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Clerk bluebooking

By 4L

What is interesting, at least to me (and only to a certain degree) is how different some of my co-clerks' styles are when it comes to the bluebook. Obviously it controls, but there are certainly liberties taken sometimes with how short cites, reference cites, books, typeface, parentheticals, etc. are used. I'm sort of surprised it isn't unified within the courts, but I suppose that would make for a very boring job if all one had to do all day was double check cites and make everything conform to the same system.

In the end, as long as I can figure out what or where the reference is coming from, I can judge for myself whether the sentence that was cited to is accurate or a little bit of a push. Of course, when the attorneys do it in their brief, and they cite to a west headnote page and not the actual page, that sort of mistake is not only infuriating, it makes me that less inclined to have any confidence in the explanation of why the judge did or did not make a bad ruling. Then I think to myself, if I'm just a novice at this and I can figure it out, is there that much overload in work that that person couldn't?

Full post as published by The Once and Future Lawyer on May 06, 2008 (boomark / email).

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