Midpage HTML Format

This document describes Midpage's semantic HTML format for legal opinions. Approximately 62% of the corpus uses this format, 37% uses Harvard Format, and only about 200,000 opinions—roughly 1%—remain in older formats. See Format Variations for examples of each format.

Case Information

Case metadata is wrapped in a <details> block at the top of the document:

<details class="midpage-case-info" open>
  <summary>Case Information</summary>
  <p class="midpage-case-name" shortName="Doe v. Acme Corp.">DOE v. ACME CORP.</p>
  <p class="midpage-docket" docket="23-1456">No. 23-1456</p>
  <p class="midpage-court" court="9th Cir.">United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit</p>
  <p class="midpage-date" date="2024-03-15">March 15, 2024</p>
  <p class="midpage-rehearing" date="2024-05-01">Rehearing Denied May 1, 2024</p>
  <p class="midpage-citation">95 F.4th 123</p>
  <p class="midpage-judge">SMITH, Circuit Judge</p>
</details>

Attributes:

shortName: Bluebook-style short case name
docket: Docket number without "No." prefix
court: Bluebook court abbreviation
date: YYYY-MM-DD format

Page Numbers

Page breaks are marked with self-closing <midpage-ps/> tags:

<p>Text on page 123.</p>
<midpage-ps n="124"/>
<p>Text on page 124.</p>

Page breaks can occur mid-paragraph:

<p>Text starts on page 123<midpage-ps n="124"/> and continues on page 124.</p>

The page numbers follow a single reporter, which is not necessarily the first entry in the opinion's citations. /opinions/get returns that reporter's citation as pagination_citation; pair the page numbers only with that citation. When it is null, the reporter could not be established and pinpoint pages should be omitted.

Footnotes

Footnote marks link to footnote content collected in a section at the end of the document. Each footnote includes a link back to its inline mark.

<p>Text with a footnote<midpage-fnmark id="fnref-1" n="1"><a href="#fn-1">1</a></midpage-fnmark> reference.</p>
...
<section class="midpage-footnotes">
  <h3>Footnotes</h3>
  <midpage-fn id="fn-1" n="1">
    <a class="midpage-fn-backlink" href="#fnref-1">1</a>
    The footnote content.
  </midpage-fn>
</section>

Section Headings

Standard HTML heading tags are used:

<h1>MEMORANDUM AND ORDER</h1>
<h2>I. BACKGROUND</h2>
<h3>A. Procedural History</h3>

Blockquotes

Quoted material uses <blockquote> with inner <p> tags:

<blockquote>
  <p>All disputes shall be resolved by binding arbitration.</p>
</blockquote>

Signature Block

<div class="midpage-signature">
  <p>WILLIAM H. SMITH</p>
  <p>UNITED STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE</p>
</div>

Case Citations

Case citations are wrapped in <midpage-case> tags:

<midpage-case case="Smith v. Jones" cite="262 F.3d 305" pinpoint="320" court="4th Cir." date="2001"><i>Smith v. Jones</i>, 262 F.3d 305, 320 (4th Cir. 2001)</midpage-case>

Attributes:

Attribute	Description
`case`	Case name (parties)
`cite`	Volume + reporter + starting page (e.g., `262 F.3d 305`)
`pinpoint`	Specific page(s) cited (e.g., `320`, `320-22`)
`court`	Bluebook court abbreviation
`date`	Year or full date (`YYYY` or `YYYY-MM-DD`)
`docket`	Docket number (optional)
`parallel`	Parallel citations, pipe-separated
`type`	`short`, `id`, or `supra` for non-full citations

Short-form and Id. citations:

<midpage-case case="Smith" cite="262 F.3d 305" pinpoint="325" court="4th Cir." type="short"><i>Smith</i>, 262 F.3d at 325</midpage-case>

<midpage-case case="Smith v. Jones" cite="262 F.3d 305" court="4th Cir." type="id"><i>Id.</i> at 326</midpage-case>

Law Citations

Statutes, regulations, rules, and constitutional provisions are wrapped in <midpage-law> tags:

<midpage-law jurisdiction="US" cite="18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)">18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)</midpage-law>

<midpage-law jurisdiction="US" cite="Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)">Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)</midpage-law>

<midpage-law jurisdiction="CA" cite="Cal. Gov. Code § 9606">Gov. Code, § 9606</midpage-law>

Attributes:

Attribute	Description
`jurisdiction`	`US` for federal, two-letter state code for state
`cite`	Normalized citation string
`type`	`short` or `id` for non-full citations

Example Document

<details class="midpage-case-info" open>
  <summary>Case Information</summary>
  <p class="midpage-case-name" shortName="Doe v. Acme Corp.">DOE v. ACME CORP.</p>
  <p class="midpage-docket" docket="23-1456">No. 23-1456</p>
  <p class="midpage-court" court="9th Cir.">United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit</p>
  <p class="midpage-date" date="2024-03-15">March 15, 2024</p>
  <p class="midpage-citation">95 F.4th 123</p>
</details>
<midpage-ps n="123"/>
<h1>MEMORANDUM AND ORDER</h1>
<p>SMITH, Circuit Judge:</p>
<p>Plaintiff appeals the district court's<midpage-fnmark id="fnref-1" n="1"><a href="#fn-1">1</a></midpage-fnmark> grant of summary judgment under <midpage-law jurisdiction="US" cite="Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)">Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)</midpage-law>. The Supreme Court emphasized that arbitration is "a matter of consent,<midpage-ps n="124"/> not coercion." <midpage-case case="Volt Info. Scis., Inc. v. Bd. of Trs." cite="489 U.S. 468" pinpoint="479" court="U.S." date="1989"><i>Volt Info. Scis., Inc. v. Bd. of Trs.</i>, 489 U.S. 468, 479 (1989)</midpage-case>.</p>
<p>The contract stated:</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>All disputes shall be resolved by binding arbitration.</p>
</blockquote>
<midpage-ps n="125"/>
<p>For these reasons, we AFFIRM.</p>
<div class="midpage-signature">
  <p>WILLIAM H. SMITH</p>
  <p>UNITED STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE</p>
</div>
<section class="midpage-footnotes">
  <h3>Footnotes</h3>
  <midpage-fn id="fn-1" n="1">
    <a class="midpage-fn-backlink" href="#fnref-1">1</a>
    The Honorable Jane Williams, presiding.
  </midpage-fn>
</section>

Schema

Format Variations