The legal writing community often does not recognize the need for or include captions or alternative text when pasting images in their complaints, motions, briefs, or court-authored opinions. Image understanding becomes inaccessible for some audiences. And unnumbered images can make for messy and confusing record cross-references. While many court rules fuss about font type and…
Category: Captions / subtitles
When judges add descriptive footnotes (and an itemized appendix) as they “write” about “inserted images,” they preserve the judicial-decision tapestry.
Why? Because many third-party-online publishers leave images out from the original decision. Imagine footnotes like these being dropped into a judicial decision: [Proposed new footnote:] To help future readers who may read this decision in a third-party, text-only format that left out the image, Figure 1 is a black-and-white portrait photograph of Prince taken in…
A strong model for “translating” image Tweets and emojis into text-based legal writing
Federal District Court Judge William L. Campbell, Jr. (Middle District, Tennessee) just issued a written opinion that effectively models how to translate Tweet and emoji images into understandable text-based legal writing. The Complaint’s Exhibit B image was the original product the judge had to work with. The imaged Tweet and its content were important for…
Storytelling through headings and images: the January 6 Final Report’s effective examples
845 pages can seem like a lot to tackle for those interested in the Final Report issued by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Fortunately for the casual reader, the Select Committee incorporated two effective storytelling tools to inform: report headings and images. Storytelling through headings A…
Online court videos—why AI subtitles are not “good enough” and how they can be made better.
The public, litigants, media, and legal community have good reason (indeed, an obligation) to pay attention to what’s argued and decided in their state supreme courts. State courts are the only forum for enforcing a right under their own constitutions when the Supreme Court of the United States does not, reminds federal judge Jeffrey S….