Citation Guides · New York
How to Cite New York Statutes
New York statutes are cited in a fixed format that identifies the code and section. The pattern below is the standard Bluebook form used in briefs, memos, and academic writing; always check the local court rules for jurisdiction-specific variations.
The format
N.Y. [Subject] Law § xxx (McKinney year)
N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 5-701
The pieces, in order
- Code name. New York's compiled statutes are cited as shown in the pattern above. The abbreviation is fixed; do not improvise (N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 5-701 is the accepted form).
- Section number. The § symbol plus the section as New York numbers it. Copy the punctuation exactly: hyphens, periods, and colons are part of the number.
- Parenthetical. Academic Bluebook style adds the publisher and year in parentheses (McKinney). Practitioner filings commonly omit the parenthetical, and courts accept the bare cite.
New York conventions to know
New York statutes are organized into named consolidated laws (General Obligations Law, Real Property Law, Penal Law, and so on), conventionally cited to the McKinney annotated edition: N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 226-b (McKinney); N.Y. Penal Law § 155.05 (McKinney). Procedure rules cite as N.Y. C.P.L.R. 214 (McKinney) with no section symbol. The Court of Appeals is New York's highest court, and its decisions appear in the official New York Reports (N.Y.3d), so a New York high-court case cite looks like: 12 N.Y.3d 45.
Common mistakes
- Improvising the code abbreviation. Style manuals fix the form shown above; variants like "New York Code Ann." spelled differently are flagged by citation checkers and editors.
- Dropping or altering the internal punctuation of the section number. The hyphens, colons, and periods encode the code's structure.
- Citing a repealed or renumbered section. Codes are recompiled continuously; verify the section is current before filing.
Citing New York court cases
New York appellate decisions appear in the North Eastern Reporter (currently N.E.3d), the regional reporter covering New York. Because the regional reporter spans multiple states, the court parenthetical must identify the court: a decision of the state's highest court is cited (N.Y. [year]). Some New York courts also have official or public-domain citation formats; check the court's rules for whether a parallel citation is required.
Check your citations against real law
CiteLaw's AI Navigator verifies New York citations against a corpus of real cases, statutes, rules, and regulations: it confirms the authority exists, the format is right, and the law is still good. General chatbots can invent citations; CiteLaw checks them.
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Formats follow standard Bluebook conventions. Individual courts may impose their own citation rules; always check the local rules of the court you are filing in. CiteLaw provides legal information, not legal advice.