TRIAL citation style goes green.

Quick--can you spot the differences in the following cites to a hypothetical case?

* See, e.g., Honorable Soc'y of Nitpickers Anonymous v. Int'l Ass'n of Bleary-Eyed Editors, 123 N.W.2d 923, 930-33 (N.D. Ct. App. 2006).

* See e.g. Honorable Socy. of Nitpickers Anonymous v. Intl. Assn. of Bleary-Eyed Editors, 123 N.E.2d 923,930-933 (N.D. App. 2006).

If you can't, don't worry: The differences aren't glaringly obvious. Well, unless you're someone--say, a first-year law student or a TRIAL editor--who pays way more attention to legal cite form than the average person does.

You get bonus points if you noticed that the first cite conforms to the style dictates of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (18th ed., Harv. L. Rev. Assn. 2005). If you recognized that the second cite follows the latest legal style guide to hit the law school shelves, the green-covered ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation (3d ed., Aspen Publishers 2005), you just might have a future career on the editorial staff of TRIAL.

For years, TRIAL has followed Bluebook style when citing source materials, but beginning this month, the magazine is switching to ALWD style. The decision wasn't made lightly, especially given the Bluebook's reputation as the bible of legal citation style.

"We looked closely at both manuals," said TRIAL Editor Julie Shoop, "weighing the costs of learning and implementing a new style against the potential benefit of working with a manual that the editors agreed was much easier than the Bluebook to use. ALWD is more user-friendly for writers, editors, and readers alike."

The Bluebook has been criticized for years for being too complex. Most law students spend the better part of their first year learning how to properly Bluebook cases, legal treatises, statutes, and other law-related materials.

Frustrated with the difficulties of teaching Bluebook style, a group of legal writing instructors who banded together in 1996 to form the

Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) met two years later to discuss creating an alternative. The first edition of the ALWD Citation Manual debuted in early 2000 and was formally adopted for use by 80 law schools within a year. That number now tops 100.

The ALWD manual's ease of use won the day with the TRIAL staff, Shoop said, especially because the differences between the two styles are so slight: "They're subtle variations. For example, the Bluebook uses the apostrophe in forming some abbreviations, while ALWD drops the apostrophe and ends all abbreviations with a period. And ALWD italicizes case names in all contexts--the Bluebook doesn't italicize case names in endnotes."

And those are clues, by the way, to the puzzler at the beginning of this story. If you've already spotted the differences between the two cites but are hungry for more nitpicking details about ALWD style, you can find them at www.alwd.org. And you might just want to consider a career change.

Jean Hellwege

Managing Editor