| Caption | Introductory material that usually includes the last names of the defendent and plaintiff. Ex. Roe v. Wade |
| Case citation | The legal citation for the case; tells you the volume number, name of the case reporter, and page number it starts on. Ex. 685 N.E. 120; (volume 685, North Eastern reporter, page 120) Can also include parallel citations* |
| Author of the opinion | The name of the judge who wrote the opinion. |
| Facts of the case | Summary of what happened; can include procedural history |
| Law of the case | Often will discuss general principles of law and then discuss how those principles apply to the facts of the case |
| Concurring and/or dissenting opinions | When a decision is not unanimous, a judge may offer concurring (where she agrees with the ruling, but for a different reason) or a dissenting (where she disagrees with the ruling) opinion |
*Parallel citations are used when the same case is printed in two or more different reporters. In other words, a parallel citation references location information for more than one source of a case. Look for parallel citations at the very top, often before the Caption.
Find the following case and write its parallel citation on your worksheet:
599 N.E. 2d 913
If there is more than one parallel citation, chose one.