OFFICIAL EDITION New York Law Reports

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OFFICIAL EDITION

New York

Law Reports

Style Manual

PREPARED BY

THE LAW REPORTING BUREAU

OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

2017

COMPILED AND EDITED BY

Kathleen B. Hughes

Cara J. Brousseau

Katherine G. Breitenbach

Kelli J. Flansburg

Maureen L. Clements

Kristen M. Quaresimo

Kayleigh A. Gekakis

Wendy L. Harbour

Wendy L. Whiteman

WILLIAM J. HOOKS

STATE REPORTER

COPYRIGHT ? 2017

New York State Unified Court System

First Edition Published in 1956

FOREWORD

I want to thank our State Reporter, William J. Hooks, for

inviting me to submit this Foreword to the newly revised 2017

Official Style Manual of the New York State Law Reporting

Bureau. Mr. Hooks and his excellent staff not only publish the

Official Reports, the permanent record of the decisions and

proceedings of the New York State courts, but also publish and

maintain the Official Style Manual, which has long served as the

authoritative reference work on legal citation for the New York

courts and the lawyers who practice before them.

No judge writing an opinion or lawyer drafting a brief can do

so properly without citing to pertinent legal authorities �� statutes, regulations, prior court decisions, and treatises and secondary materials �� to support their conclusions and arguments. This

technical language of ��legal citation,���� which is absolutely essential to legal writing, would be impossible to master without a

widely accepted guide that promotes consistency, conciseness and

precision. Happily, the Bureau��s excellent Style Manual achieves

all these goals �� balancing the need to provide enough information about references so that readers can follow a line of argument

to its legal sources with the need to keep the writing as clear and

uncluttered as possible.

This year, the Bureau has revised the Style Manual to update

citation formats, add citation examples, clarify existing rules and

add new rules to keep pace with the rapid growth of electronic

materials and legal research technologies.

Among the many notable additions designed to facilitate

precision and clarity in judicial writings are new or amended

rules clarifying the mandatory elements of initial citations and

omitting unnecessary information in shortened citation to previously cited sources, such as the use of ��supra���� as an element of a

short form citation. Citation formats and examples have been

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provided for new sources of New York authority, including the

Guide to New York Evidence being compiled by the Judicial

Advisory Committee on Evidence established last year. The Style

Manual has been expanded to provide enhanced guidance on

citation of electronic materials and Internet sources. Finally, this

edition reflects the Unified Court System��s policy of recognizing

privacy and safety concerns, including guidance on redaction of

personal identifying and other private information in judicial

writings.

On behalf of our Judiciary and the entire legal profession, I

extend my appreciation and gratitude to the Law Reporting

Bureau for its always competent and diligent work, and for its

responsiveness and commitment to excellence in continually

updating the phenomenal resource that is the Official Style

Manual.

iv

PREFACE TO THE 2017 EDITION

For more than 60 years, the New York Law Reports Style Manual

has been issued by the Law Reporting Bureau with the approval of

the Court of Appeals as a guide for New York judges and their staffs

in the preparation of opinions for publication in the Official

Reports. It also prescribes the style applied by the Law Reporting

Bureau in editing the opinions for publication in the Reports.

Although not binding on them, many lawyers find the Manual

useful in preparing papers for submission to New York courts. The

Style Manual provides a guide for opinion writers and editors in

five primary areas: citation, abbreviation, capitalization, quotation, and word style and usage. In addition, it specifies for editors

the format and typographical standards for the Reports. Moreover,

the Style Manual provides guidance to assist the courts with

applying the Unified Court System��s policy to protect the personal

privacy and safety interests that are implicated in Internet publication of judicial opinions. This Edition continues to add and adapt

style rules and policies that promote modern practices emphasizing clarity, brevity and use of plain English in judicial decisions; it

also facilitates broad access to the law by encouraging citation of

reliable, official sources that are publicly available online at no

cost.

General References

This Manual supplements general citation and style authorities,

providing more detail on New York materials and a more specific

focus on judicial opinions. General authorities should be consulted

on matters not covered by this Manual. These authorities include:

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (20th ed 2015)

Coleen Barger, ALWD Guide to Legal Citation (6th ed 2017)

Bryan A. Garner, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style (3d ed

2013)

The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed 2017)

Webster��s Third New International Dictionary (2002), and Webster��s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged Online

()

Black��s Law Dictionary (10th ed 2014)

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