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List of legal abbreviations

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This is a list of abbreviations used in law and legal documents. It is common practice in legal documents to cite other publications by using standard abbreviations for the title of each source. Abbreviations may also be found for common words or legal phrases. Such citations and abbreviations are found in court decisions, statutes, regulations, journal articles, books, and other documents. Below is a basic list of very common abbreviations. Because publishers adopt different practices regarding how abbreviations are printed, one may find abbreviations with or without periods for each letter. For example, the Code of Federal Regulations may appear abbreviated as "C.F.R." or just as "CFR".

Symbol

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  • © or [Copr.] or C — Copyright (meaning someone claims ownership of the text, book, music, software, etc.)
  • ® — Registered Trademark (typically a word or phrase identifying a company or product, e.g. Coca-Cola)
  • — Trademark (interim symbol used after an application for Trademark protection has been filed with the appropriate trademark office (in U.S. - USPTO), but before it has been approved)
  • (Pilcrow) — Paragraph
  • ¶¶ — Multiple Paragraphs
  • §section
  • §§ — Multiple Sections
  • Π (Greek letter Pi) or PPlaintiff
  • Δ (Greek letter Delta) or DDefendant
  • ¢ — Claim

0–9

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through

A

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B

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C

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D

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E

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F

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G

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H

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I

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J

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K

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L

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M

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N

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O

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P

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Q

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  • QC – Queen's Counsel (United Kingdom and Commonwealth)
  • QDRO — Qualified Domestic Relations Order

R

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  • R — Rex or Regina
  • RCW — Revised Code of Washington
  • R.E. or R/E — Real Estate
  • ReIn re (United Kingdom and Commonwealth)
  • Reh'g — Rehearing
  • Relv. — Relevant
  • Rescr. — Rescriptum
  • Resp. — Responsum
  • Resp't — Respondent
  • Rev'd — reversed
  • Rev. Proc. — Revenue Procedure (published in IRB)
  • Rev. Rul. — Revenue Ruling (published in IRB)
  • RJ – Restorative justice
  • R.O.I – Release of Information
    • Canon law: Regulæ Juris of Boniface VIII (sometimes abbreviated "RI")
    • Common law: Recurring Judgement. (published in All In Reports)
  • R.I.A.A. — Reports of International Arbitral Awards

S

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T

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  • T.C. — Reported decisions of the United States Tax Court
  • T.D. — Treasury Decision
  • or TM — Trademark (such as a word or phrase identifying a company or product)

U

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V

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  • v. — versus. Used when plaintiff is listed first on a case title. John Doe v. Richard Roe.

See also "ad." above. "vs." is used in most scholarly writing in other fields, but "v." alone in legal writing.

W

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X

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Y

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Z

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Beal, New Commentary xxii
  2. ^ "See, e.g., Mathis v. McDonald, 834 F. 3d 1347 (Fed. Cir., 2016) (denial of hearing en banc), cert. denied, Mathis v. Shulkin, U.S. No. 16-677, slip op. (Sotomayor, J., statement) (June 26, 2017)" (PDF). United States Supreme Court. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
  3. ^ For more information on official, unofficial, and authenticated online state laws and regulations, see Matthews & Baish, State-by-State Authentication of Online Legal Resources, American Association of Law Libraries, 2007. Archived 2010-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "K". Wex. Cornell Law School. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  5. ^ Beal, New Commentary xxvii
  6. ^ "U.S. Reports". www.supremecourt.gov. Retrieved 2021-10-09.
  • Beal, John P. et al., eds. New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law (New York/Mahway, NJ: Paulist Press, 2000).

Further reading

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