Table of authorities format: what goes in it and how it's ordered

Updated 21 September 2026 · Federal and state appellate briefs

A table of authorities lists every authority a brief cites and the pages where each one appears. It lets a judge or clerk see at a glance what the brief relies on and where. The format is mostly convention, but a few parts are set by rule.

What the rules require

Federal courts of appeals. FRAP 28(a)(3) requires "a table of authorities—cases (alphabetically arranged), statutes, and other authorities—with references to the pages of the brief where they are cited." Rule 28(b) applies the same requirement to the appellee's brief. Many circuits add local rules on top, so check yours.
U.S. Supreme Court. Rule 24.1(c) requires a table of cited authorities in a merits brief that exceeds 1,500 words.
State courts. Most state appellate rules require a table of authorities in principal briefs, often with their own ordering rules. Your court's rules and local practice control.

How entries are grouped

The usual categories, in the usual order, are:

Cases, alphabetically by the first party's name, with the full citation.
Constitutional provisions, federal before state. Some courts or practitioners put these first.
Statutes, federal before state, in numerical order by title and section rather than alphabetically.
Rules and regulations, in numerical order.
Other authorities: treatises, law review articles, legislative history and similar sources, alphabetically.

Only include a category if the brief cites something in it; an empty "Regulations" heading looks careless.

How each entry is written

One entry per authority. Each case or statute appears once, with every page it is cited on, whether by full cite, short form, Id. or supra.
Full citation, no pin cites. The entry gives the full citation without the page it was pinpointed to in the text, and usually includes subsequent history if the brief's first cite does.
Case names italicized or underlined, matching the brief.
Dot leaders run from the citation to the page numbers, which are right-aligned.
Page numbers are the brief's own pages, separated by commas, in ascending order.

When to use passim

Passim, Latin for "here and there," replaces the page list when an authority is cited so often that the numbers stop being useful. There's no universal threshold; Word's Use passim option applies it at five or more pages. Many practitioners avoid it for the central authorities in a case, because it doesn't help a reader find the discussion. Use it sparingly.

Getting Word to produce this format

Categories come from the category chosen when each citation is marked (the \c switch). Word's defaults are Cases, Statutes, Other Authorities, Rules, Treatises, Regulations and Constitutional Provisions, and you can rename them.
Order within a category is alphabetical by the long citation text. Word doesn't sort statutes numerically, so "42 U.S.C. § 1983" sorts by its characters. If numeric order matters, check the statutes section and adjust the long forms if needed.
Order of categories is the order of the TOA fields on the page, one field per category. Rearrange the fields to change the order.
Passim, leaders and formatting are options in References → Insert Table of Authorities (the \p, \e and \f switches on the TOA field). Keep original formatting on if case names should stay italic.
Page numbers refresh when you update the field. Do it last, with hidden text turned off.

A faster way to mark the brief

The format is Word's job; the marking is yours. BriefMark marks the whole brief at once: it finds each authority, assigns a category, traces every short form back to it, and writes Word's TA fields and one TOA field per category under your Table of Authorities heading, with a passim option. Word then builds the table in the format above.

It runs in your browser, so the brief is never uploaded. Briefs with up to 8 authorities are free, and a license is $99 once.

Mark a brief, free Manual method in Word

Whichever method you use, review the table before you file. Neither Word nor BriefMark checks whether a citation is correct or still good law.

Questions

Is a table of authorities required?

In federal courts of appeals, yes: FRAP 28(a)(3) requires one in the appellant's brief, and 28(b) applies it to the appellee's. In the U.S. Supreme Court, Rule 24.1(c) requires a table of cited authorities when a merits brief exceeds 1,500 words. Most state appellate rules have a similar requirement; check your court's rules.

What does passim mean in a table of authorities?

Passim (Latin for 'here and there') replaces a long list of page numbers when an authority is cited throughout the brief. Word's Use passim option applies it when an authority appears on five or more pages.

How should cases be ordered?

Alphabetically. FRAP 28(a)(3) specifies cases alphabetically arranged. Word sorts each category alphabetically by the long citation text, so the way you write the long form controls the order.

Should the table use Id. or short forms?

No. The table lists each authority once, by its full citation, with every page where it is cited in any form. Short forms only link a later cite back to that entry.