II. The Judicial System
Citations to cases, administrative agency decisions, and other judicially issued opinions are governed by the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure. Separate and distinct rules exist for each court system, state and federal, and within that, each court level. We will first review Florida judicial citations generally, and then cover federal judicial citations.
a. State
i. Florida Supreme Court
The proper citation for Florida Supreme Court decisions is dependent upon the year in which the opinion was issued. Generally, an opinion of the Florida Supreme Court will appear:
Smith v. Jones, 700 So. 2d 1350 (Fla. 1999).
In this citation, the 79 represents the volume of the Southern Reporter in which the case is found. “So. 2d” represents the reporter, specifically, the Second series of the Southern Reporter. The first series utilizes an “So.” in its place. The third entry, 1350, represents the page of the reporter at which the case is found. Finally, in the parentheses, first is the Court, “Fla.” for the Florida Supreme Court, and second, the year in which the opinion was issued, 1999. This same general citations format which applies to the citations of all state cases.
For cases issued before 1886, “Fla.” was the reporter being utilized and a “Fla” would accordingly replace the “So. 2d” in the citation above
e.g., Smith v. Jones, 79 Fla. 1350 (Fla. 1885).
Between the years of 1887 to 1948, during which time both the “Fla.” and the “So.” reporters were being used, the proper citation includes only the “So.” reporter.
e.g., Smith v. Jones, 76 So. 1350 (Fla. 1936).
For all opinions issued after 1948 which are published in the Southern Reporter, the proper citation form utilizes either So. or So. 2d, depending on the series.
Recent opinions often are not yet published in the reporters. Under such circumstances, one cites to the Florida Law Weekly if possible:
e.g., Jones v. Smith, 25 Fla. L. Weekly S500 (Fla. Oct. 27, 2000).
If the opinion is not in the Florida Law Weekly, then the slip number should be used:
e.g., Jones v. Smith, No. 77,653 (Fla. Oct. 27, 2000).
In the case of yet unpublished Court opinions, electronic databases, such as Westlaw and Lexis, should not be utilized except as a last resort. Unpublished opinions, however, may be cited in that form.
ii. Florida District Court of Appeal
Opinions issued by the Florida District Court of Appeals are governed by largely the same rules as opinions of the Florida Supreme Court. A typical citation for a District Court of Appeals would appear:
The cite is identical to the Supreme Court cite, except that the designation of the court is different. The “3d DCA” indicates that the Third District Court of Appeals issued the decision. The same principle would apply in the First (1st):
Second (2d):
Fourth (4th):
and Fifth (5th) districts:
The rules for not yet published and unpublished opinions are likewise the same as those for Supreme Court decisions.
iii. Florida Circuit and County Court
Many opinions from the Circuit and County Courts of Florida are not published. However, some of them appear in the Florida Supplement. When such opinions do appear in the Florida Supplement, Circuit and County Court cases are respectively cited as follows:
Jones v. Smith, 79 Fla. Supp. 1350 (Fla. 11th Cir. Ct. 1999);
Jones v. Smith, 79 Fla. Supp. 1350 (Fla. Dade Cty. Ct. 1999).
Once again, unpublished opinions are governed by the same rules which govern such opinions issued by the Supreme Court.
iv. Administrative Agency Decisions
In all but two instances, which will be discussed shortly, the citation for administrative agencies appears as follows:
The department that issued the opinion is substituted for “Department of Ins.” F.A.L.R. is the reporter in which administrative agency decisions appear; the letters stand for the Florida Administrative Law Reporter.
Special citation forms are applicable to The Public Employees Relations Commission and the Florida Public Service Commission. In the instance of the former, the cite would appear as:
Jones v. School Bd., 7 F.P.E.R. ¶ 2413 (1999).
Decisions from the Florida Public Service Commission are cited as:
In re Application of Jones, 7 F.P.S.C. 2:413 (1999).
Once again, the first number represents the volume and the sequence of letters represent the reporters. In the former citation, the second number employed represents the paragraph of the volume in which the particular opinion appears. In the latter citation, the number before the colon represents the column and the number after the colon represents the page number.
b. Federal
i. US Supreme Court
Cases decided by the United States Supreme Court appear in several different reporters, including the United States Reports, the Supreme Court Reporter, The Lawyer’s Edition, United States Law Week, and Florida Law Weekly Federal. If a particular opinion is cited in all the aforementioned reporters, a party should first choose the United States Reports,
e.g., Jones v. Smith, 530 U.S. 1350 (2000).
In the absence of the opinion being published in the United States Reports, one should cite the next available reporter in the order in which they are listed above.
e.g., Jones v. Smith, 162 S. Ct. 756 (2000);
Jones v. Smith, 147 L.Ed.2d 597 (2000);
Jones v. Smith, 68 U.S.L.W. 4643 (2000);
Jones v. Smith, 13 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S457 (2000);
ii. Federal Court of Appeals
Opinions issued by the Federal Courts of Appeal are generally cited as
Jones v. Smith, 35 F.3d 440 (11th Cir. 1999).
There are presently three series of the Federal Reporter, F., F.2d and F.3d, in which opinions from the Federal Court of Appeals are published. If an opinion is not cited in the Federal Reporter, the Florida Law Weekly Federal is then cited, which would appear:
. Federal District Courts
Federal District Court opinions are generally cited as:
Jones v. Smith, 35 F. Supp. 2d 1029 (S.D. Fla. 1999).
There are presently two series of reporters F. Supp. and F. Supp. 2d. Additionally, the particular court which issued the decision is indicated as S.D., Southern District, illustrated above, M.D., Middle District and N.D., Northern District, illustrated below:
Jones v. Smith, 35 F. Supp. 2d 1029 (M.D. Fla. 1999);
and
Jones v. Smith, 35 F. Supp. 2d 1029 (N.D. Fla. 1999).
