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#lang pollen
◊ ( define - meta title "how to interpret court rules" )
◊ ( section - from - metas metas )
Among legal documents , court filings must conform to the narrowest typographic restrictions — court rules . But except for a few jurisdictions , court rules still give lawyers a fair amount of typographic latitude .
So why do 99.99 % of the court filings in any jurisdiction look alike ?
◊ ( omission )
◊ subhead { why do court rules about typography exist ? }
Consistency of typography in court filings helps ensure fairness to the parties . For instance , in jurisdictions that use page limits , if lawyer A sets his briefs at 12 point and lawyer B sets hers at 10 point , then lawyer B will get more words per page . Court rules about typography prevent abuse of these limits .
Court rules about typography also exist as a convenience to the judge and the court staff . Judges don ’ t want to read sheaves of 9 - point text . Rules that set minimum page margins or point size ensure a minimum standard of legibility .
◊ ( omission )
Keep in mind that court rules about typography are not designed to produce good typography . That ’ s your job . Court rules set minimums and maximums . They ’ re usually phrased in terms of “ at least ” and “ no more than . ” Very rarely do they completely eliminate discretion .
I ’ m not suggesting you should use this discretion to be different for the sake of being different . Rather , you should use this discretion to fill in what the court rules deliberately leave incomplete .