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Legal Research Starting Points: Reading Legal Citations

How to Read a Legal Citation

Legal citation is rather unique. The part of a legal citation that indicates where something is published typically includes the following elements:

Volume or Title number
Publication
(usually abbreviated). This may be followed by a series designation.
First page or section number Note: the symbol § means section.

Examples:
421 N.W.2d 877 refers to volume 421 of the North Western Reporter, Second Series page 877

44 U.S.C. § 1901 refers to Title 44 of the United States Code, section 1901

Iowa Code § 336.8 refers to section 336.8 of the Code of Iowa (336 is the chapter number.)

I.C.A. § 336.8 refers to section 336.8 of the Iowa Code Annotated. (336 is the chapter number.)

For a more extensive explanation of legal citation, see

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