Michigan’s Governor filed a supplemental brief to the Michigan Supreme Court while the Court considers her April 7, 2022 Executive Message. The nicely formatted brief makes for an easier read. Six things stand out. [1] Spacing. Nice spacing is used in the arguments section of the table of contents page, the authorities index, and between…
Category: Electronic file formatting
The “write” stuff: 15 writing tips for the self-represented
Folks write and (e)file their own court papers in civil and criminal cases each day. Ordinary people—like Clarence Earl Gideon (handwritten in pencil) and Steven Alan Levin (formatted in Microsoft Word)—have successfully petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States on their own. The Michigan Supreme Court ordered oral argument on two handwritten applications filed…
Understanding and using Word’s Styles and templates to format legal briefs (a guide)
If I had a dollar for each time I’ve read or heard a well-intentioned person say, “Lawyers (or law students) need to learn how to use Styles and templates when writing their legal briefs . . .” And, yet, for all of those who encourage, “You should,” I’ve never seen someone also point to a…
Time to stop using branded, pleading paper and templates
“Distinctive,” “polished,” “conveys a professional image,” were some reasons why attorneys and firms used to add their “brand” to their court-filed papers. The paper was fancy. And expensive! (Did you even practice law if you never got yelled at in the office for printing a draft on the bond paper instead of copy paper?) When…
#DataPrivacy in Legal Writing
Excited to share this legal-writing Venn as folks and groups mark #DataPrivacy day. This post covers first principles, context, and tips on how we can continue to recognize and mitigate identity theft risks in that part of our legal writing that makes its way into public court filings. [Spoiler: Another Michigan privacy court rule kicks…
The (fixable) access to justice problem of image-only .pdfs
Ever wonder why it’s a best practice for scanned .pdf files to be text-recognized (OCR’d) before they are shared? Let’s look at these two critical considerations. (There are more but I’ll stop at two.) First. A scanned-only document displays like a picture. It’s an image that you can only look at. You can’t “use” or…
Digital file names should inform
— not confuse. Every organization and each person has their own “system” for naming the electronic files they save on their own drives. This post is not about that. (Though I am available for organizational consultations.) This is an invitation to think about how you should go about naming digital files intended for the public…
“Let the clicked-on record reflect”
Hyperlink with care. When writing a brief, opinion, report, or other type of permanent document, including hyperlinks to online sources requires thoughtfulness and an eye toward future years. As a default best practice, writers should use perma.cc to create preserved and short links. Why? Think back to why you want to add the link. Hyperlinks…
Show off those electronic bookmarks!
You want your readers to see your bookmarks if you are in the elite 21% who made the effort to create them. (And there is no excuse to not create bookmarks!)