Write On!, 1221 WYBJ, Vol. 44 No. 6. 42

• Author: Michael R. Smith
• Position: Vol. 44 6 Pg. 42

Write On!

No. Vol. 44 No. 6 Pg. 42

Wyoming Bar Journal

December, 2021

The Three Uses of the Accord Signal in Legal Citations - Part 2

Michael R. Smith

University of Wyoming College of Law Laramie, Wyoming

In my last edition of this column, I began a discussion of the three uses of the accord introductory signal in legal citation.^[1]As we saw there, the Bluebook legal citation manual states that the accord signal is used when two or more sources state or clearly support the proposition, but the text quotes or refers to only one; the other sources are then introduced by “accord.” Similarly, the law of one jurisdiction may be cited as being in accord with the law of another.^[2]

As this language indicates, the accord signal is used first of all to introduce in a single citation sentence additional supporting authority after indicating the source of a quote, and it is that use of accord that I thoroughly covered in my last column. Here, I explain the other two uses of accord.

Use 2: To Introduce Additional Supporting Authority After a Text Sentence Specifically Refers to One Supporting Authority

Te second use of the accord signal is to introduce–in a free-standing citation sentence–additional supporting authority for a stated proposition after a text sentence that expressly refers to one supporting authority for that proposition. Consider this example from an opinion by the Court of Appeals of Ohio: 1 Appellant’s fifth assignment of error . . . appears to conflate the “assignments of error” with the “statement of the issues.” App.R. 16(A)(3) and (4) require an appellant’s brief to set forth an assignment of error and a statement of the issues. Accord Painter and Pollis, Ohio Appellate Practice (2016 Ed.), Section 5:13 (explaining that the “ ‘statement of issues’ should identify these key issues separately for each assignment of error”) . . . .^[3]

In Lines 3-4 of this passage, the writer states in a text sentence the general proposition that an appellate brief must contain both an “assignment of error” section and a “statement of the issues” section and cites Ohio Appellate Rules 16(A)(3) and (4) in the same text sentence for that proposition. Ten, in Lines 5-8, in a free-standing citation sentence, the writer cites additional authority–the Painter and Pollis treatise–for the same proposition. Here, the writer correctly introduces the additional authority with the “Accord” signal because the preceding text sentence...