Write On!
Michael R. Smith
Michael R. Smith is a Professor of Law at the University of Wyoming College of Law and the Director of the Center for the Study of Written Advocacy.
Internal Cross-References in Memos and Briefs
Legal writers will often find while writing one section of a legal memo or court brief that they want to refer to a prior or upcoming discussion in the same document, a process called internal cross-referencing. There are two general approaches to internal cross-referencing in legal writing: the "citation sentence" approach and the "text sentence" approach. Although I will discuss these approaches separately, legal writers often use both in a single document.
The "Citation Sentence" Approach to Internal Cross-References
The Bluebook Citation Manual sets out specific guidelines for crafting "citation sentence" internal cross-references in legal writing.[1] In legal practice, this approach applies primarily to formal court briefs, but it can also be applied to legal memoranda within an office if the office culture or the particular circumstance calls for it.
Under this approach, an internal cross-reference stands alone as an independent citation sentence and includes three parts: (1) the introductory signal " See " (capitalized and italicized); (2) the term " supra " or " infra " (in lower case and italicized); and (3) a specific citation to the material that is being referenced.[2] There are no commas or other punctuation between these three parts.
As indicated, this type of internal cross-reference begins with the introductory signal See .3 As is true for all introductory signals, See is italicized.[4]It is also capitalized because it begins the citation sentence.[5]
After the word See, the cross-reference informs the reader on whether the internally-referenced material comes before or comes after the present discussion. If a legal writer wants to refer to a prior discussion within the same document, the writer uses the term " supra " (italicized),[6]which is derived from the Latin word for "above."[7]If a legal writer wants to refer to an upcoming discussion within the same document, the writer uses the term " infra " (italicized),[8] which is derived from the Latin word for "below."[9]
Finally, the cross-reference includes a specific citation to the relevant portion of the document.[10]In practitioner documents, portions of text within the same document are generally referred to by section numbers or page numbers.
Here are some examples of internal cross-references structured as citation sentences that combine these three...
