How do you pronounce the "v." in a case name: like the letter "V" or like "versus"?

I settled on a rule. When the name of the first party is one syllable, I use "v." When the name of the first party is more than one syllable, I use "versus."

When Randy and I were recording the videos for our book, we came across an unexpected problem: how do you pronounce the "v." in the case name. There are two options. First, you could pronounce it as "versus." Second you could pronounce it like the letter in the alphabet, "v." Randy and I had never really considered the issue before, so we simply said whatever sounded right. When we were planning an Audible version of our book (stay tuned), we could not simply tell the narrator to do what he thought sounded right. There had to be some rule.

After some thought, I have settled on a rule that conforms with my general pronunciation approach. When the name of the first party is one syllable, I say "v." When the name of the first part is more than one syllable, I say "versus."

Consider some famous cases where the first party is one syllable. With each of these cases, I would instinctively say "v" rather than "versus."

• Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)
• Knox v. Lee (1871)
• Hans v. Louisiana (1890)
• Schenck v. United States (1919)
• Debs v. United States (1919)
• Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)
• Buck v. Bell (1927)
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• Roe v. Wade (1973)
• Craig v. Boren (1976)
• Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)

To the contrary, for several of the companion cases, I would say "versus." For example:

• Abrams v. United States (1919)
• Bolling v. Sharpe (1954)
• Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

What do you think? Does my rule work for others?

Comments

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

When the name of the first party is one syllable, I say "v." When the name of the first part is more than one syllable, I say "v."

Great rule! But looks like you could combine those two.....

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

And clarify -- do you say, literally, "vee dot", "vee period", "vee full-stop", or ...?

[Frank Reilly]

Good rule. As an alternative, how about "against?"

[Martinned]

"and", just like anyone else who studied law in England or in an England-influenced jurisdiction.

So Donoghue v. Stevenson is pronounced as "Donoghue and Stevenson". Don't ask me why, it just is.

(For the record, I make an exception for US cases, which I pronounce "v", not "versus".)

[LawTalkingGuy]

Interesting. When we study the English cases in the U.S. We say "v" or "versus."

How do you say something like R. v. Dudley and Stevens? Is it "The Crown and Dudley and Stevens?"

[Lee Moore]

I am advised by a friend who is an English lawyer that "v" is pronounced "and" in civil cases and "against" in criminal cases.

This seems to be what wiki thinks too :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_citation

[Stephen from Northumberland]

It's "and", or at least it was when I was taught (or should that be "tort") law in the 1970s

[Burkhard]

Def. "against" in Scotland, where the iconic snail case originated. Never heard "and" , even when traveling south

[Martinned]

I learned about the snail case in Ireland (RoI), where - to answer the point above - I didn't do criminal law.

[Iota]

All of my (Irish) law lecturers pronounced it "and”.

May have been "against" when citing criminal cases, but don't quite recall.

Versus is for sports! (at least on this side of the Atlantic)

[Iota]

R. v. Dudley and Stevens I pronounce “The Crown vee Dudley and Stevens", to avoid confusion.

Roe v Wade (and other well know US cases) I pronounce "Roe vee Wade". Unless I'm feeling pretentious!

[bernard11]

I'd vote for doing the same thing regardless of the number of syllables. Consistency is valuable.

Whether to use "vee" or "versus" depends on the audience.

If you expect to be addressing mostly lawyers I'd go with "vee," as it's shorter. Your rule adds a syllables to cases that already tend to have more syllables than others. That seems undesirable, as does the inconsistency.

OTOH, if it's mostly non-lawyers I might use "versus," as "vee" may be unfamiliar to some listeners.

[KenveeB]

I don't see a reason to distinguish it on number of syllables. I say "vee" regardless. If I used a cases that for some reason seemed awkward to say it that way, I'd switch to using "versus" for the whole conversation. Otherwise, you're just inviting people to spend their time guessing why you're using one over the other, and I doubt most people would guess it was based on syllables.

[Pei Ru]

Is there any actual value between doing one or the other? Besides aesthetics/ it "feels" better one way? Otherwise I'd say don't make any rules. Arbitrary rules makes the rule-enforcer seem pretentious and shows complete ignorance of how language works.

[DJK]

Stick with "vee." No point in introducing inconsistency just to length what's already a longer name.

[Dan Schiavetta]

The only people I've ever heard say "v" instead of "versus" are George F. Will and Josh. This includes my years in law school (class of 1992) and my years as a lawyer since then.

[David Nieporent]

Really? I don't think I've heard people say "Roe versus Wade" rather than "Roe vee Wade."

But most of the time I think people do say "versus." And I think Bernard's answer above makes the most sense: legally-aware people won't care, and legally-unsophisticated people might be confused by "vee" as opposed to "versus."

[Dan Schiavetta]

Well that’s just my experience. To me it seems ostentatious to say “vee”, like saying “oh-majjjj” (French pronunciation) instead of the basic “homage”.

[kkowallis]

Always use vee in civil cases. Use versus when discussing criminal cases using the full name of the defendant in a sentence. When using abbreviated party names use vee. For example, "Today the court hear opening arguments in the people versus Jeff Smith" but use "Today the court denied a motion to dismiss in People vee Smith."

[tkamenick]

Always "Vee" except when I was in 1L torts and the professor would constantly ridicule anybody who said that instead of "versus". The first time he did that I started pronouncing it closer to Latin, which made him laugh.

[Vaclav Matthess]

Before law school (and practicing), I always said this as "versus." Now, I always say "vee" (regardless of syllables).

Just be glad you don't have to deal with "Voir dire."

p.s. - I've been listening to the audiobook version of Armstrong & Woodward's book The Brethren, and the narrator gets "certiorari" wrong.

[Dan Schiavetta]

My Con Law professor (actually not that bright a guy) would always says “certio-are-ri”.

[Tempe Jeff]

Your Con Law Professor was Obama? When he got back from 'Pock-is-tan'?

[Andy Rozell]

It’s just “v”. Like in Hadley V. Baxendale. There used to an urban legend about a listing in the Manhattan telephone book.

[Dave W.]

I find it impossible to believe that Professor Blackman would cancel any portion of any word for any reason. Just imagine the social, legal, governmental, and academic horrors that would lead to. I think his account here has been hacked, and he would normally type out "versus" instead of all the "v." abominations that appear in the original post, seen above. It is only the left that is so scared of reality that they try to hide it behind abbreviations, either verbally or typographically.