legal-research federal-courts legal-citation
Is this a proper Bluebook citation for a Court of Federal Claims case?
<p>I am a forensic psychologist who happens to prefer Bluebook citation style over APA style. I mention this fact because while I have some experience using Bluebook citation style, it pales in comparison to the experience and knowledge of most of you.</p>

<p>I use the online <a href="https://www.legalbluebook.com/Public/TwentiethEdition.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bluebook (20th ed.)</a>. I have read Rule 10 - Cases (p. 94 in the print version) several times. But I am not sure how to cite a published decision from the Court of Federal Claims. Here is my best guess, which I assume contains errors:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><em>See:</em> <em>QTC Medical Services, Inc. v. United States</em>, Fed. Cl., No. 17-80C, Memorandum Opinion and Order, filed under seal 23 June 2017;
  reissued for publication 12 July 2017.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The court decision is at <a href="https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2017cv0080-69-0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2017cv0080-69-0</a> (PDF)</p>

<p>Please let me know what I need to change to make this citation correct. </p>

<p>Reissued for publication doesn't come up very often and I don't believe that there is a specific rule for it, so there is a certain amount of discretion in how that is stated. I would cite it as follows:</p>

<p><em>QTC Medical Servs., Inc. v. United States</em>, No. 17-80C, 17-83C (Ct. Cl. June 23, 2017) <em>reissued for publication</em> (July 12, 2017).</p>

<p>The date of a case is ordinarily the date that it is decided.</p>

<p>If you were making a pin point cite to the seventh page of the case, you would add:</p>

<p><em>QTC Medical Servs., Inc. v. United States</em>, No. 17-80C, 17-83C, slip op. at 7 (Ct. Cl. June 23, 2017) <em>reissued for publication</em> (July 12, 2017).</p>

<p>Either way, the citation would have to be updated when it was reported in an official reporter or on Westlaw or Lexis if you had access to those sources. </p>

<p>As of July 31, I was not able to locate a citation to this particular case in an official reporter, which usually lags a few months. </p>

<p>I don't have access to Lexis and I'm not sure that this search would be within my plan on Westlaw, so I haven't confirmed either of those (I usually use a "budget" legal research system called "Casemaker").</p>
