Speaking of Document Design…

To follow up on Tonya’s post (something I do regularly because she has many good posts) regarding font choice, I thought I’d raise a few questions about document design generally.  I say “raise a few questions” because I wonder two things: 1) how many of you consider some of these questions when writing a brief; 2) how many of you think it’s a waste of time to consider these questions when writing a brief?  Here are a few basic design choices, other than the font choice question that Tonya already raised:

• Should I use “full” or “left” justification?
• What’s the “best” way to format the text in headings?
• Should I use hanging indents in my headings?
• Does it matter if I leave a heading “orphaned” at the bottom of a page in the argument section?
• How much space should I put between lines?
• How much space should I put between sentences?
• How much space should I leave in the margins?
• How should I format case citations in the table of authorities?  Case name and reporter cite all on one line?  Reporter cite on line below the case name?
• Can I create dot leaders in a way that leaves a consistent margin on the right side of the table of contents and table of authorities?
• How far should I indent paragraphs?
• Should I underline or italicize citations?

Tonya mentioned a good source that answers some of these questions: Matthew Butterick’s Typography for Lawyers (2010).  Here are two others in case you’re interested:

• Ruth Anne Robbins, Painting with print: Incorporating concepts of typographic and layout design into the text of legal writing documents, 2 J. Ass’n Legal Writing Directors 108 (2004)
• Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals style rules:  http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/rules/type.pdf