PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/State court case

How to Cite a State Court Case in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a state court case starts with the court as a government author, like Missouri State, Supreme Court, then gives the case name in italics, the reporter you read it in, in italics (like South Western Reporter, Second Series), vol. and the volume, the year of the decision, and pp. and the pages. MLA names one reporter, not every parallel citation. The in-text citation names the court and the page: (California State, Supreme Court 442).

The format

State Name State, Court. Name v. Name. Reporter Name, # Series, vol. #, Year, pp. #–#.

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 30, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Have the case's citation from a casebook, a textbook, or a court's website? Paste it into PERRLA's reference search, like Sermchief v. Gonzales, 660 S.W.2d 683 (Mo. 1983). PERRLA reads the case name, the volume, the reporter, the page, the court, and the year. When it finds the case on CourtListener, a free online library of court opinions, it adds a link to the opinion and can add parallel citations from other reporters. If you read the case somewhere else, delete the link before you save.

Then check what it filled in. MLA needs the court, because the court is the author: if Deciding Court is empty, type the court's full name or just the state, like Supreme Court of California or California, and PERRLA writes California State, Supreme Court. Type the state too, not Supreme Court alone, or the entry loses its state. The legal citation has no last page, so add it in Case Ending Page Number. PERRLA's MLA entry names one reporter, so keep only the reporter you read.

Adding one by hand? Choose US State Court Cases (under Legal References). Type the Case Name, then the Volume, Series, and Page under Case Location, using the reporter's abbreviation or its full name, and the Case Ending Page Number. Fill in the Deciding Court and the Year. Read the opinion online? Add the URL (Web address) and the site's name in Website Name. PERRLA spells the reporter out in italics (S.W.2d becomes South Western Reporter, Second Series), turns a court abbreviation like Mo. or Cal. Ct. App. into the court's name, and adds pp. and the page range (pp. 683–94).

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Author: the court

MLA treats the court that decided the case as the author: the state, a comma, and the court, then a period. The MLA Style Center's own state court example writes the state as Minnesota State.

Missouri State, Supreme Court.

For a lower court, name that court instead: California State, Court of Appeal. Don't use the legal abbreviation (Mo., Cal. Ct. App.) here. It belongs to legal citation, not to MLA's author element.

2. Case name

Give the case name in italics, v. included, followed by a period. MLA italicizes case names in the Works Cited entry and in your sentences.

Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California.

Use the short name. Keep the first party on each side, give a person's surname only, and drop "et al." and a leading "The." The opinion's heading reads "Vitaly Tarasoff et al. v. The Regents of the University of California et al." Cases about one person's care or rights often have no "v." at all: they're named In re ("in the matter of") and the person, as in In re Quinlan. In re is part of the italic name.

3. Reporter and volume

The reporter you read the decision in is the container. Write its full name in italics, followed by a comma, then vol. and the volume number.

California Reports, Third Series, vol. 17,

Many state cases are published in more than one reporter: the state's own reporter, like California Reports, and a regional one that covers several states, like the Pacific Reporter. Legal citation lists all of them (17 Cal. 3d 425, 551 P.2d 334). MLA cites the version you consulted, so name just the one you read. Spell the abbreviation out: S.W.2d is the South Western Reporter, Second Series, and N.J. is New Jersey Reports.

4. Year

Give the year the court decided the case, then a comma. The full date, day first, is fine too: 1 July 1976.

1976,

Use the year of the decision you're citing. The California Supreme Court first decided Tarasoff in 1974, then reheard it and issued the 1976 decision that replaced the first one. The 1976 decision is the one to cite.

5. Pages

Write pp. and the pages the decision fills, first to last, then a period. Past 99, the second number keeps only its last two digits, unless more are needed to make the range clear.

pp. 425–64.

The legal citation gives only the first page (425). For MLA, look up the last page too. The Caselaw Access Project shows the reporter's page numbers through the whole opinion.

6. Website and URL

Read the opinion on a website, like CourtListener or a court's own site? MLA wants the version you used, so add the site as a second container: its name in italics, a comma, and the URL without https://, then a period.

CourtListener, www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1677219/sermchief-v-gonzales/.

Read it in Westlaw, Lexis, or Nexis Uni through your library? The database is the second container: its name in italics, then the permanent link it gives the case, if it gives one.

Examples

A case in one regional reporter: Sermchief

In Sermchief v. Gonzales, the Supreme Court of Missouri ruled in 1983 that the nurses at a family planning clinic were practicing nursing under the state's nursing law, not practicing medicine without a license. Nurse practitioner students cite it in courses on scope of practice. It's published only in the South Western Reporter, Second Series, on pages 683 to 694. The student typed the court's full name, Supreme Court of Missouri.

  • In-text citation(Missouri State, Supreme Court)
  • Narrative citationIn Sermchief v. Gonzales, the Supreme Court of Missouri ruled that …

Quoting a case: Tarasoff

In 1976, the Supreme Court of California held that a therapist who determines that a patient poses a serious danger of violence to another person has a duty to use reasonable care to protect the intended victim. It's the duty-to-warn case that nursing, psychology, and counseling students meet in ethics courses. This student read it in California Reports, the court's own reporter, pages 425 to 464. The line "The protective privilege ends where the public peril begins" is on page 442.

  • In-text citation(California State, Supreme Court 442)
  • Narrative citationIn Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, the Supreme Court of California concluded that "[t]he protective privilege ends where the public peril begins" (442).

A case with no v.: In re Quinlan

The Supreme Court of New Jersey's 1976 decision on Karen Ann Quinlan, a young woman in a persistent vegetative state who depended on a respirator, is a cornerstone of end-of-life ethics in nursing. This student read it in the court's own reporter, New Jersey Reports, pages 10 to 55. The student typed the court as N.J., and PERRLA wrote out the court's name.

  • In-text citation(New Jersey State, Supreme Court)
  • Narrative citationThe Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled in In re Quinlan that …

A state appellate court case: Bouvia

In 1986, the California Court of Appeal ruled that Elizabeth Bouvia, a competent adult patient, had the right to have a nasogastric feeding tube removed that was placed against her will. It's a lower court, not the state's highest, so the author is the Court of Appeal. It's in California Appellate Reports, Third Series, pages 1127 to 1148. The opinion's heading names "The Superior Court of Los Angeles County," and the case is cited by its short name, Bouvia v. Superior Court.

  • In-text citation(California State, Court of Appeal)
  • Narrative citationIn Bouvia v. Superior Court, the California Court of Appeal held that …

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation points to the first words of the Works Cited entry, so for a state case it names the court. Add the page when you quote or point to a passage, with no comma before it.

  • Parenthetical: (Missouri State, Supreme Court)
  • With a page: (California State, Supreme Court 442)
  • More than one case from the same court: add a short form of the case name in italics: (California State, Supreme Court, Tarasoff 442). An In re name is already short, so it stays whole: In re Quinlan.
  • Court and case in your sentence: the smoothest choice, and it leaves only the page for the parentheses: In Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, the Supreme Court of California concluded that "[t]he protective privilege ends where the public peril begins" (442).

After you've named a case once, you can call it by its short form in your sentences, like the Tarasoff decision. Keep the italics.

Common mistakes

  • Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, 17 Cal. 3d 425, 131 Cal. Rptr. 14, 551 P.2d 334 (1976).California State, Supreme Court. Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California. California Reports, Third Series, vol. 17, 1976, pp. 425–64.That's the legal citation, the form APA uses. MLA follows its own template: the court as author, the case name in italics, and one reporter, the one you read, spelled out.
  • Sermchief v. Gonzales. South Western Reporter, Second Series, vol. 660, 1983, pp. 683–94.Missouri State, Supreme Court. Sermchief v. Gonzales. South Western Reporter, Second Series, vol. 660, 1983, pp. 683–94.The court is the author in MLA, even for a state's highest court. Leaving it out starts the entry with the case name.
  • S.W.2d, vol. 660,South Western Reporter, Second Series, vol. 660,MLA writes the container's title in full. Reporter abbreviations belong to legal citation.
  • (Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, 1976)(California State, Supreme Court 442)That's APA. An MLA in-text citation starts with the first words of the Works Cited entry, the court, and it takes a page, not a year.
  • Vitaly Tarasoff et al. vs. The Regents of the University of CaliforniaTarasoff v. Regents of the University of CaliforniaUse the surname of the first party on each side, drop "et al." and a leading "The," write v., not vs., and italicize the name.

Quick checklist

  • The court as author: State Name State, then the court
  • Short case name in italics, with v. (or In re)
  • One reporter, the one you read, its full name in italics
  • vol. and the volume, then the year of the decision
  • pp. and the pages the whole decision fills
  • Website in italics and the URL, if you read it online
  • In text: the court, plus the page if you have one

Questions students ask

Do I need parallel citations for a state court case in MLA?

No. Legal citation lists every reporter a case appears in, but MLA cites the version you consulted. Name the one reporter you read, spelled out in italics. If you read the case on a website instead, cite the website version.

Is the case name italicized in MLA?

Yes, everywhere: in the Works Cited entry, in your sentences, and in parentheses. Italicize the whole name, v. or In re included.

How do I find the reporter, volume, and pages for a case?

Look at the top of the opinion, or search the case name on CourtListener or the Caselaw Access Project, which list each citation for a case. A citation like 660 S.W.2d 683 gives the volume (660), the reporter (S.W.2d), and the first page (683). The Caselaw Access Project shows the reporter's page numbers through the opinion, so you can find the last page too.

What if the case was appealed?

Cite the decision you read, with its own court and year. Darling v. Charleston Community Memorial Hospital, for example, was decided by an Illinois appellate court in 1964 and by the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1965. Each decision is its own work, so each one you use gets its own entry.

Can I cite a summary of the case instead, like a case brief website?

Cite what you used. If you read the court's opinion, cite the case as shown here. If you only read a website's summary, cite that page as a webpage, with its own title and author.

How is a state court case different from a U.S. Supreme Court case in MLA?

The parts are the same: the court as author, the case name, the reporter, the volume, the year, and the pages. A Supreme Court case starts with United States, Supreme Court and is in the United States Reports. A state case starts with the state and its court, and it's in that state's reporter or a regional one.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, containers, and government authors) and chapter 6 (in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's post Documenting Legal Works in MLA Style (follow the MLA template for court cases; cite the version you consulted; italicize case names; short names from the first party on each side; its state court example, Minnesota State, Court of Appeals; and its reporter-as-container Supreme Court example). Example sources verified against each opinion in the Caselaw Access Project (Harvard Law School Library) and on CourtListener: court, decision date, reporter, and first and last page.

PERRLA builds the state court entry from a pasted case citation, with the court named as the author and the reporter spelled out in full.

Try PERRLA free for 7 days