Pinpoints and Ranges

Where a judgment has numbered paragraphs — every neutral-cited judgment does — pinpoint to the paragraph in square brackets (r 1.1.1). The brackets are the marker: never write ‘at’ or ‘para’. Multiple pinpoints are joined with commas.

A pinpoint follows everything else in the citation, including a court identifier, with no comma after a bracket (r 2.1.6).

OSCOLA writes number ranges with as few figures as possible (r 1.3.2), with three qualifications: the final number keeps at least two digits, it never starts with a zero, and ranges of paragraph numbers are never truncated at all.

530–31

Pages elide: the shared digits drop from the second number.

201–203

But never to a leading zero — so this stays in full.

[120]–[123]

Paragraph ranges are never truncated, and each end keeps its own brackets.

1925–27 · 1871–1914

Year spans elide inside a century and are written in full across one.

Statutes pinpoint by their own designations (r 2.4.2): s and ss, pt, sch, para. In a footnote a comma follows the year; several provisions join with ‘and’.

Name the judge only when it matters — usually when quoting — in brackets after the pinpoint, using the r 2.1.7 forms: Smith J, Smith LJ, Lord Smith.