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~ Articles and Research for Legal Professionals

The Researching Paralegal

Category Archives: Footnotes

What Will Ignoring the Court Rules Get You? A Big Fat Benchslap.

08 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Bad Legal Writing, Benchslap, Brief Writing, Editing, Footnotes, Judges, Legal Writing, Motions, Plain Language, Proofreading, Readability

≈ Comments Off on What Will Ignoring the Court Rules Get You? A Big Fat Benchslap.

Tags

Court Rules, Editing, Findlaw, George Khoury, Legal Writing, William P. Statsky

Florida Judge Tosses Improperly Spaced Court Filing, by George Khoury, Esq., Strategist, The Findlaw Law Firm Business Blog  (with hat tip to William P. Statsky)

http://bit.ly/2uP9FyB

Mr. Khoury says that “[h]ell hath no fury like a Florida judge who receives an improperly formatted brief.” You better believe it. Why on earth would you ignore the format requirements in your court’s local rules? Folks, this just isn’t that hard.

The author of this motion for summary judgment thought the court would either ignore or not notice that the motion and supporting brief were spaced 1-1/2 lines rather than double-spaced. And who’s going to notice longer-than-usual footnotes? Really? Any judge or clerk whose job it is to read, read, and then read some more every dad-gum day.

Seriously, do you want to plow through heavy footnotes? Hands? Didn’t think so. Neither does your judge. Why risk alienating the person you are trying to convince? The stakes are too high to cling to a style of writing that sets you up to lose before anyone reads your motion or brief.

There are other, and much more effective ways, to trim a motion and brief. Editing is the key.

  1. Eliminate any unnecessary word.
  2. Remember that subject and verbs go together.
  3. Use short sentences.
  4. Delete all legalese. Yes, all of it. No excuses.
  5. You can always delete “in order.” Try it – it will not change the meaning in your sentence. These are an example of filler words that just take up space.
  6. Stop using phrases such as “brief of the plaintiff.” Write “plaintiff’s brief” instead.
  7. Never, never, never use long block quotations.
  8. Quote from a court opinion only when the court says it better than you can.

A quick search of this blog will give you tons of editing tips. I promise that you can get your point across with fewer words. It is not the number of words you use that count; it is what words you choose and how you say it. -CCE

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Bryan Garner Says Citations In Footnotes are Okey Dokey.

04 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Brief Writing, Citations, Footnotes, Legal Writing

≈ Comments Off on Bryan Garner Says Citations In Footnotes are Okey Dokey.

Tags

Briefs, Bryan Garner, Citations, Footnotes, Legal Writing, On Lawyering Blog, Rich Cassidy

Bryan Garner Says: Put Your Citations in Footnotes, by Rich Cassidy, On Lawyering Blog

http://onlawyering.com/2014/03/bryan-garner-says-put-your-citations-in-footnotes/

After posting on one judge’s opinion of against citations in footnotes, for the sake of balance, here is Bryan Garner’s opinion against putting them anywhere else but footnotes.

When it comes to writing briefs, let the court rules dictate which method you use. If a court or judge goes to the trouble to address such details, there is a reason. Ignore the court’s preference at your own risk! -CCE

[I]n the February 2014 issue of the ABA Journal, and in the corresponding ABA Journal Law News “Bryan Garner on Words” column, “Textual Citations Make Legal Writing Onerous, for Lawyers and Nonlawyers Alike,” Garner promotes a suggestion for writing briefs and memoranda.   . . . The suggestion is simple: Instead of including bibliographical material —  the numerical citation used to find a case or legal authority  — in the text of a  legal document, Garner suggests publishing this material in a footnote.

Continue reading →

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Citations In Footnotes? The Debate Rages On.

03 Saturday Sep 2016

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Benchslap, Citations, Footnotes, Judges, Legal Writing

≈ Comments Off on Citations In Footnotes? The Debate Rages On.

Tags

Above the Law (blog), Benchslap, Davit Lat, Judge James K. Bredar, Russ Guberman

Benchslap Of The Day: Don’t You Dare Put Citations In The Footnotes, by David aw LobLat, Above The Law Blog

http://abovethelaw.com/2016/08/benchslap-of-the-day-dont-you-dare-put-citations-in-the-footnotes/

In case you’ve missed it, there is controversy in the legal writing world about whether citations belong in the text or in the footnotes. People in both camps feel strongly about this. These people do not see a lot of gray. You are either doing it right or you’re not. I suspect this Judge has similar inclinations. -CCE

Nobody puts baby in the corner. And nobody puts citations in the footnotes — at least not in this federal judge’s court.

Via the Twitter feed of Ross Guberman, a leading expert on legal writing, comes this benchslap from Judge James K. Bredar (D. Md.) . . . .

Continue reading →

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Have You Bought Your 20th Edition of The Bluebook®?

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Abbreviations, Acronyms, Citations, Footnotes, Legal Writing, Legislative History, Numbers, Parentheses, Parentheticals, Punctuation, Quotations, String Citations, The Bluebook

≈ Comments Off on Have You Bought Your 20th Edition of The Bluebook®?

Tags

Legal Citations, The Bluebook Online®

Personally, I’m waiting for Peter Martin at Cornell to update his excellent Bluebook® Cheat Sheet. But, if you want to know all things Bluebook®, I can recommend this website – https://www.legalbluebook.com/.

This website also provides a way to buy a hard copy, which is my preference when I use it regularly. If you use The Bluebook® at all, I recommend bookmarking and browsing here the entire website and its features. Yearly subscriptions are a reasonable rate.

The good news for Bluebook® users is that, at the beginning of every new edition, there is a list of the differences between this version and the last one. Here is a preview of what is new in the 20th Edition: https://www.legalbluebook.com/Public/Updates.aspx.

Yes, you will wonder about why some of the changes were made. That is a given. But isn’t it nice to have all the changes summarized and listed for you right up front. No guessing and no reason to search the entire book to find the updates. -CCE

 

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Excellent Argument About Technology and Citation Placement.

13 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Apple, Brief Writing, Citations, E-Briefs, E-Briefs, E-Filing, Footnotes, iPad, Laptop, Legal Technology, Legal Writing, Mac, Microsoft Office, PC Computers, Readability, Tablets

≈ Comments Off on Excellent Argument About Technology and Citation Placement.

Tags

Brian Garner, Brief Writing, Citing Legally Blog, E-Briefs, E-Filing, Legal Citations, Legal Technology, Legal Writing, Peter Martin

If the Judge Will Be Reading My Brief on a Screen, Where Should I Place My Citations? by Peter Martin, Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law, Emeritus, Cornell Law School, Citing Legally Blog

http://citeblog.access-to-law.com/?p=149

 

As pointed out in this article, more courts require e-filing and are using tablets and other technology to read what you file. If you do not use technology, then you do not know how your document appears on the screen. It is quite different than reading something on a printed page.

So what to do? Keep writing as you always have and ignore changes brought about by technology or adjust? -CCE

A. Introduction

In a prior post I explored how the transformation of case law to linked electronic data undercut Brian Garner’s longstanding argument that judges should place their citations in footnotes. As that post promised, I’ll now turn to Garner’s position as it applies to writing that lawyers prepare for judicial readers. . . .

Continue reading →

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Where Should Citations Go? Texas Appellate Judges Have An Opinion.

05 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Appellate Judges, Appellate Writing, Brief Writing, Citations, Footnotes, Judges, Legal Writing

≈ Comments Off on Where Should Citations Go? Texas Appellate Judges Have An Opinion.

Tags

Brian Garner, Footnotes, Legal Citations, Legal Writing, Rich Phillips, Texas Appellate Watch

The End of the Great Footnote War in Texas? by Rich Phillips, Texas Appellate Watch

http://tinyurl.com/oq8z9va

I have posted before (and here and here) about a debate that confirms that appellate lawyers are the nerds of the legal world: should citations go in footnotes or in the text?. . . .

Continue reading →

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Link Rot – How To Archive The Internet?

21 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Footnotes, Legal Technology, Link Rot

≈ Comments Off on Link Rot – How To Archive The Internet?

Tags

beSpacific Blog., Content Drift, Footnotes, Internet, Jill Lepore, Link Rot, Reference Rot, Sabrina I. Pacifici, URLs

The Cobweb – Can The Internet Be Archived?, by Sabrina I. Pacifici, BeSpacific Blog

http://www.bespacific.com/cobweb-can-internet-archived/

This is not my first post on “link rot.” There are groups who are looking for solutions, but I cannot in confidence say that there is yet a definitive answer. -CCE 

The New Yorker – Annals of Technology. January 26, 2015 Issue. The Cobweb Can the Internet be archived? By Jill Lepore

‘…The Web dwells in a never-ending present. It is—elementally—ethereal, ephemeral, unstable, and unreliable. Sometimes when you try to visit a Web page what you see is an error message: ‘Page Not Found.’ This is known as ‘link rot,’ and it’s a drag, but it’s better than the alternative. More often, you see an updated Web page; most likely the original has been overwritten. (To overwrite, in computing, means to destroy old data by storing new data in their place; overwriting is an artifact of an era when computer storage was very expensive.) Or maybe the page has been moved and something else is where it used to be. This is known as ‘content drift,’ and it’s more pernicious than an error message, because it’s impossible to tell that what you’re seeing isn’t what you went to look for: the overwriting, erasure, or moving of the original is invisible. For the law and for the courts, link rot and content drift, which are collectively known as ‘reference rot,’ have been disastrous. In providing evidence, legal scholars, lawyers, and judges often cite Web pages in their footnotes; they expect that evidence to remain where they found it as their proof, the way that evidence on paper—in court records and books and law journals—remains where they found it, in libraries and courthouses. But a 2013 survey of law- and policy-related publications found that, at the end of six years, nearly fifty per cent of the URLs cited in those publications no longer worked. According to a 2014 study conducted at Harvard Law School, ‘more than 70% of the URLs within the Harvard Law Review and other journals, and 50% of the URLs within United States Supreme Court opinions, do not link to the originally cited information.’ The overwriting, drifting, and rotting of the Web is no less catastrophic for engineers, scientists, and doctors. Last month, a team of digital library researchers based at Los Alamos National Laboratory reported the results of an exacting study of three and a half million scholarly articles published in science, technology, and medical journals between 1997 and 2012: one in five links provided in the notes suffers from reference rot. It’s like trying to stand on quicksand…’

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Appellate Judge Explains How To Lose An Appeal – Works Every Time!

27 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Appellate Writing, Bad Legal Writing, Brief Writing, Editing, Fonts, Footnotes, Legal Analysis, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Legalese, Proofreading, Psychology, Readability

≈ Comments Off on Appellate Judge Explains How To Lose An Appeal – Works Every Time!

Tags

Appellate Brief Writing, Appellate Record Citations, Bad Legal Writing, Hon. Alex Kozinski, Legal Writing, The Montana Lawyer

The Wrong Stuff: How You Too Can…Lose Your Appeal, by Hon. Alex Kozinski, 1992 BYU L. Rev. 325, The Montana Lawyer, 23 Mont. Law 5 (Oct. 1997)

Webmaster’s note: This was originally presented as a lecture at Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark School of Law on January 21, 1992. It was later recycled as The Wrong Stuff, 1992 BYU L. Rev. 325. The lecture was repeated during the 1997 Montana State Bar Annual Meeting, and again recycled in the Montana Lawyer as How You Too… Can Lose Your Appeal (and you thought Judge Kozinski didn’t care about the environment!).

The BYU L. Rev. edition is available as a PDF scan. What follows is the Montana Lawyer edition.

[former link is broken – see new link below]

https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1748&context=lawreview

 

When George Bousliman called a few months ago and invited me to come, I said, ‘What could I possibly talk about that would be of interest to members of the State Bar of Montana?’ He said, ‘The truth is, we don’t really care what you say; what we really want is a cover boy for The Montana Lawyer.’

Well, I have my pride. I want to be loved for my intellect, not just my face. So, I decided to talk on a totally irrelevant topic that I know a little something about: How to lose an appeal.

* * *

First, you want to tell the judges right up front that you have a rotten case. The best way to do this is to file a fat brief. So if the rules give you 50 *6 pages, ask for 75, 90, 125–the more the better. Even if you don’t get the extra pages, you will let the judges know you don’t have an argument capable of being presented in a simple, direct, persuasive fashion. Keep in mind that simple arguments are winning arguments; convoluted arguments are sleeping pills on paper.

But don’t just rely on the length of your brief to telegraph that you haven’t got much of a case. No. Try to come up with something that will annoy the judges, make it difficult for them to read what you have written and make them mistrust whatever they can read. Here are a few suggestions: Bind your brief so that it falls apart when the judge gets about half way through it. Or you could try a little trick recently used by a major law firm: Assemble your brief so that every other page reads upside down. This is likely to induce motion sickness and it’s always a fine idea to have the judge associate your argument with nausea. Also–this is a biggie–make sure your photocopier is low on toner or take a key and scratch the glass so it will put annoying lines on every page.

Best of all, cheat on the page limit. . . .

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Student Guide to Footnotes and Citations in Scholarly Writing.

22 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Citations, Footnotes, Legal Writing, Research, The Bluebook

≈ Comments Off on Student Guide to Footnotes and Citations in Scholarly Writing.

Tags

Citations, Footnotes, Law Review Articles, Legal Writing Prof Blog, Mark E. Wojcik, Professor William Mock, SSRN

When a Rose Isn’t ‘Arose’ Isn’t Arroz: A Student Guide to Footnoting for Informational Clarity and Scholarly Discourse, by Mark E. Wojcik, Legal Writing Prof Blog

http://tinyurl.com/nm4p2x6

Professor William Mock has authored an article meant to help students cite more sensibly. The article begins with welcome advice: ‘Not every proposition in a law review articles requires citation, nor does every footnote require cited authority.’ (And in case you’re worried already, that sentence has two footnotes in the orginal!).

It is the kind of article that should be given to incoming law journal editorial boards to help student editors (and research assistants) understand the distinctions among different types of footnotes.

You can share this link for students to download a copy of the paper from SSRN.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1019891

(With students, we recommend giving the link rather than the document itself so that students will also learn how to do research on SSRN–a source that gives them information not found on Westlaw or Lexis or Bloomberg).

If law journals adopt more sensible rules for citations rather than strict mathematical formulas (such as 1.8 pages of footnotes for each page of text), law reviews have a chance to increase their readability and usefulness to readers.

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Handouts From The Writing Center.

18 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Citations, Footnotes, Legal Writing, Plagiarism, Plain Language, Proofreading, Quotations, Readability, Spell Checking

≈ Comments Off on Handouts From The Writing Center.

Tags

Grammar & Punctuation, Handouts, Legal Writing, The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Writing, Writing Guide

Handouts, The Writing Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/

Not necessarily for legal writers, but downright handy nonetheless. The folks who put this together are kind enough to share this valuable resource, and welcome your ideas and suggestions. At the bottom of the post’s page, you will find contact information for contributions. Please give back if you can as thanks for this thoughtful gift. -CCE

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Best Brief Writing Checklist.

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Bad Legal Writing, Brief Writing, Citations, Footnotes, Legal Analysis, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Legalese, Plain Language, Proofreading, Quotations, Readability, Spell Checking, Statement of Facts, Summary of the Argument

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Brief Writing, Citations, Hon. Patricia M. Wald, Legal Argument, Persuasive Writing, Proofreading

“Briefly Speaking,” Brief Writing – Best Practices, Washington State Court of Appeals, Division I, CLE

 http://tinyurl.com/lsrzxjy

This is the essence of writing a persuasive and winning brief. Each section is important. Ignore the guidance here at your peril.

The icing on the cake is the advice from the Hon. Patricia M. Wald, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, taken from her article, “19 Tips from 19 Years on the Appellate Bench,” The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Winter 1999).  She is right – this is your opportunity to tell your client’s story. Short and to the point is always more persuasive than long-winded recitations of fact and case law.

Make this your brief writing checklist. -CCE

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Judges Prefer “Plain Language.” If This Is True, Then Why Don’t We Use It?

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Appellate Judges, Citations, Federal Judges, Footnotes, Judges, Legal Analysis, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Legalese, Texas Supreme Court

≈ Comments Off on Judges Prefer “Plain Language.” If This Is True, Then Why Don’t We Use It?

Tags

Bryan Garner, Clarence Darrow, Joseph Kimble, Legal Writing, Michigan Bar Journal, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Plain English Submittee, Plain Language, Texas Plain Language Committee

 Judges on Effective Writing: The Importance of Plain Language, by Bryan Garner, Michigan Bar Journal Plain Language Committee

http://tinyurl.com/qf8fhsf

 (‘‘Plain Language’’ is a regular feature of the Michigan Bar Journal, edited by Joseph Kimble for the Plain English Subcommittee of the Publications and Website Advisory Committee. We seek to improve the clarity of legal writing and the public opinion of lawyers by eliminating legalese. Want to contribute a plain-English article? Contact Prof. Kimble at Thomas Cooley Law School, P.O. Box 13038, Lansing, MI 48901. For information about the Plain English Committee, see our website—http://www.michbar.org/generalinfo/plainenglish/home.cfm.)

Lawyers are notoriously poor at gauging what judges prefer in legal writing. Too many of us believe, for example, that judges expect us to use legalese. In 1991, when the Texas Plain-Language Committee surveyed all the state district and appellate judges in Texas, we found that more than 80 percent prefer plain language (Plaintiff complains of Defendant and says) over legalese (Now comes the Plaintiff, by and through his attorneys of record, Darrow and Holmes, and for his Original Petition in this cause would respectfully show unto the Court the following). Indeed, several judges responded to the survey with a plea that we stamp out legalese once and for all. . . .

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A Recommendation for Legal Writing Experts.

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in ALWD, Brief Writing, Citations, Footnotes, Legal Analysis, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Parentheses, Spell Checking, The Bluebook

≈ Comments Off on A Recommendation for Legal Writing Experts.

Tags

Advanced Legal Writing & Editing, Bryan Garner, Legal Writing, Making Your Case, Raymond Ward, the (new) legal writer, The ALWD Citation Manual, The Bluebook, The Redbook

The Redbook (3d ed.), by Raymond Ward, the (new) legal writer blog

http://tinyurl.com/nlqx3zy

If Raymond Ward says it, you can take it to the bank. I have followed his legal writing blog for years. Look for sound advice on superb legal writing. -CCE

Today I attended a triple-feature CLE by Bryan Garner: Advanced Legal Writing & Editing, The Redbook, and Making Your Case. To see whether Bryan’s spring tour will visit your city, click here to see the schedule. What I want to talk about this evening is what I learned in the Redbook portion of the seminar.

For years, I have had the first edition of the Redbook on my office bookshelf. For those unfamiliar with this book, it’s a style manual for legal writers. If you have a question about the right word, right punctuation, or right way to do something in legal writing, this book endeavors to answer your question. I’ve found it a useful reference for answering questions that arisen when writing a brief or editing another’s brief.

First, this preface: I am not one who immediately buys the next edition of whatever if the current edition remains serviceable. I use so-called outdated versions of the Bluebook and ALWD Citation Manual, because they still answer any question I have ever had about how to cite something. So since the first edition of the Redbook has served me well, I did not rush out to buy the second or third editions.

Having said that, here is my point: if you don’t have the third edition, get it. . . .

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The Legal Writing Debate on Footnotes Continues.

08 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Appellate Law, Brief Writing, Citations, Court Rules, Footnotes, Legal Writing

≈ Comments Off on The Legal Writing Debate on Footnotes Continues.

Tags

ABA Journal, Brief Writing, Bryan Garner, Citations, Footnotes, Jason Steed, Ledet v. Seasafe, Legal Writing, Louisiana Appellate Court, New York Times, Raymond Ward, Rich Phillips, the (new) legal writer

The Never Ending Debate Over Citational Footnotes, by Raymond Ward, the (new) legal writer

http://tinyurl.com/lh3t2co

Mr. Ward gives us a brief overview in these two paragraphs. In the remainder of his post, Mr. Ward expands on his variations for citations in footnotes and the preferences of Fifth Circuit judges  I mean no disrespect to Mr. Garner, but if Mr. Ward gives advice on legal writing, I pay attention. -CCE

Who would have thought that, for over 13 years now, the most controversial subject among litigation-oriented legal writers would be the location of legal citations in footnotes versus in text? Back in the spring of 2001, a judge in an intermediate Louisiana appellate court, in writing the majority’s opinion in a case, put her legal citations in footnotes. This drew a concurring opinion from the chief judge (withdrawn before final publication), agreeing with the result but objecting to the use of footnotes for citations. So the author wrote her own concurring opinion defending her use of footnotes. The case is Ledet v. Seasafe, Inc., 783 So. 2d 611 (La. App. 3 Cir. 2001). The controversy stirred up by Ledet caught the attention of the New York Times. Here is my own little casenote on Ledet.

Fast-forward 13 years. Bryan Garner writes an article for the ABA Journal recommending the use of footnotes for legal citations—a position he’s held since I took my first Garner seminar in 1998. His fellow Texans Rich Phillips and Jason Steed write blog posts begging to differ. Different decade, pretty much the same debate.

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Use Footnotes for Legal Citations?

07 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Brief Writing, Citations, Footnotes, Legal Writing

≈ Comments Off on Use Footnotes for Legal Citations?

Tags

ABA Journal, Bryan Garner, Citations, Footnotes, Legal Writing, Legal Writing Prof, Legal Writing Prof Blog

Garner Argues For Footnotes In Judicial Opinions, by Legal Writing Prof, Legal Writing Prof Blog

http://tinyurl.com/jwd8rpg

Count me as one who disagrees with putting citations in footnotes. Mr. Garner has advocated this position for some time, and he has won some converts.

When I am reading a brief or opinion, I want to look at the citation at the time I am reading the argument. The strength of the authority will influence how persuaded I will be by the argument. Because persuading the reader is basically what legal writing is all about, I do not want my reader to lose focus or be distracted in any way. For me, having to move my eyes down to a footnote to find the authority used for an argument would tedious and irritating. I am afraid that I will never agree with Mr. Garner on this point. -CCE

In his February ABA Journal column, Bryan Garner continues his long-running campaign for footnotes in judicial opinions. He argues that citations in the text make legal writing cumbersome. And he points out that while they might have been practical in the days of the typewriter, now “we can easily sweep those interruptions out of the way.”

Garner admits that not everyone agrees with him; so far, only a minority of judges has adopted his proposal. . . .

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Do You Know Whether Your Judge Uses an iPad or Tablet? Find Out Before You Submit Your Next Brief.

28 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Apple, Brief Writing, Footnotes, iPad, Judges, Legal Technology, Legal Writing, Trial Tips and Techniques

≈ Comments Off on Do You Know Whether Your Judge Uses an iPad or Tablet? Find Out Before You Submit Your Next Brief.

Tags

Columbia Business Law Review, Daniel Sockwell, Eugene Volokh, iPad, Matthew Butterick, Typography for Lawyers

Writing a Brief for the iPad Judge, by Daniel Sockwell, Columbia Business Law Review

http://cblr.columbia.edu/archives/12940

‘Know your audience’ is a fundamental rule of skillful writing. For lawyers writing briefs in the 21st century, a key part of knowing your judicial audience is knowing what device will display your brief. While some judges print briefs and read the hard copy, a quiet revolution is occurring: more and more judges are reading briefs primarily on iPads or other tablets. According to experts on legal writing, this change in reading should trigger a similarly significant change in writing.

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Legal Writers, This Blog Is For You.

22 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in ALWD, Brief Writing, Citations, Footnotes, Legal Writing, Legislative History, Quotations, The Bluebook

≈ Comments Off on Legal Writers, This Blog Is For You.

Citing Legally Blog, by Peter W. Martin, Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law Emeritus, Cornell

http://citeblog.access-to-law.com/

If you have any interest in the fine points of legal citation and legal writing, this is the blog for you. Citation master, Peter Martin, who holds  an endowed chair named for the late Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law Emeritus at Cornell, has created a forum to discuss and elaborate on citations as they are used by counsel and the court.

This is a “must bookmark” for anyone interested in legal writing, cite-checking, or how to cite properly. Please click on “About – Scope and Purpose” to read more about the authors’ intent for this blog. -CCE

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A Plan to Stop Link Rot Forever – Perma CC

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Citations, Footnotes, Law Libraries, Legal Technology, Legal Writing, Link Rot

≈ Comments Off on A Plan to Stop Link Rot Forever – Perma CC

Tags

Citations, Footnotes, GigaOM, Law Libraries, Link Rot, Perma CC, U.S. Supreme Court

A web page that lasts forever: the plan to stop “link rot” in law and science, by Jeff John Roberts, GigaOM
http://gigaom.com/tag/perma-cc/

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