How to cite a legal case in Chicago (notes & bibliography)
A court decision or legal judgment. Chicago's footnote-based system. Standard for literature, history, and the arts.
Quick answer
To cite a legal case in Chicago (notes & bibliography), include the author(s), year, title, and container or publisher details. A concrete example is below.
Example
Author, A., "Brown v. Board of Education," 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
This example is rendered with the official CSL definition for Chicago (notes & bibliography). For the exact style required by your journal, paste your references into DEEPNOTIS and pick that style from the dropdown — the app covers 2,800+ variants.
What you need
For a legal case, Chicago (notes & bibliography) expects these fields at minimum:
- Case name
- Year
- Reporter volume and page
- Court
- Jurisdiction
Common mistakes
- Mixing bibliography formatting with in-text citation rules. Reference-list entries and in-text cites follow different patterns — use the style's official guide for both.
- Forgetting the DOI. When a DOI exists, most styles now require it (usually as a full https://doi.org/… URL).
- Inconsistent capitalization. APA uses sentence case for titles; MLA and Chicago use title case. Mixing them is the single most common style error.
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Last updated: 5 May 2026