What term refers to a reference to a legal or nonlegal authority?

• A. Citation
• B. Testimony
• C. Brief
• D. Plea

Answer: (A)

A reference to a legal or nonlegal authority is called a citation. In legal writing, a citation points to the source that supports a statement—this could be a case, statute, regulation, or even a scholarly work outside the law. The purpose of a citation is to show where the rule or fact comes from and to guide others to the source for verification or further reading. Nonlegal authorities can still be persuasive, such as treatises or law review articles, but they’re cited in the same way to indicate the basis for an argument. By contrast, testimony is the evidence given by witnesses, a brief is a document that argues a position for court consideration, and a plea is a formal request or admission within a legal proceeding.