Electronic Briefs: Legal Writing to Win 2015

Slides about the process I use to make e-briefs for Texas courts. (For space reasons, this deck leaves out the video clips showing a few specific details.)

Transcript

1. Electronic Briefs Legal Writing to Win 2015 January 13, 2015 Don Cruse
2. The starting point: minimal compliance 1. Generate native PDF of the brief using a word processor or Acrobat — not scanning 2. Applying OCR to any scanned exhibits so that they are also searchable PDFs 3. Combining multiple PDFs so that your brief and its appendix items are in a single PDF file 4. Having a bookmark entry for each appendix item (Adobe does for you when “combining” PDFs) 5. Using the e-filing system to submit the PDF
3. Website for the Texas Supreme Court Adobe’s blog aimed at lawyers My previous talks on the subject http://bit.ly/scotx-ebriefs http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/ http://doncruse.com/talks.html Guides to achieving minimal compliance
4. The uncharted world beyond minimal compliance
5. As with other aspects of legal writing... Aim to improve the experience for judicial readers
9. The “screens” I was using at the time of that 2006 study
10. Smaller, 
 clearer Multiple, big-screen monitors at judges’ desks Now we have bigger, clearer screens
11. 2007 2010 2002 2014 2011 And much smaller screens as well
12. The judge may have a desktop, a court- issued iPad, and a personal laptop. The law clerk’s setup may be different, too. Increasing fragmentation: One brief, many screens
13. E-briefs work a bit differently on each platform — and you can't be certain which the reader will use
14. Concept from web design
 Progressive Enhancement
17. The raw text of the brief Formatting, typography, PDF More advanced e-brief features Start with the basics. Add features that will enhance the experience for readers who are using software that can fully support them.
18. Goodreader iAnnotate Acrobat (iOS) iBooks Longer bookmarks can fit by shrinking text size to fit Truncates Truncates Shows full text Nested rows show on separate panes Nested rows show on separate panes Nested rows show on separate panes Shows all levels Shown by default Can toggle setting to show box-style links Work but box-style links are not shown Do not work "Back" button shown in main menu Can customize menu to add "back" No "back" button N/A Bookmarks Hyperlinks
19. What I’ve Learned About Making E-Briefs
20. The key steps I follow today • In the word processor, the cites that will eventually become hyperlinks are styled to be blue • The bookmarks are made by hand in Acrobat, with short signposts placed flat to the left (not nested) • The internal PDF page numbering is set in Acrobat* • In Acrobat, the hyperlinks are invisible boxes on top of the blue text set in the word processor • The PDF metadata is tweaked to reveal bookmarks* *Some of these features display on the desktop but not on an iPad
21. Bookmarks That Are iPad-Friendly
22. 2011 survey Q. If you have seen the bookmark feature, did it make the briefs easier to use? 9% 91% Among All Court Staff Yes No 100% ...Limited to Justices Graph shows those who answered “Yes” or “No” rather than “Unsure”. Thursday, June 2, 2011 Judges
    Bookmarks
23. Judges
    Bookmarks From a 2014 paper by Deputy Clerk Michael Cruz
24. As of 2012, the Texas appellate judiciary has these.
25. And they can use whichever PDF app they prefer. iAnnotate PDF GoodReader Legal Viewer Adobe Reader
26. - Rather than copying the full headings from your brief,
 use short phrases that don’t need to fold - Rather than formally nesting each subheading, keep bookmarks on the same level, so that they can all be visible at once. (You can create a similar visual effect to nesting if you insert spaces at the beginning of each subheading.) How I approach bookmarks today (I make these by hand by highlighting part of the heading a typing "control-B".)
27. This style of bookmark works well on the iPad. Here’s how they look in Goodreader.
28. PDF Page Numbering
29. Hyperlinks to Key Cases and Exhibits
30. Should every possible citation be linked? • One school says every link might help. And completeness is an alluring idea. • But links are an invitation for the reader to stop reading. Should advocates be selective about spending the court’s attention? • Reality: Your brief is read different ways at different points in the process.
31. “I would hyperlink everything” “You never know what I’m going to think is important” Justice Wainwright on what to link Limited by cost or making filing cumbersome
32. Some links can signal importance The key case, “that tells me something” Key part of the record or diagram Justice Johnson on hyperlinks as emphasis
33. http://www.roughtype.com/?p=1378 Hyperlinks have a cost: Reader attention
34. filed (assuming a response was filed) as well as time for the Justices to review the response and any reply. E. Review of Petitions 1. Amount of Review The practices of the Justices vary with respect to their initially reviewing petitions for review, mandamus and habeas corpus in order to mark the purple vote sheets. Not all the Justices will read all the petitions each time. Some use their court staff to summarize petitions and flag those deemed worthy of further study, and some read all the petitions each time. Although it may vary somewhat, most Justices say they spend a maximum of 15 minutes per petition package, which includes reviewing the petition, court of appeals opinion, and response (if any). 2. Manner of Review The order in which the matters in the petition package are reviewed by the Justices also varies. Some start with the court of appeals’ opinion, since the Court is reviewing the opinion for error. Some start with the issue statements and then look at the court of appeals’ opinion. Some start with the during th the term August conferen the Cour day, the 9:00 a.m Austin, whether reschedu session, schedule Court w Court us week.. 2. Len Typ end betw the term usually l one-half 3. Atte
35. What should hyperlinks look like? On the web, the longtime default for hyperlinks is blue underlined text Acrobat views links as being a rectangle, not text. You can set it to be visible or invisible. I take a hybrid approach. While writing the brief, I style the anchor text blue within the word processor. Later, in Acrobat, I draw an invisible rectangle around that anchor text.
36. 3. in the window that pops up, choose “go to a page view” 1. click the “link” icon in the toolbar 2. draw a box around the text of the citation 4. navigate to that page (using bookmarks, previous links, etc.) 5. click “Set link” Making the actual hyperlink
 using Acrobat Pro
37. A few tips for making hyperlinks If your citations are savvy, search can help find the next citation that needs a hyperlink. Use the bookmarks you’ve made to find the right appendix containing the link target. If your page numbers identify specific appendices, you can use that ‘go to page’ box to jump directly to the right spot. If you link to the same specific pinpoint more than once on a page, you can copy and paste the link.
38. Tweaking the 
 PDF Metadata
39. Set the "Initial View" to show your bookmarks This is the setting you want.
40. Test a Sample Brief on Different Devices
41. At least once, test on different devices Use the same software, and same computers, that you would use to make a real brief. (You want the same fonts, same program versions, etc.) Test how the resulting PDF looks in: • A different computer running Acrobat, ideally one that does not have your office’s fonts or other customizations. • An iPad to see how it looks in the major PDF readers (especially those you do not yourself use). • A web browser in which the Acrobat plugin has been disabled. (You can do this easily in Firefox or Chrome.)