Legal Authorities

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Legal Authorities or Sources of Law....

The words 'Legal authorities' or 'authorities' can be referred to either 1.) as public officials of the federal, state, or a local government, or 2.) in reference to sources of law such as the U.S. Constitution, U.S. case law, or a State constitution, state statutes, a city ordinance, a law dictionary, a law encyclopedia, ect... 

Authorities. Citations to statutes, precedents, judicial decisions, and text-books of the law, made on the argument of questions of law or the trial of causes before the court, in support of the legal positions contended for, or adduced to fortify the opinion of a court or of a text writer upon any question. Authorities may be either primary (e.g. statutes, court decisions, regulations), or secondary (e.g. Restatements, treatise). Black's Law Dictionary 5th Ed. p.121 

Citations of Authorities. The reading, or production of, or reference to, legal authorities and precedents, (such as constitutions, statutes, reported cases, and elementary treatises,) in arguments in courts, or in legal text-books, to establish or fortify the propositions advanced. Black's Law Dictionary 4th Ed. p.309 

Persuasive authority. Authority from another jurisdiction such as another state which is non-binding on the court, used by a party when there is no authority or little authority to look to for purposes of deciding a case.

Example of a case citation from a judicial decision a.k.a case or opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court:

 Tyler v. Judges of the Court of Registration, 179 U.S. 405 (1900) 

1st) Name of the parties:  Tyler v. Judges of the Court of Registration, No. 2.) The numbers '179' is the volume # of the case reporter, No. 3.)  'U.S.' is the official case reporter for the U.S. Supreme Court, No. 4.)  '405' is the page where it is found, No. 5.) At the end in parentheses (1900) is the year the case was decided, not all cases will be read this way exactly.  The BlueBook A Uniform System of Citation, is the most popular authority regarding how to read case citations for most of the state and federal jurisdictions, currently the 21st Edition is the newest hard copy but now it is available online click the link above to see. Other citation manuals:

ALWD Guide to Legal Citation  

Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA)

The Chicago Manual of Style (Only for state of Ill.)

Example of a case citation from a judicial decision (opinion) with a pinpoint citation from the Washington State Supreme Court:

Neeley v. Bock, 184 Wash. 135, 143 (1935)

No. 1.) The name of parties appear first in a case citation, No. 2.) Just after the party's names, the numbers '184' is the volume # of the case reporter in the above example, No. 3.) 'Wash.' is an abbreviation for the Washington State official court reporter, No. 4.) '135' is the page number that the case starts on/where the case can be found, No. 5.) The next numbers is the pinpoint citation to the page where the judge or justice is quoted, page '143' is the pinpoint citation, No. 6.) At the end in parentheses is the year the case was decided.

The Names of the Parties

The names of the parties will be the last name of the persons, if one or both of the persons are corporate entities then the corporate name of the party or parties will be there (at the beginning of the case citation). If the corporate name is short enough then the full name of the corporation will stay, but if the corporation's name is too long then the corporate name will be abbreviated. Normally the names of the parties are in italics and underlined followed by a comma.

The Case Reporter, the Volume Number, and the Year

The reporter in the case citation could either be the official reporter or an unofficial reporter.

The official reporter is either a government entity or department apart of the court of a particular jurisdiction such as a state. Or the official reporter could be a private corporation such as Westlaw or Lexias Nexis or some other company that is contracted by that state or other jurisdiction to specifically be the official reporter.

Aside from the official reporter of a state, there are usually a few unofficial reporters who are private corporations who report cases. In the example below there are three different reporters which is normal. The first reporter is the United States Supreme Court official reporter in bold, the second reporter is an unofficial reporter: "62 S.Ct. 164," and the last reporter is an unofficial reporter as well: "86 L.Ed. 119", this unofficial reporter is the 'Lawyer Edition' abbreviated as 'L.Ed.' as seen below in the example below which is in fact a real case citation belonging to a real case from the United States Supreme Court. The Volume Number. In all three reporters the first set of numbers seen are the volume numbers, the volume numbers tells everyone the specific book volume where the case can be found, which is in a hard cover book.  In the example below in the Case of Edwards v. California, the case is located in book volume number '314' on page 160 reported by the U.S. Reporter, the official reporter. Lastly, as we can see the last numbers in the case citation are  in parentheses: (1941) this is the year the case was decided. Some cases are heard in one year but are not decided until the next year.

Edwards v. California, 314 U.S. 160, 62 S.Ct. 164, 86 L.Ed. 119 (1941)

Examples of Secondary Sources of Law:

Law encyclopedia's such as American Jurisprudence, Corpus Juris Secundum,  and West's Law encyclopedia.

Law dictionaries are also a secondary source of law.  One of the most popular in the legal arena is Black's Law Dictionary. There are many other American law dictionaries published such as Barron's, Websters Law Dictionary, Bouvier's Law dictionary, Ballentine's Law Dictionary and many more.

Case law excerpt from the Virginia state Supreme Court below cited in Am. Jur. 2d. (1979):

"The right of a citizen to travel on the public highways and to transport his property thereon, either by horse drawn carriage or wagon or automobile, is not a mere privilege which a city may permit or prohibit at will, but a common Right which he has under his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Slusher v. Safety Coach Transit Co., 229 Ky 731, 17 SW2d 1012, 66 ALR 1378; Teche Lines, Inc. v Danforth, 195 Miss 226, 12 So 2d 784; Thompson v Smith, 155 Va 367, 154 SE 579, 71 ALR 604. See 39 Am Jur 2d, HIGHWAYS, STREETS AND BRIDGES SEC. 192. 16A  Am. Jur.2d. Constitutional Law Section 569 pages 482-483 (1979)