Legal Abbreviations

Whether you are cite-checking a journal article or you run across an unfamiliar citation while reading a case or other legal document, at some point you will probably need help in deciphering a legal abbreviation. The following print and online sources will provide the meaning of many of the legal acronyms and abbreviations you are likely to encounter:

• Bieber’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations - contains an extensive range of acronyms and abbreviations found in reporters, legal treatises, law reviews, legal encyclopedias, law dictionaries, and other legal documents. Also includes abbreviations for many foreign periodicals, reporters, and other publications cited in American legal literature.

• World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations - legal abbreviations arranged by language and by country. Appendix A provides legal abbreviations used before 1607, including those found in Roman, medieval, canon, and English common law. Appendix B provides legal abbreviations by subject.

• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations - provides abbreviations for English language legal publications from the British Isles, the Commonwealth, and the U.S., with some foreign language law publications included as well. Can be searched by abbreviation or by title of publication.

• The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation - the tables of abbreviations, listed in the blue pages, include abbreviations for legal periodicals, court names, judges and officials, and the reporters, codes, and other primary sources for U.S. and foreign jurisdictions.

• Black’s Law Dictionary - Appendix A consists of a list of legal abbreviations cited in American cases, books, articles, and texts.

J. Fusaris