Thomas Patrick Deaton Jr.

Attorney at Law

Show Me Citations

Show Me Citations

Show Me Citations is a user-friendly thirty-two page citation manual for use in Missouri courts.

View the latest edition of Show Me Citations.

Basic Citation Forms for Legal Writing

Show Me Citations summarizes the important citation rules and forms contained in The Bluebook for practicing lawyers to use in legal documents for filing in circuit courts and appellate courts.

I wrote Show Me Citations to help lawyers because I read so many briefs with incorrect citations while I was acting chairman of Missouri's Labor and Industrial Relations Commission. In preparing Show Me Citations, I relied on citation forms used by the Missouri Supreme Court as well as The Bluebook. Show Me Citations is up-to-date and includes citation forms for authorities and sources available on the Internet.

Show Me Citations is full of examples for citations to cases, statutes, codes, rules, jury instructions, books, journals, newspapers, reports, and annotations. Show Me Citations also illustrates and discusses transcript references, paranthetical expressions, symbols, dates, capitalization, punctuation of quotations, and ellipses.

Why should we care about the correct citation form?

Citation form is a litmus test of your credibility. Judging a writer's credibility is hard. Readers draw large inferences from small clues, and citation form is one place they look. Like spelling, citation form is either right or wrong. Especially in citations to commonly-cited sources like cases and statutes, where a reader is likely to recognize an error, your citation form should be perfect.

Alan L. Dworsky, The Little Book on Legal Writing 75 (2d ed. 1992).

If you would like to have Show Me Citations for your law office, please contact me.

Telephone 314-283-2400

Monticello outside Charlottesville, Virginia
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia