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- Ellipsis formatting — spaced periods . . . not ...
- Case name "v." — lowercase "v." not "V."
- Punctuation placement — commas and periods inside quotation marks
- Section symbol spacing — space after § before number
- "United States" as party name — spell out, never abbreviate to "U.S."
- Footnote references — no space in n.4
- Id. capitalization — capitalize only at start of citation sentence
- Page ranges — proper digit retention in ranges like 102–06
- Party name "The" — omit "The" as first word of party name
- Block quotations — quotations of 50+ words should be block-quoted
- Abbreviation periods — Corp., Inc., Co., etc. require trailing periods
- Citation signals — See, Cf., etc. should be italicized
- Explanatory parentheticals — should begin with a present participle
- Explanatory phrase formatting — aff’d, rev’d, cert. denied, vacated, aff’g, overruled by, and ~40 other standard history phrases should be italicized
- District court spacing — S.D.N.Y. (no spaces) vs. D. Mass. (space before longer abbreviation)
- Page range en dashes — use en dash (–), not hyphen (-), in ranges
- Ordinal format — use 2d and 3d, not 2nd and 3rd
- Reporter spacing — close up adjacent single capitals: F.2d not F. 2d
- Paragraph symbol spacing — space after ¶ before number
- Multiple section symbols — use §§ for section ranges
- Typographic quotes — use curly “ ” quotes, not straight " marks
- Section symbol preferred — use § instead of “Section” or “sec.” with numbers
- Paragraph symbol preferred — use ¶ instead of “Paragraph” or “para.” with numbers
- [sic] formatting — use brackets [sic], not parentheses (sic)
- Emphasis parentheticals — “(emphasis added)” not “(emphasis mine)” or “(emphasis supplied)”
- No leading ellipsis — never start a quotation with an ellipsis
- Hereinafter brackets — “[hereinafter ...]” not “(hereinafter ...)”
- Alteration brackets — “[C]ourt” not “(C)ourt” in quoted material
- Signal comma for e.g. — “See, e.g.,” not “See e.g.”
- Signal type separation — contradictory signals must start a new citation sentence
- Quoting/citing lowercase — “(quoting ...)” not “(Quoting ...)”
- Multiple paragraph symbols — use ¶¶ for paragraph ranges
- Four-dot ellipsis — period plus ellipsis for sentence-end omission in quotes
- Nested quotes — single marks for quotations within quotations
- Footnote call placement — call numbers after periods/commas, before colons/dashes
- Latin case phrases — In re, ex rel., Ex parte, sub nom. must be italicized
- Compare with clause — “Compare” signal requires a “with” clause
- Typographic apostrophes — use curly ’ apostrophes, not straight ' marks
- Derived adjective capitalization — “congressional,” “presidential,” “constitutional” should be lowercase
- Omit “et al.” — “et al.” should be omitted from case names
- Omit “d/b/a” — “doing business as” and variants should be omitted from case names
- Shorten “State of” — “State of [X] v.” should be “State v.”
- Omit “of America” — use “United States,” not “United States of America”
- Redundant business designations — omit duplicate entity markers like “Corp., Inc.”
- Case name abbreviations — ~250 standard abbreviations for words near “v.” including compound phrases (Dep’t, Gov’t, Nat’l, Ass’n, U.S., A.B.A., etc.)
- Citation date format — published reporters use year only, not full dates
- Parenthetical ordering — weight-of-authority parentheticals before explanatory ones
- “Superseded by statute” — must include the superseding statute citation
- Geographic short forms — avoid state names as short-form case references
- Unpublished “on file with” — unpublished materials need an “(on file with)” parenthetical
- Forthcoming format — must include year: “(forthcoming 2026)”
- Working paper format — should include paper number: “Working Paper No.”
- Circuit abbreviation format — number before “Cir.” (e.g., “5th Cir.” not “Cir. 5”)
- Generic legal noun capitalization — “a court,” “an act” should be lowercase when generic
- Court name abbreviations — court names in citation parentheticals should use standard abbreviations (“Supreme Court” → “Sup. Ct.,” “District Court” → “Dist. Ct.”)
- Periodical title abbreviations — journal and law review title words should be abbreviated (“University” → “U.” in periodicals; omit articles like “of” and “the”)
- Explanatory phrase commas — past-participle phrases (aff’d, cert. denied) need a comma after; present-participle phrases (aff’g, rev’g) do not
Note: This tool checks for common formatting patterns only. It cannot verify contextual rules such as whether id. refers to the correct preceding source, whether a sentence is textual vs. a citation sentence, or whether text is properly italicized. Always review flagged items manually.