There is no opinion shortage about the U.S. State Department’s announced shift from the Times New Roman font to Calibri (A font feud brews after State Dept. picks Calibri over Times New Roman) This post, however, is about font size and not type. The “controversial” State Department cable also directs future written communications to use…
Category: Electronic file formatting
Why images in your writing should include numbered labels, descriptive captions, and content warnings
There are two valuable lessons from the shortcomings in how the scores of photos were included in the 845-page January 6th Report: the need for numbered image labels and descriptive captions Consider these two report pictures from the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference: Shortfall: Missing numbered labels. Notice how these photos do not include…
Two different digital file versions of the January 6th Report reminded me why most courts prohibit “certified” .pdf e-filings
The incomplete date of “December 00, 2022” on the cover was the first thing I noticed when the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol released its Final Report on December 22, 2022. I mentally chalked it up as related to the “printer issue” given earlier reporting that the…
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…
Six user-friendly things about the Michigan Governor’s e-filed brief
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…
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…