Precisely 364 days ago, Kip previewed  the coming of universal citations.  Twenty-eight days remain until universal citations assume a starring role in judicial opinions and briefs.   And to help practitioners model their own trendsetting citations, the Supreme Court of North Carolina has released a Universal Citation factsheet.

Key features include (1) no longer needing the regional reporter reference when citing to North Carolina opinions filed on or after January 1, 2021, (2) replacing parallel pinpoint citations with the opinion’s paragraph number, and (3) omitting the citation’s year parenthetical (the opinion’s year is now embedded in the universal citation).  Two examples follow:

State v. Smith, 375 N.C. 152, 2020-NCSC-45, ¶ 16.

State v. Smith, 255 N.C. App. 43, 2020-NCCOA-118, ¶ 23.

I don’t know about you, but universal citations may preserve my aging eyesight.  It is becoming a struggle to find pinpoint citations hidden in the middle of lengthy opinions. So hasta la vista, *12 and **21.

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