Reading decisions
How a legal citation is built
A citation is an address: the title picks the body of law, the section picks the clause, the digits in parentheses pick the exact rule. Every number quoted here can be checked against the official text.
Title 1, section 408-A of the Maine Revised Statutes, read on the Legislature's website on September 6, 2026, is the address of the clause that governs a public records request: a title number, a section number, and a letter after a hyphen marking one subdivision. A citation is not decoration. It is a set of directions, and the clause it lands on, not the sentence quoting it, publishes the rule.
The same code appears in two forms. The Legislature's site spells its references out in words. The Maine Human Rights Commission's site, read on September 6, 2026, compresses the same kind of reference into 26 M.R.S. section 807, a sexual harassment requirement, and 5 M.R.S. section 4566(3), on the appointment of the Executive Director. M.R.S. is the short form of Maine Revised Statutes. The abbreviation changes the size of the reference, not its contents.
Title, code, section: each part narrows the field
Three statutory references are all a reader needs to watch the machine work. Title 1, section 408-A holds the request procedure of the public records law. Title 26, section 807 holds a sexual harassment requirement named on the Commission's site. Title 5, section 4566 holds, at its subsection 3, the appointment of the Commission's Executive Director. Three titles, three subjects, and the title number says which numbered body of statutes to open. The section number says which clause to turn to inside that body, and anything after the section number, a hyphenated letter or a figure in parentheses, marks a subdivision. The anatomy of a written decision runs on the same logic: parts, in order, each with a job.
What does the figure in parentheses do?
The parenthesis is the sharpest part of the address. In 5 M.R.S. section 4566(3), named on the Commission's site and read on September 6, 2026, the (3) does no decorative work: it points past the section as a whole to the subdivision concerning the appointment of the Executive Director. Title 1, section 408-A runs two levels deep. Its subsection 3 puts the duty to acknowledge a request within 5 working days, and asks, within a reasonable time, for a good faith, nonbinding estimate of the time frame. Its subsection 4 is where a denial is made subject to appeal as provided in section 409. A reference that stops at the section number hands over a haystack. A reference that carries the subdivision hands over the needle.
Where each number in 408-A lives
The subsections of section 408-A make the point in one screen. Every figure in the public records folio has a fixed address inside that citation, checked against the statute on the Legislature's website on September 6, 2026:
| Part of section 408-A | What it settles | The figure it publishes |
|---|---|---|
| Subsection 3 | Acknowledgement, then a good faith, nonbinding estimate of the time frame | within 5 working days of receipt |
| Subsection 4 | A denial of a request | subject to appeal as provided in section 409 |
| Subsection 8, paragraph A | Copying | no more than 10 cents per page, black and white, standard 8 1/2 by 11 inches |
| Subsection 8, paragraph B | Staff time | first 2 hours free, then not more than $25 per hour |
| Subsection 10, paragraph A | Advance payment | allowed when the estimated total cost exceeds $100 |
Down the first column the pattern shows: the deeper the reference reaches into the section, the more specific the rule it names. This is why a precise citation is worth more than a paraphrase. The paraphrase says the law caps copying costs; the citation says the cap sits in subsection 8, paragraph A, and the clause can be read there in the state's own words.
Why does one court answer to two names?
Citations to statutes are half the practice; the other half is courts, and courts have naming habits of their own. The Supreme Judicial Court, in the words of the Judicial Branch's page read on September 6, 2026, decides appeals on questions of law that arise in civil actions and criminal trials, and in that appellate capacity, as interpreter of the laws, it is called the Law Court. One institution, two labels; the second says the document interprets law rather than trying a matter. The trying happens below: the Superior Court is where almost all civil and criminal matters may be tried, and the District Court is where the page places lesser criminal offenses, civil actions and family law matters. A decision that names its court is citing it, and how the Maine courts fit together is public information the branch publishes itself.
Short names are there to be matched
An abbreviation is the string the official pages themselves use, which is what makes it worth keeping when everything else is paraphrased. The Judicial Branch's page, read on September 6, 2026, presents the Business and Consumer Court and adds that it is also known as the BCD, a statewide court docket handling selected business and/or consumer cases. Three bare letters met in a document lead back to that page and the full name waiting there. The letters are not jargon; they are the handle the source itself offers. The same trade works with M.R.S. and with the Law Court. When a summary drops the abbreviation, it has dropped the part of the citation that leads back to the official text.
What the pages read leave out
The gaps are part of the record too. The Judicial Branch's page, as read on September 6, 2026, does not publish rules on access to case records or dockets. The state's overview of the Freedom of Access Act does not publish the statutory citation at all, nor the definitions, the rules on who may request, or the Ombudsman's powers. The Commission's pages do not publish the deadline for bringing a complaint. A citation habit is the defense: a summary that gives no address cannot be walked to its source, and the absence tells the reader which questions belong to the official, free sources.
One figure will do for practice: 10 cents. It sits in subsection 8, paragraph A of Title 1, section 408-A, printed with its page size and its black and white on the Legislature's website, and a reader who has walked there once, from citation to clause, has done the whole thing.