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Simple English definitions for legal terms
Order of signals
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A quick definition of Order of signals:
Order of signals: The way we organize the sentences that we use to cite sources in formal legal writing. We use different words to introduce each sentence, and we put them in a specific order. The order is: no signal, for example, according to, see, see also, compare with, contrary to, but see, but compare with, and see generally. We put all the sources that have the same introduction word in one sentence, separated by semicolons. We only use each introduction word once, at the beginning of its own sentence.
A more thorough explanation:
Definition: The order in which citation sentences should be arranged when immediately following each other. In formal legal writing, citation sentences should be arranged based on the signals that introduce them, in the following order of precedence:
- No signal
- E.g.,
- Accord
- See
- See also
- Cf.
- Compare with
- Contra
- But see
- But cf.
- See generally
All sources falling under the same signal should be put in a single citation sentence and separated by semicolons. Thus, each signal should appear only once in a given citation - at the start of its own citation sentence.
Example: In a legal brief, the following citation sentences might be used:
- The plaintiff argues that the defendant breached the contract. See Smith v. Jones, 123 F.3d 456 (2d Cir. 2010).
- Accord Johnson v. Smith, 456 F.2d 789 (3d Cir. 2012).
- But see Brown v. Green, 789 F.2d 123 (4th Cir. 2013) (holding that the defendant did not breach the contract).
- See generally Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 123 (1981).
In this example, the first citation sentence has no signal, so it comes first. The second citation sentence has the signal "Accord," so it comes next. The third citation sentence has the signal "But see," so it comes after "Accord." The fourth citation sentence has the signal "See generally," so it comes last.
This order of signals helps to organize the citations and make them easier to follow for the reader.