Getting started with Citrus is as easy as typing your legal brief and using the F2 key to mark your citations as you go. This example will get you started on a sample brief by sampling a small portion of a legal brief about a case involving allegedly threatening speech.

Enter a Full Citation

Begin by starting Microsoft Word 2003 or Word 2007 on a blank document. Then type this opening sentence:

The Court held that the speech could not be considered a true threat.

Now cite the statement to an authority. Whenever you enter a citation, use the F2 key to mark it. For this example, press F2, then the following citation, then F2 again.

F2 Watts v. United States, 394 US 705, 708 (US, 1969). F2

(Later in this example, you will see ways to use abbreviations and shortcuts to enter citations much more quickly.)

When you press F2 a second time to indicate the end of the citation, Citrus will automatically generate a correct Bluebook citation as shown below:

Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705, 708 (1969) (per curiam).

Citrus will automatically apply Bluebook formatting such as underlining the names of the parties. It will also automatically append the notation "(per curiam)" to this legal citation because Watts was published as a per curiam case. In addition to putting the given information into Bluebook format and adding missing information like per curiam, Citrus also automatically removes unnecessary information. Citations to Supreme Court cases that are reported in the U.S. reporter do not need the court name, so Citrus will remove the "US" from the parenthetical.


Automatic Id. Citations in Bluebook Format

Now type this second sentence:

The Court considered the context in which the speech had been delivered and the reaction of the listeners.

Cite to an authority for this sentence. Use a simple Id. cite by pressing F2, typing Id., and pressing F2 to indicate that you are done with the citation.

Id.

When you press F2 to indicate that you are done, Citrus will underline the Id. for you.

Id.


Editing a Document with Citations

After following the steps above, the document with the first two sentences looks like this:

The Court held that the speech could not be considered a true threat. Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705, 708 (1969) (per curiam). The Court considered the context in which the speech had been delivered and the reaction of the listeners. Id.

Now cut the first sentence and its citation. Use either the mouse or your keyboard to highlight the sentence and the citation ("The Court...per curiam)"), then cut that text. Citrus will automatically adjust the remaining legal citations to conform to Bluebook rules, so after you cut the first sentence the document looks like this:

The Court considered the context in which the speech had been delivered and the reaction of the listeners. Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705, 708 (1969) (per curiam).

The Id. cite would have been wrong because the citation in the first sentence to which it referred was deleted when you cut it. To keep your document in correct Bluebook format, Citrus will automatically expand the Id. citation into a full citation.

Move your cursor to the end of the full citation and paste the sentence that you cut at the end of the document. Just as it will automatically turned Id. citations into full legal citations when necessary, Citrus will adjust the full citation following that sentence to an Id. citation as shown below:

The Court considered the context in which the speech had been delivered and the reaction of the listeners. Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705, 708 (1969) (per curiam). The Court held that the speech could not be considered a true threat. Id.



Click here to see how Citrus can manage citations that you have already entered or work with documents that you have created without Citrus.



Click here to see a brief demonstration of Citrus legal citation software automatically managing legal citations.