It is common practice in legal documents to cite to other publications by using standard abbreviations for the title of each source. Abbreviations may also be found for common words or legal phrases. Such citations and abbreviations are found in court decisions, statutes, regulations, journal articles, books, and other documents. Below is a basic list of very common abbreviations. Because publishers adopt different practices regarding how abbreviations are printed, one may find abbreviations with or without periods for each letter. For example, the Code of Federal Regulations may appear abbreviated as "C.F.R." or just as "CFR."
For abbreviations not found in this list, here are alternate websites to search:
- Abbreviations and Acronyms of the U.S. Government (maintained by U.S. Government Publishing Office)
- The Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations (maintained by Cardiff University).
- Common Abbreviations and Legal Citation Examples for Selected Federal Government Documents: Legislative, Regulatory and Statutory (maintained by LLSDC.org)
For legal abbreviations not found online, try searching one of the following print sources. These publications are regularly found at law and other libraries.
- Columbia Law Review Association, Inc., Harvard Law Review Association, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Yale Law Journal (Eds.) (2015). The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. 20th ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law Review Association.
- Garner, Brian. Black's Law Dictionary. 10th ed. St. Paul, MN: West Pub. Co., 2014.
- Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law. 4th ed., 2015.
- McGill Law Journal. Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation. 6th ed. Toronto: Carswell, 2006.
- Prince, Mary Miles. Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations. 6th ed. Buffalo, NY: Hein, 2009. Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations, 5th ed. at Google Books
- Trinxet, Salvador. Template:Trinxet Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms Series. A Law Reference Collection, 2011, ISBNÂ 1624680003 and ISBNÂ 978-1-62468-000-7
- Trinxet, Salvador. Trinxet Reverse Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms, 2011, ISBNÂ 1624680011 and ISBNÂ 978-1-62468-001-4.
- Raistrick, Donald. Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations. 3rd ed. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2008. This book focuses more on British and other foreign/international abbreviations.
- Kavass, World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations
List Of Common Legal Abbreviations Or Terms
Symbol
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- © â€" Copyright, meaning someone claims ownership of the text, book, music, software, etc.
- ® â€" Registered Trademark (typically a word or phrase identifying a company or product, e.g. Coca-Cola)
0â€"9
- 1A First Amendment
through
- 27A Twenty-Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
A
- A. â€" Atlantic Reporter
- A.2d â€" Atlantic Reporter, 2nd Series
- ABA â€" American Bar Association
- ACC â€" Association of Corporate Counsel
- ad., ads., adsm. â€" ad sectam (Latin), at the suit of. Used in colonial and Federal Era American cases when the defendant is listed first; e.g., "John Doe v. Richard Roe" is labeled "Richard Roe ads. John Doe." The long script "S" of the period often makes this appear as "adj."
- adj. â€" see "ad." above.
- Ala. Admin. Code â€" Alabama Administrative Code (unofficial text)
- Ala. Code â€" Code of Alabama 1975 (unofficial text)
- Alaska Admin. Code â€" Alaska Administrative Code (unofficial text)
- Alaska Stat. â€" Alaska Statutes (unofficial text)
- All ER â€" All England Law Reports
- A.L.R. â€" American Law Reports
- A.L.R.2d â€" American Law Reports, 2nd Series
- A.L.R.3d â€" American Law Reports, 3rd Series
- A.L.R.4th â€" American Law Reports, 4th Series
- A.L.R.5th â€" American Law Reports, 5th Series
- A.L.R.6th â€" American Law Reports, 6th Series
- A.L.R. Fed. â€" American Law Reports, Federal
- Am. Jur. â€" American Jurisprudence
- Am. Jur. 2d. â€" American Jurisprudence, 2nd Series
- Anor - Another
- Ariz. Admin. Code â€" Arizona Administrative Code (unofficial text)
- Ariz. Admin. Reg. â€" Arizona Administrative Register (unofficial text)
- Ariz. Rev. Stat. â€" Arizona Revised Statutes (unofficial text)
- Ark. Code â€" Arkansas Code (unofficial text)
- Art - Article
- Asap- As soon as possible
- Atty - Attorney
B
- B.A.P. â€" Bankruptcy Appellate Panel
- BFP â€" Bona fide purchaser
- BR or B/R â€" Bankruptcy (also the abbreviation for the United States bankruptcy courts reporter, West's Bankruptcy Reporter)
C
- c. â€" Chapter
- cc. â€" Chapters
- CA â€" Class action
- CB â€" Casebook
- CBJ â€" California Bar journal
- CC â€" Commerce Clause
- CCH â€" Commerce Clearing House, a publisher of case law reporters owned by Wolters Kluwer
- C-C â€" Counterclaim
- CE â€" Collateral estoppel
- CD - Closing disclosure
- CL â€" Common law
- CNeg â€" Contributory negligence
- CA # â€" Court of Appeals (Court of Appeals for the #th Circuit)
- CA Fed. â€" Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Cx â€" Constitution
- Cx-C â€" Cross-claim
- Cxl â€" Constitutional
- Cal. Code â€" California Code (unofficial text?)
- Cal. Code Reg. â€" California Code of Regulations (see: CCR below)
- CCR â€" California Code of Regulations (official text?) (source: Thomson/West)
- CIF â€" Coming into force
- C.F.R. â€" Code of Federal Regulations
- CFR â€" Call for Response (At the US Supreme Court, if the other side has stated it will not respond to a petition for cert., any Justice may direct the Clerk to call for a response.)
- CJS â€" Corpus Juris Secundum
- Cong. Rec. â€" Congressional Record
- CRS - Congressional Research Service
- Ct. Cl. â€" the United States Court of Federal Claims Reporter
D
- Î" (Greek letter delta) â€" Defendant
- DAC â€" Days After Contract
E
- ER â€" Employer
- EE â€" Employee
- et als. â€" Latin for "and others".
F
- F. â€" Federal Reporter
- F.2d â€" Federal Reporter, 2nd Series
- F.3d â€" Federal Reporter, 3rd Series
- F.App'x â€" Federal Appendix
- F.Cas. â€" Federal Cases 1789â€"1880
- Fed. Reg. (sometimes FR) â€" Federal Register (see Federal Register for full text from 1994 to date)
- Fed. R. Bankr. P. â€" Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure
- Fed. R. Civ. P. (sometimes FRCP) â€" Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
- Fed. R. Crim. P. â€" Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
- Fed. R. Evid. (sometimes FRE) â€" Federal Rules of Evidence
- F. Supp. â€" Federal Supplement
- F. Supp. 2d â€" Federal Supplement, 2nd Series
G
- GATT â€" General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
- GC â€" General Counsel
- GVR â€" Grant, Vacate, and Remand
- NGO - Non Government Organization
H
- HDC â€" Holder in due course
I
- I.L.M. â€" International Legal Materials
- IRB â€" Internal Revenue Bulletin (from July 2003 to date)
- ILRM - Irish Law Reports Monthly
- IR - Irish Law Reports
- IRC â€" Internal Revenue Code
- ISLN â€" International Standard Lawyer Number
- ILRM - Irish Law Reports Monthly
J
- J â€" Judge or Justice, according to jurisdiction
- JJ - Judges or Justices, plural
- JMOL â€" Judgment as a matter of law
- JNOV â€" Judgment notwithstanding verdict
- Jx - Jurisdiction
- JU-disposed of by Judge
K
- K â€" Contract
L
- L/C â€" Letter of credit
- L.Ed - Lawyers' Edition
- L.Ed.2d - Lawyers 2nd Edition
- LLC â€" Limited liability company
- LLP â€" Limited liability partnership
M
- MIL â€" Motion in limine
- MOU â€" Memorandum of Understanding
- MPC â€" Model Penal Code
- MSJ - Motion for Summary Judgment
N
- NDA â€" Non-Disclosure Agreement
- N.E. â€" North Eastern Reporter
- N.E.2d â€" North Eastern Reporter, 2nd Series
- No. - Number
- N.W. â€" North Western Reporter
- N.W.2d â€" North Western Reporter, 2nd Series
O
- Ors - other..
P
- ¶ (Pilcrow)â€" Paragraph
- Î (Greek letter Pi) â€" Plaintiff
- P. â€" Pacific Reporter
- P.2d â€" Pacific Reporter, 2nd Series
- P.3d â€" Pacific Reporter, 3rd Series
- p. â€" Page
- pp. â€" Pages
- PL â€" Public Law
- Pub.L. â€" Public Law
Q
- QDRO â€" Qualified Domestic Relations Order
R
- R â€" Rex or Regina
- R.E. or R/E â€" Real Estate
- Rev. Proc. â€" Revenue Procedure (published in IRB)
- Rev. Rul. â€" Revenue Ruling (published in IRB)
- R J - Recurring Judgement. (published in All In Reports)
- R.I.A.A. - Reports of International Arbitral Awards
S
- s. or § â€" Section
- sd â€" said
- ss. or §§ â€" Sections
- S.C.R. (or SCR) â€" Supreme Court Reports (Supreme Court of Canada)
- S. Ct. â€" Supreme Court Reporter (Supreme Court of the United States)
- S.E. â€" South Eastern Reporter
- S.E.2d â€" South Eastern Reporter, 2nd Series
- SCOTUS - Supreme Court of the United States (Supreme Court of the United States)
- SI â€" Statutory instruments
- S/J â€" Summary judgment
- SMJ â€" Subject-matter jurisdiction
- So. â€" Southern Reporter
- So. 2d â€" Southern Reporter, 2nd Series
- SOL â€" Statute of Limitations
- SOR â€" Statutory Orders and Regulations
- Stat. â€" United States Statutes at Large (See United States Code)
- S.W. â€" South Western Reporter
- S.W.2d â€" South Western Reporter, 2nd Series
- S.W.3d â€" South Western Reporter, 3rd Series
T
- T.C. â€" Reported decisions of the United States Tax Court
- T.D. â€" Treasury Decision
- â„¢ or TM â€" Trademark (such as a word or phrase identifying a company or product)
U
- UCC â€" Uniform Commercial Code
- UCMJ â€" Uniform Code of Military Justice (Laws of the U.S. military)
- UPC â€" Uniform Probate Code
- U.S. â€" United States Reports (beginning with v. 502 (1991))
- USC â€" United States Code (A free website for the full text is at U.S. Code. This text is maintained by the U.S. Gov't Printing Office, but must be checked for revisions or amendments after its effective date.)
- USCA â€" United States Code Annotated
- USCCAN â€" United States Code Congressional and Administrative News
- USCS â€" United States Code Service
- UST â€" United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (See Treaty series.)
V
- v. â€" versus. Used when plaintiff is listed first on a case title. John Doe v. Richard Roe.
See also "ad." above. "vs." is used in most scholarly writing in other fields, but "v." alone in legal writing.
W
- WTO â€" World Trade Organization
- W. Va. Code â€" West Virginia Code (unofficial text)
X
- XN - Examination in Chief
- XXN - Cross examination
Y
Z
References
External links
- Legal acronyms and abbreviations, Retrieved 2014-30-06.