the (new) legal writer

A slight change in format

A couple of days ago, I read somewhere that the Georgia font is a serifed font designed specifically for on-line reading. So I thought I'd try it out here to see how it looks. The headings are still bold Arial, but the text is Georgia. (If the text still looks like Arial, click your Refresh button.) What do you think?

Apparently it's called "French spacing"

It says here that the practice of adding two spaces to the end of a sentence is called "French spacing."¹ It also says (without citation) that "French spacing is uniformly required in legal writing in the U.S." I don't see that anywhere in F.R.A.P. 32, but if it's on the Internet, then it must be true.

Prior posts on this controversy are here and here.

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¹Hat tip to Legal Writing Prof Blog.

One space or two - redux

A few weeks ago, I referred here to Ken Adams's post about inserting only one space, not two, after sentences. Two other bloggers have joined the fray: Steve Minor, in favor of one space; and the author of Shrieks from the Booby Hatch, in favor of two.

So now we have two issues too divisive for legal writers to discuss in a social setting:

• left-justified (ragged right) text versus full-justification
• one space versus two spaces after a sentence

One space is enough

Thirty-four years ago in high-school typing class, I learned to hit the space bar twice at the end of each sentence. This was good advice, because my instrument was an Underwood typewriter (not as old as this one, but almost).

Today, writing on a computer with proportionally spaced typefaces, one space is enough; two is too many. For reasons why, read One Space or Two?, by Ken Adams.

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p.s. (11/2/06): See also Ruth Ann Robbins, Painting With Print, 2 J. ALWD 108, 129 (2004) (footnotes omitted):

The practice of using two spaces between sentences and indented first lines to begin the new paragraph are merely remnants of days when attorneys had only typewriters at their disposal and were forced to use a monospaced font. Using a monospaced font requires two spaces between sentences in order to provide enough visual cueing through width. But using two spaces with proportionally spaced fonts will create extra gaps, which will cause the reader to experience a greater fixation pause between sentences as her eye searches for the next phrase.

General Suter's memo

For those "intending to prepare a petition for a writ of certiorari in booklet format and pay the $300 docket fee," U.S. Supreme Court Clerk William K. Suter has prepared this memo, "highlight[ing] the most common mistakes observed by the Clerk’s Office. By following these guidelines you may help to expedite the processing of your petition." In it, you will find advice on all technical requirements for a cert. petition. (Hat tip to Bob Markle, DOJ appellate lawyer, for this tip.)

Keyboard shortcuts

Five months ago, I posted an entry about typing special characters, such as § and ¶. In response to that entry, Stuart Buck kindly e-mailed some additional tips for creating keyboard shortcuts:

Click "Insert," then "symbol" in Microsoft Word.  Highlight the symbol that you want to affect, and then click on the button for "Shortcut key."  This brings up a box that lets you select your own shortcut for that particular symbol.  I decided to use "Alt-S" for the section mark, and "Alt-P" for the paragraph mark.  Simpler than having to type a few numbers.

Similarly, I have a keyboard command for footnotes:  In Word, right-click at the top of the screen.  Then click "customize." Another screen pops up.  At the bottom is a button for "keyboard."  Click that.  Then in the box on the left, click on "Insert."  Then find the command for "InsertFootnoteNow."  Then you can select a keyboard command for that.  I use "Alt-F."  Then I can insert a footnote immediately without having to click on anything.

Changing your default font

As promised, I'm going to tell you why I switched the default font in my word processors from Times New Roman to Century Schoolbook. If you're interested in the story, or if you'd like technical instructions for changing your default font, continue reading.

On the cover of a brief

First impressions count. Therefore, lawyers who write briefs ought to pay more attention to the form and content of the cover. I see too many briefs with covers that look like this. What's wrong with this cover? Many things.

• Every single character is in bold typeface. This defeats the purpose of bold typeface, which is to make selected text stand out. When everything is in bold, nothing stands out.
• Everything is in all capital letters. This makes everything on the cover more difficult to read.
• Everything is the same size. Whether you work in Word or WordPerfect, you can vary the sizes of the letters to make the more important information stand out.
• It contains extraneous words that are not required by the applicable court rule (FRAP 32(a)(2), for those keeping score at home). The words "IN THE" before the title of the court are unnecessary, as is the name of the trial-court judge and the trial-court case number. Anything not required by the court rule is useless clutter.

Instead of committing these sins, do the following when designing the cover of a brief:

• Follow the court rules. Include on the cover everything that the rules require. Omit anything that the rules don't require.
• For most text, do not use all capital letters. All caps may be okay in very small doses, but the majority of the text should be in lower-case letters. (For some things you're used to seeing in all caps, try small caps for lower-case letters.)
• For most text, use regular typeface, not bold. Reserve bold typeface for the most important information.
• I assume that to the court, the most important information is the case number and the caption identifying whose brief this is. I put those two things in bold typeface, and everything else in regular typeface. For extra emphasis, I put those two items in a different font and increased the font size two points.

The result looks like this. Print out the before and after versions of this cover, lay them side by side, and decide for yourself which one you'd rather read.

Another way to type international characters

There are two ways to type international characters. You can use your standard keyboard's ALT key and numeric keypad. (See this post for details.) Or you can download Microsoft's International Character Toolbar. I haven't tried the toolbar, but Adriana Linares has, and she ♥ it.

Bryan Garner on document design

Bryan A. Garner's advice on document design isn't in any one of his books; it's in several of them:

• A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 289-90 (2d ed. 1995).
• Garner's Modern American Usage 266-267 (2003).
• A Dictionary of Modern American Usage 219-20 (1998).
• Legal Writing in Plain English §§ 41-45 (2001).
• The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style § 4 (2002). This one contains the fullest treatment of the topic.

If you follow Garner's advice, you'll do the following things: