporter citation (Volume number, name of source (United States Reports, Federal Reporter, etc.), page number).* Name of court. Year. Name of Database. Format. Date retrieved.
The picture above is for the following court case:
Perry v. Schwarzenegger. 704 F. Supp. 2d 921. 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78817,
(9th Cir. Aug. 4, 2010). LexisNexis Academic. Web. 10 May 2012.
*For the reporter citation information look above the LexisNexis document. You may need to move your mouse over to see the complete citation fragment which ends with the LEXIS number. It will include the volume number, proper abbreviation of the court reporter, the first page number, and then the year followed by the type of court. It then ends with the LEXIS number which MUST be included in citation. In parenthesies you state more specifity of the court followed by the date of the ruling (beginning with month, instead of day). The example above pertains to Volume 704 of the Federal Reporter Supplement, Second Series, followed by the first page number.
(Note: the directions above is subject to revision as we are still interpreting between the Bluebook and MLA of which there are inconsistencies).
If Court case is taken from another site than LexisNexis:
Try to take as much as you can as in the example above. From Plain Site, for example, you still have the source where the court case came from, except there is no LexisNexis number (although Plain Site is not always clear what Circuit an appellate course came from). Just cite as much as you can. Here would be the same citation:
Perry v. Schwarzenegger. 704 F. Supp. 2d 921. 2010 U.S. Dist.,
(Aug. 4, 2010). Plain Site. Web. 10 May 2012.
Post Spring Break
Mondays to Thursdays: 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Chat Reference hours:
24/7
Welcome to the Chabot College Library guide to Professor Novak's Business 10 class. Here's some important information about the library you might need for this class and for future classes at Chabot. Visit the library website at https://www.chabotcollege.edu/library/
If you have any research questions or just get stuck at the library, come talk to the librarian at the reference desk. We are on duty during all library open hours.
If you even have questions at home, you can contact a librarian during open hours at (510) 723-6764 or (510) 723-7006, or go to Chat with a Chabot Librarian.
For general lessons on Library skills, go to our Library Tutorials page: https://www.chabotcollege.edu/library/tutorials.asp The Searchpath tutorial provides detailed lessons on research while the other tutorials are brief and interactive.
If you have questions about your library account or borrowing prviliges, you can contact the circulation desk during open hours at (510) 723-7513.
To contact personally, Email Norman Buchwald at nbuchwald@chabotcollege.edu. I am in Office #117.
