• Follow General Abbreviations (ALWD Appendix 3) when listing states, cities, districts, dates, etc.
• Case names are italicized (Smith v. Waukegan Park Dist.) or underlined (Smith v. Waukegan Park Dist.). (ALWD 1.1)
• Do not italicize or underline the comma after the case name. (ALWD 1.4)
• Abbreviate versus to "v."
• Place a period after every citation. All citations are complete sentences.

[Case name], [official reporter volume number] [official reporter abbreviation] [initial page number], [unofficial regional reporter volume number] [unofficial regional reporter abbreviation] [initial page number] (Date).

Smith v. Waukegan Park Dist., 231 Ill. 2d 111, 896 N.E.2d 232 (2008).

• List official IL reporter (Ill.) first, followed by the unofficial reporter (N.E.2d).

Tip: You can tell this is an IL Supreme Court case in two ways, one is the "Ill." indicates Illinois Supreme Court, and second is when nothing but a year is in the final parenthesis. These things indicate that case was decided by the highest court in a particular jurisdiction. Please note that also applies to U.S. Supreme Court cases, where "U.S." would indicate the highest court, as would a date with nothing else in the final parenthesis.

In Illinois

[Case name], [official reporter volume number] [official reporter abbreviation] [initial page number]

[unofficial regional reporter volume number] [unofficial regional reporter abbreviation] [initial page] ([court abbreviation] [date]).

People v. Gonzalez, 385 Ill. App. 3d 15, 895 N.E.2d 982 (1st Dist. 2008).

• It is customary to use "People" in IL when referring to the state of Illinois. (ALWD 12.2)
• "1st Dist. 2008" means the case was decided in 2008 in the First Judicial District of IL.

Caveat: The above citation is what you will commonly see in practice in Illinois and complies with the Illinois Supreme Court Rule, which, pursuant to ALWD, trumps the strict ALWD format. It does not comply, however, with the strict ALWD format, which cites this case as: People v. Gonzalez, 895 N.E.2d 982 (Ill. App. 1st Dist. 2008). ALWD says the writer should follow local rules, but in the absence of local rules, the writer should only provide one reporter which should generally be the regional reporter (N.E.2d). The "Ill. App." is included in the parenthesis with the district and date, because, in excluding the official reporter, the deciding court is no longer identifiable based on the reporter abbreviation.

Outside of Illinois

[Case name], [unofficial regional reporter volume number] [unofficial regional reporter abbreviation] [initial page] ([court abbreviation] [date]).

People v. Gonzalez, 895 N.E.2d 982 (Ill. App. 1st Dist. 2008).

• Use the strict ALWD citation format above when outside of Illinois, unless the rules of that jurisdiction specify otherwise.
• Note the addition of Ill. App. in the parenthesis. This is required because, in removing the official reporter, the reader can no longer readily identify the state and court from the citation without this information.

Opinions are not published at the trial level due to the massive volume of cases heard every year.

Beginning July 1, 2011, Illinois switched to a public domain format. All cases decided July 1, 2011 and after must be cited in the new format according to IL Supreme Court Rules 6 and 23.

[Case name], [year of decision] [court abbreviation] [unique identifier number derived from docket number].

People v. Jones, 2011 IL 102345.

People v. Jones, 2011 IL App (3d) 101234.

To pinpoint paragraphs:

People v. Jones, 2011 IL App (2d) 101234, ¶ 21.
People v. Jones, 2011 IL App (2d) 101234, ¶ ¶ 21-23.
People v. Jones, 2011 IL App (2d) 101234, ¶ ¶ 39,64.

[Volume number] [code] [section number] ([publisher] [year of publication]).

765 ILCS 130 (West 2012).

• Correct format for the Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS), the official code in IL.
• The Illinois Supreme Court style manual, requires the publisher, "West," be identified in the parenthetical. Sup. Ct., Ill. and Reptr of Dec. , Ill., Style Manual for the Supreme and Appellate Courts of Illinois (Ill. 2010 Rev. 2012) available at http://www.state.il.us/court/StyleManual/SupCrt_StyleManual.pdf

Tip: The numbering systems in both the Illinois Compiled Statutes and West's Smith-Hurd Illinois Compiled Statutes Annotated are conformed. The citation to the annotated code is the same as the citation to the official code. Use ILCS for both.

Caveat: The above citation is what you will commonly see in practice in Illinois. It does not comply exactly with the ALWD format, which cites this statute as: 765 Ill. Comp. Stat. 130 (2008). Note in the strict ALWD format, the "Ill. Comp. Stat." replaces "ILCS."