Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a court source
Wikimedia project page
This is a sortable table of documents used in legal proceedings that have cited Wikipedia as a source. This may also include important regulatory or administrative government decisions, as well as landmark decisions in other languages than English.
Discussions in the Wikipedia community
Wikipedia Signpost, August 20, 2012: Utah appellate court opinion relies on Wikipedia to establish that the meaning of a term in a contract may be ambiguous
Wikipedia Signpost, July 16, 2007: British agency cites Wikipedia in denying F1 trademark
Wikipedia Signpost, January 29, 2007: Court decisions citing Wikipedia proliferate
Wikipedia Signpost, July 3, 2006: Wikipedia cited by the High Court of England and Wales
Bourgeois v. Peters (being one of the earliest court opinions to cite and quote Wikipedia)
Academic papers and blogs
When Is It Appropriate to Cite to Wikipedia? (Daniel J. Solove, Concurring Opinions Blog, February 5, 2007; archived from the original March 3, 2016)
Courting Wikipedia, citing Wikipedia (Jon Garfunkel, Civilities Blog, May 30, 2006)
Wikipedia's Future in the Courts (Patrick Ferguson, May 9, 2006)
Wikipedia cited in court opinions (Eugene Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy Blog, October 18, 2004)
F-words (Joe Gratz, July 31, 2003)
Jason C. Miller and Hannah B. Murray, Wikipedia in Court: When and How Citing Wikipedia and Other Consensus Websites is Appropriate. St. John's Law Review, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1502759 .
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a court source” as wikimedia project page. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as wikimedia project page. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6614426. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2012, 2007, 2006 and 2016.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a court source”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a court source primary sources, Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a court source archive and Wikipedia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a court source”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a court source” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.