Citing Slip Opinions from Loislaw
Slip opinions often appear on Loislaw as issued by the court and typically have no volume number or pagination. These opinions may reflect recently acquired documents, destined for eventual print publication; their publication status may be as yet undecided; or they may be designated permanently as "unpublished," never to appear in print. In each of these instances, the opinions do not have a citation that reflects the print pagination; rather, they may be cited with reference to the Loislaw database from which they are retrieved.
An example of Loislaw's publishing format for slip opinions is shown below. Generally, Loislaw displays the case name, docket number, court identifier, and date at the top of slip opinions.
TOMMY LEON PRATT, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.
No. 05-05-00688-CR.
Court of Appeals of Texas, Fifth District, Dallas.
January 3, 2007.
DO NOT PUBLISH.
In the absence of volume numbers and pagination, cite a slip opinion with reference to the case name, docket number, court identifier, date, and the Loislaw database in which the opinion appears.
Pratt v. State, 05-05-00688-CR (Tex.App.-Dallas [5th Dist.] 1-3-2007) (Loislaw, Texas Case Law).
For further guidance on citing slip opinions or unpublished decisions, see The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation R10.1, R10.8.1 (Columbia Law Review Ass'n et al. eds., 18th ed. 2005). See especially R10.9(a)(ii) at 99 and R18.1.1 at 152 for Loislaw electronic database citations. See also ALWD & Darby Dickerson, ALWD Citation Manual 12.18, 12.21(d), 12.21(e) (3d ed., Aspen Publishers 2006).