Monday, December 28, 2020

Quiet week

 It's a quiet week in courthouses around the country.  But that didn't stop Rumpole from going after the Florida Supreme Court for doing away with Times New Roman in this order.  It's a really strange order that goes into effect at 12:03 January 1.  12:03??  It also requires two awful fonts -- Arial or Bookman Old Style.  Weird.

But Times New Roman is a bad font for legal documents.  The U.S. Supreme Court uses Century Schoolbook, and that's the font that should be the default for all legal pleadings.  There's lots out there explaining why Times New Roman is terrible (here, here, here, and here for example).

Anyway, this is what you get when it's a slow court week.  

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Time New Roman is the font equivalent of a dark, solid colored suit, with a clean white shirt, and a simple tie. It says "I am not the show, the arguments are the show." It is the most lawyerly and professional font, and it is that BECAUSE it is the font of default (not in spite of it).

I do not understand the individualistic backlash against Times New Roman. When I see lawyers and judges writing in any other font, I imagine something between powdered wigs and long tailed jackets, those clowns that go to court in colorful checkered suits (did you forgot the squeaky nose at home?), and/or state court hackery. And if you're writing in Calibri, you might as well punctuate your legal arguments with "LOL" and "wtf."

But it seems that either I am in a shrinking minority, or the Florida Supreme Court likes powdered wigs.

Robert Kuntz said...

Calisto MT for the win.

Clean, classic-looking, justifies and kerns beautifully.

(But we can at least all agree that, so long as folks only put a single space after a period in documents using proportional typefaces, the rest is of lesser importance.)

Anonymous said...

And please do not right justify.

Anonymous said...

Amazing there are still judges writing orders and opinions in fully-justified Courier font. Courier!
David they sort-of explain the 12:03 thing at the end of their notice of the rule change posted on the FSSC website:
https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/News-Media/Court-News/New-font-requirements-for-appeals-briefs-take-effect-Jan.-1

Anonymous said...

What do you mean don't right justify? If you aren't right justifying, you might as well be writing a comic book strip.

Anonymous said...

Yeah nothing better than reading
l i n e s t h a t l o o k l i k e t h i s .

Anonymous said...

Stretch Armstrong says hit the hard return at the end of goofy spacing, like at 2:17 PM.

I always liked Arial, but Times New Roman really is the gold standard.

I think the backlash is due to Times New Roman being a fake font and further backlash against The New York Times... (holiday humor, flames off!)

Anonymous said...

The government can't make us wear masks to protect our health but can force us to use a terrible font.