![]() WRITING FONTS PROFESSIONALAfter all, using a professional and clean font will make your document stand out, and it is more likely to be well-received than a document that looks like every other one the judge has seen. Your font choice is crucial in an appellate brief - don’t make the mistake of ignoring it. It might not look the same as all those thousands of other court filings that the judges are expecting to look a certain way. The trick is to choose a font that looks clean and professional. WRITING FONTS PROI’m also fond of Adobe Caslon Pro and Sabon. Personally, I like Century Schoolbook - to me, it just has that federal court feel to it. You are not apathetic.”īutterick offers several font recommendations for legal briefing. If you have a choice about using Times New Roman, please stop. To look at Times New Roman is to gaze into the void. It says, ‘I submitted to the font of least resistance.’ Times New Roman is not a font choice so much as the absence of a font choice, like the blackness of deep space is not a color. “When Times New Roman appears in a book, document, or advertisement, it connotes apathy. Then read what Butterick says about using Times New Roman in legal documents: But don’t take my word for it.įirst, read legal-writing guru Bryan Garner’s full-throated endorsement of a book called Typography for Lawyers, by Matthew Butterick. So does that mean you should go ahead and default to Times New Roman - because that’s what judges “expect?” No. Most courts simply require a “legible” font of a particular size (usually at least 12-point). Of course, most courts don’t go that far. Supreme Court has long required lawyers to use a font from the “Century family” (e.g., Century Schoolbook). (See pages 3-5 here) The appellate court in Connecticut actually requires briefs to use Arial or Univers. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, for example, advises lawyers against using Times New Roman. Please note: If you want to create professional printout, you should consider a commercial font. In fact, there’s evidence to the contrary. 180 Professional Writing Fonts to Download. Maybe judges, after seeing thousands of court filings, simply get “used to” and “expect” these briefs to look a certain way.īut that doesn’t mean that that’s how judges want things to be. There’s no reason to shake it up.” And maybe this is true. “That’s what judges are used to it’s what they expect. “Just leave it on Times New Roman,” the experienced lawyer said. But I had a conversation with an experienced lawyer about font choices in appellate briefs, and this experienced lawyer was trying to tell me that font doesn’t matter. I thought by now it was becoming common knowledge that lawyers should avoid using Times New Roman as the font for their legal documents. ![]()
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