Table of Authorities
A table of authorities helps readers locate cited cases, statutes and other legal authorities. Microsoft Word can generate one from marked citations, but legal filing requirements, categories and citation form remain jurisdiction- or court-specific.
A table of authorities is a legal-document reference table listing cited authorities and the pages where they appear. Follow court or jurisdiction rules for required content, and use software tools only as an implementation aid.
Key details
Important caveats
Jurisdiction Boundary
Whether a table of authorities is required, its categories and citation format are controlled by the court, jurisdiction or legal style; Microsoft’s instructions describe software behavior, not filing law.
Further guidance
Practical Application
Use a table of authorities to help readers locate cited legal authorities and their page references. Treat Word’s marking/generation workflow as a tool aid, while following the applicable court or jurisdiction rules for what the filed document must contain.
Purpose
A table of authorities lists legal references such as cases or statutes together with page references where they appear in the document.
Reader Check
Have the required categories, citation form, and filing rules been checked against the governing court or jurisdiction rather than inferred from word-processing software?
Word Workflow
In Microsoft Word for Windows, authors mark citations and Word uses those marked entries to generate and organize the table by category and page number.
Worked Example
Example workflow: mark the document’s legal citations, generate the table in Word, then verify the generated categories and page references against the filing requirements before submission.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Create a table of authorities — Microsoft Support (opens in a new tab)Microsoft Support · Microsoft Word definition and generation behavior for legal tables of authorities