Massachusetts legal writing and citations

A collection of web and print resources on reading and writing legal citations.

• For information on motor vehicle citations, see our page on traffic violations.

If you are unable to find the information you are looking for, or if you have a specific question, please contact our law librarians for assistance.

Writing legal citations

Supreme Judicial Court style manual, SJC Office of the Reporter of Decisions, 2024-2025 edition.
Citation and writing style guidelines for Massachusetts and Federal primary law and popular secondary sources.

The University of Chicago manual of legal citation (The Maroonbook), The University of Chicago Law Review, 2022 edition.
"[T]he Maroonbook, as this manual is commonly called, offers a simple, malleable framework for citation, one which authors and editors can tailor to suit their purposes."

Reading legal citations

General guide

Reading legal citations, Boston College Law Library.
This is a great source on how to read legal citations in general.

Quick guide to understanding Massachusetts citations

The information below is a short overview of common Massachusetts citation forms and what they mean.

Statutes

Session laws

Session laws (also known as "Acts and Resolves") are organized chronologically in the order that they are signed into law. Citations to session laws will typically look like one of the following:

• St. 2022, c. 126
• Chapter 126 of the Acts of 2022

These both refer to the 126^th bill passed in the year 2022.

General Laws

Massachusetts General Laws are session laws of a permanent and general nature that have been signed into law and codified by legal topic. Citations to the General Laws will typically look like one of the following:

• G. L. c. 93A, § 1 (Official set)
• M. G. L. A. c. 93A, § 1 (Massachusetts General Laws Annotated, published by Thomson/West)
• A. L. M. c. 93A, § 1 (Annotated Laws of Massachusetts, published by LexisNexis)

All of these refer to the same Massachusetts General Law that appears in section 1 of chapter 93A. They have different abbreviations because they are published by different legal companies.

Court decisions

Note

Decisions issued by trial courts (ex. Superior Court, Land Court, Housing Court, etc.) are also published in reporters in print and through online databases. For the sake of simplicity, only examples from the SJC and Appeals Court are included below. For more examples of Massachusetts case citations, see The Blue Book listed in the "Print sources" section below.

Official reporters

Massachusetts appellate decisions are published in “reporters.” Each type of reporter corresponds to the court that issued the opinion. Here are just two examples of appellate decision citations:

• Tyree v. Keane, 400 Mass. 1 (1987)

The Tyree case is found starting on page 1 in volume 400 of the Massachusetts Reports and was issued by the Supreme Judicial Court in 1987.

• Comm. v. Thomas, 19 Mass.App.Ct. 1 (1984)

The Thomas case is found starting on page 1 in volume 19 of the Massachusetts Appeals Court Reports and was issued by the Appeals Court in 1984.

Unofficial reporters

There is also an unofficial reporter for Massachusetts cases called the Northeastern Reporter. This unofficial reporter (published by Thomson/West) contains cases issued by various courts in different states located in the Northeast region of the United States. A citation to the Northeastern Reporter is called a “parallel citation” because it directs the reader to a different book for the same case.

The parallel citations for the Tyree case and the Thomas case may look like the following:

• Tyree v. Keene, 400 Mass. 1, 507 N.E.2d 742 (1987)
• Comm. v. Thomas, 19 Mass.App.Ct. 1, 471 N.E.2d 376 (1984)

How to find court decisions

Learn more about online resources where you can find published Massachusetts court decisions.

Regulations

State agency regulations are published in the Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR). Usually, references to Massachusetts regulations will look like:

• 102 CMR 2.00

This citation refers to Title 102 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, chapter 2.00. The title number indicates the state agency that issued the regulations. Title 102, for example, indicates that the regulations were issued by the Department of Early Education and Care.

Print sources

Legal citations

ALWD (Association of Legal Writing Directors) guide to legal citation, 7^th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2021.

The Bluebook: A uniform system of citation, 21^st ed., Harvard Law Review Association, 2020.

Legal citation in a nutshell, West, 2021.
Extensively covers Bluebook and ALWD forms.

Prince's dictionary of legal abbreviations: A reference guide for attorneys, legal secretaries, paralegals, and law students, 7^th ed., W.S. Hein, 2017.

Prince's dictionary of legal citations: A reference guide for attorneys, legal secretaries, paralegals, and law students, 10^th ed., W.S. Hein, 2021.

User's guide to the Bluebook, 19^th ed., W.S. Hein, 2010.
The 20^th ed. (2015) is also available on the Internet Archive. Users must have a free Internet Archive account and select "borrow" to view this book.

Legal writing

Aspen handbook for legal writers: A practical reference, 5^th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2021.

Briefs and beyond: Persuasive legal writing, Wolters Kluwer, 2021.

Legal reasoning and legal writing, 9^th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2021.

Legal research and writing for paralegals, 10^th ed., Aspen Publishing, 2024.

Legal writing: A judge’s perspective on the science and rhetoric of the written word, ABA, 2020. (eBook available with library card)

Legal writing and analysis in a nutshell, West, 2017.

The Redbook: A manual on legal style, 4^th ed., West Academic Publishing, 2018.

Thinking like a writer: A lawyer’s guide to effective writing and editing, 4^th ed., PLI Press, 2021.

Last updated:	June 4, 2025