When writing your substantial paper, it is a good idea to organize your research by using citation manager software to create a database of citations and research notes. Then you can use the software to insert citations into your paper in a specific format.
You can use citation managers for the following:
Endnote is available for free to University of Arizona students and makes it easy to use to organize your research references. You can export citation information directly from library catalogs and many research databases (though unfortunately not Westlaw or Lexis). There are a variety of tutorials available on the university library's website.
When you are ready to insert your citations into your paper, you can select Bluebook format for your citation style. As noted above, you still have to double-check the citations.
Zotero is a free, open access extension that runs in the Firefox browser. Like EndNote, you can export citation information directly from library catalogs and many research databases (though unfortunately not Westlaw or Lexis Advance.) You can import PDF documents into Zotero and the system automatically extracts citation information. Also, you can manually add in citation information.
When you are ready to insert your citations into your paper, you can select Bluebook format for your citation style. As noted above, you still have to double-check the citations.
Traditionally, citation managers have been used in the sciences. As a result, the current citation management software providers haven't focused on law so no citation tool can create footnotes or a bibliography in perfect Bluebook format.
Zotero and EndNote each offer a Bluebook citation format, with varying degrees of success. However, EndNote is easier to use and Zotero is sometimes glitchy.