How to Cite a Court Case in APA

Case citations follow the legal guides: AGLC4 in Australia, OSCOLA in the UK and the Bluebook in the US. APA and MLA borrow the legal form. This page follows APA 7th edition, 7th edition (2020).

APA format for a court case

APA 7th edition

References entry

Mabo v Queensland (No 2), 175 CLR 1 (HCA 1992).

In-text citation

(Mabo v Queensland (No 2), 1992, p. 42)

Style: APA 7th edition

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Preview: APA 7th edition

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    Where to find the details

    • Cite the authorised report series when the case is reported in one (CLR for the High Court of Australia).

    Required in most styles: case name, year.

    Cite a court case in another style

    Other sources

    Questions

    What do I need to cite a court case in APA?

    At minimum: case name, year. Cite the authorised report series when the case is reported in one (CLR for the High Court of Australia).

    What does a court case look like in APA?

    References entry: Mabo v Queensland (No 2), 175 CLR 1 (HCA 1992). In-text citation: (Mabo v Queensland (No 2), 1992, p. 42)

    Is this free?

    Yes. No account and no limit. Your bibliography is saved in this browser only, and you can export it to Word, BibTeX, RIS or CSL-JSON.

    Citations are formatted by citeproc-js by Frank Bennett (CPAL-1.0, or AGPL-1.0), the engine behind Zotero and Mendeley, running the official Citation Style Language styles (10,863 styles, commit 2e93558) and locales (commit a89adec), used under CC BY-SA 3.0. AGLC4 citations use the LexIntellect AGLC4 engine, checked against the Guide's worked examples. Always check a citation against the manual or your institution's guide before you submit.