History of the Florida Style Manual

     The Florida Style Manual citation forms were first developed in 1985 by Floyd R. Self, the 1985 Legislative Editor, along with members of the Florida State University Law Review Volume 15 Editorial Board. The idea for the Manual developed as these Law Review editors realized that citation to many Florida-specific sources—particularly those generated by the Florida Legislature—would be rendered almost meaningless if conventional Bluebook citation forms were followed. Other Florida sources were not addressed at all by the Bluebook. The Florida Style Manual is the product of their efforts to develop meaningful citation forms for Florida materials.

     This Manual is periodically updated to reflect the many changes that take place in the Legislature and state government over time. The Manual’s first revision (the 1991 Edition) was coordinated by Marjorie C. Makar, with the help of fellow Volume 19 members.

     Stephanie L. Williams spearheaded the next revision (the 1995 Edition) as an editor of Volume 22. The 1995 Edition retained many of the same citation rules provided in the previous editions but was substantially restructured to cater to the needs of not just practitioners but scholars as well.

     James H. Wyman, Editor-in-Chief of Volume 24, coordinated the next revision in 1997, naming it the Fourth Edition. The Fourth Edition clarified some inconsistencies in an attempt to make the Manual a more valuable reference tool for drafting both legal documents and scholarly works. The Fourth Edition also incorporated examples of proper citation forms using the two typefaces commonly employed in legal and scholarly writing.

     The Fifth Edition was published in 2002 by Volume 29, and the Sixth Edition came soon after in 2003. The Sixth Edition was coordinated by J.D. DuRant and Brooke Lewis of Volume 30 in order to correct some issues and update the Manual to conform with changes made to the 17th Edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.

     The Seventh Edition was a coordinated effort by Rachel E. Nordby, Alyssa S. Lathrop, and Amanda L. Swindle, respectively the Editors-in-Chief for Volumes 35, 36, and 37, to update the Manual and make it more user friendly. While many of the substantive citation rules remained unchanged, the format of the Seventh Edition was substantially modified in an attempt to improve readability and enhance functionality. Additionally, the text of Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.800 was added to the Manual for convenient reference. 

     This Eighth Edition was coordinated by Elisa M. Walker, Jacqueline A. Van Laningham, Patrick M. Bailey, and Donald L. Thomson, respectively the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Editors, and Managing Editor of Volume 44. This Eighth Edition builds on the work of prior Volumes and was conducted primarily to reflect changes to Florida specific sources and citation methods as a result of advances in information technology as well as to update the Manual to conform to the 20th Edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.