jeffersonmem

 

Formatting

 

FORMATTING OF PETITIONS FOR WRIT,

APPENDICES, AMICUS CURIAE BRIEFS, and more.

 

Thiel Press offers free coaching, for customers who will print a job with us, as you prepare camera-ready pages in the Supreme Court format.  We will provide a bridge across the many decades as you adapt your modern technology to create the classic, century-old format.  WE KNOW WHAT THE FINISHED PRODUCT SHOULD LOOK LIKE.  We will review your copy to ensure it is both good looking and meets court standards:

 

  • Using your word processing system, it’s easy to create pages of camera-ready copy in the 41/8 x 71/8 inch format – with our coaching!  We’ll advise you as you create them on regular 81/2 x 11 sheets on your word processor.  (But then, printing them in the classic 61/8 x 91/4 page size is for law printing professionals – leave that to Thiel Press!
  • Cover – we’ll advise you on balance, proportion, type size, and practical methods of listing attorneys’ names when they have to be continued on the inside front cover.
  • Page makeup: we advise you on width and height of pages, whether you prepare fully-justified, or semi-justified (“rag-right”) copy.
  • Use of Century or Century Schoolbook typefaces in your word processing system.
  • Type sizes: Ideal is 12-point type on 13 leading, which means one point of spacing between lines, but this older terminology can be difficult to translate on your computer.  Your 12 point for text and 10 point for footnotes may not be actual court regulation size but we can check this for you.  There is some permissibility in spacing, but double-spacing is not allowed.
  • Especially now that the Supreme Court measures word count, rather than pages, we can suggest “easy on the eyes” format spacing from our decades of law printing expertise.  This includes paragraph indent, space between paragraphs, spacing to the left and right of indented material, and many other factors.
  • Note: for word processing ease, you may want to include some semi-justified (“rag-right”) copy in an otherwise fully-justified brief – for argument heads with awkward word-division lines, and, especially, for footnotes which include long, typographically cumbersome “URL” references.
  • See Rule 33 (d) for which portions of your Brief are included in your word count limit.  Exempted are: Appendix, Tables of Authorities and Contents, and other portions.
  • We can advise you on fine points such as leaving a slightly short page to not split an argument head, etc.

 

APPENDIX MATERIAL:

Contact us as early as possible and we can coach you through creation of Appendix camera copy, which will give you “-a” numbers to put into your Petition or other Brief, economizing effort as the due date approaches.
Finalization of the contents of your Appendix to a Petition will take place in tandem with your creation of the Petition for Writ, as the Appendix may include items which you deem necessary.  Rule 14.1 (i).

  • Appendix items should be given alphabet designations: Appendix A, then Appendix B, etc.
  • Appendix page numbers to be centered at top: 1a, 2a, etc. (with no space between these two characters).
  • Most items will exist in an electronic word base but occasionally, you will have to freshly scan or keyboard them.
  • Appendices are usually in descending chronology, starting with the lower court being appealed from, going back in reverse time order through earlier appellate courts, judgments, pleadings, and then possibly through regional courts, transcript material, etc.

 

Thiel Press will advise you in re-configuring your Appendix items to the Supreme Court format, as you depict the thrust of their original format:

  • Lower court pleadings, including title-blocks, etc.
  • Transcript, to be reconfigured with stars to represent omitted material.
  • Special format items: mathematical tables, charts, graphs, maps, business forms, letterhead, foldouts, and many more – we’ve done them all!

In addition to monitoring required items, such as lower court file dates, we can coach you in creating small capsule descriptions to typeset across the tops of Appendices, when subject matter is complicated or when several cases are being consolidated, for clarity to the personnel reading them.

  • Table of Contents of Appendix: we can help you create crisp, useful descriptions for this.
  • Can special items be separately filed as a lodging?  This is rare (see Rule 32.3).  We can, if necessary, consult with the Clerk’s Office by live visit to ascertain suitability as lodgings.

For a Petition for Writ with its Appendix – one volume or two?  You want the Appendix material readily available for Supreme Court personnel and those to whom you will serve copies, but you may not want a long Appendix bound with your Petition, making the overall volume thick and weighty.  We can help you with this decision as a factor of both time and utility.

(A corollary to the above: with your Appendix camera copy completed, if you decide to print the Appendix separately, we can print and bind that document as you enjoy extra time to review and perfect the camera-ready pages of your Petition or Brief.)

(For all of the above, we have samples, in Supreme Court-approved format, which we can provide to our customers who will be printing a job with Thiel Press.)

After your formatting is done, we will give you information for us to receive it in PDF format.