Given Anthropic’s Claude.ai’s impressive ability to handle .pdf uploads and complex prompts, it seemed only right to upload public efiled court briefing, put the AI-created output in comparative table form, and see how things would go. Overall? Pretty darn good! Check out how well (with a couple of misses) Claude followed my instructions on how to…
Tag: efiling
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…
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…
“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…