As the end of 2020 approaches, a sui generis year if there ever was one, there is one more thing to mourn: the death of the Font Times New Roman. This is a font we love. We use this font in our pleadings, and on this blog.
The Florida Supreme Court took the font out, and like a defendant appealing the denial of a motion to suppress an illegal search, the Florida Supreme Court put the last nail in the coffin.
You may not, repeat, you mayn't use Times New Roman in your appellate briefs in 2021. So say we all. Per curiam killed. It's over Johnny. The font is dead. Long live the font.
Effective January 1, 2021 at 12:03 a.m., the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure have been modified to require, among other things, that computer-generated documents be filed in either Arial 14-point font or Bookman Old Style 14-point font. In addition, the page limits for computer-generated briefs and petitions were converted to word counts. The changes also require that the certificate of compliance at the end of a document which is subject to a word count certify that the document is in conformity with all font and word count requirements. To ensure compliance with the new requirements, all filers are encouraged to review the Supreme Court of Florida’s opinion at: https://www.floridasupremecour
The above is Arial font. To use a technical legal term....it sucks.
We, of aging eyes and shortening arms, support the use of 14 point font. But we mourn the death of a font that has been the tip of the spear of our briefs and motions which have skewered legions of opponents. The written word, so beautifully conveyed in Times New Roman, has freed many a client.
But now, Covid-like, with the stroke of a pen, the Supremes have unleashed a pathogen that will inexorably alter written arguments in Florida for ever after.
Today we mourn. Goodbye old friend. We had a great run.
(Have we mentioned we really don't like this order? Font Lives Matter!)
7 comments:
The Captain Reports:
For a great laugh, you must read Dave Barry's end of the year recap. Some highlights, as only Dave Barry could write it:
We’re trying to think of something nice to say about 2020.
Okay, here goes: Nobody got killed by the murder hornets. As far as we know.
That’s pretty much it.
.........
In the past, writing these annual reviews, we have said harsh things about previous years. We owe those years an apology. Compared to 2020, all previous years, even the Disco Era, were the golden age of human existence.
This was a year of nonstop awfulness, a year when we kept saying it couldn’t possibly get worse, and it always did. This was a year in which our only moments of genuine, unadulterated happiness were when we were able to buy toilet paper.
.......
Which is fitting, because 2020 was one long, howling, Category 5 crapstorm.
We sincerely don’t want to relive this year. But our job is to review it. If you would prefer to skip this exercise in masochism, we completely understand.
If, however, you wish, for some sick reason, to re-experience 2020, now is the time to put on your face mask, douse your entire body with hand sanitizer and then — to be safe — don a hazmat suit, as we look back at the unrelenting insanity of this hideous year, starting with …
JANUARY .......
Eventually, however, the articles arrive at the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch “The Undertaker” McConnell promises that the impeachment issue will receive full and fair consideration. He is of course joking, but this is not obvious, because even when Mitch is in a jovial mood he looks like a man passing a kidney stone the size of the Hope Diamond.
.......
This year, in an effort to modernize the caucuses, the Iowa Democratic Party has upgraded from its old-fashioned manual reporting procedures to a modern, state-of-the-art “app” based on the same software used in the Boeing 737 Max airliner.
.......
In other political news, Iowa Democratic Party officials sense that there may be a problem with their new “app” when it declares that the winner of the state’s caucuses, with 43 million delegates, is Walter Mondale, followed by the Houston Astros (who also win the Super Bowl). This fiasco does not sit well with the Democratic presidential candidates, who realize they have wasted an entire year trudging around Iowa eating fried objects on sticks and pretending to care about Iowans.
.......
https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/12/27/dave-barrys-year-review-2020/?arc404=true
CAP OUT .......
Times New Roman is easier to read and comprehend than Arial because, being the most common font, familiarity brings faster and more efficient optical scanning by the eyes and computational processing by the brain in a manner similar as how muscle memory makes manual tasks easier. Middle-aged and older people who are used to reading newspapers, books and magazines printed on Times New Roman font will have a hard time with other fonts. Perhaps a petition based on ADA or age-disicrimination grounds could sway the Florida Supremes?
Next amendment will be to require that the briefs be written in Latin or Norman French, which will make The Forms of Action at Common Law a bestseller again.
I used to use Arial before the Supreme Court found micromanaging fonts was in the penumbra of the Florida constitution. Eventually I got to like Times New Roman. So perhaps this is being done just to mess with my mind. Maybe it is a generational power-shift. I miss the generation that trusted lawyers to pick their own font.
How come we never hear about the font preferences of people of color or how font decisions affect people of color (particularly Black and brown people)? The Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure are a White man's rules, and the people need to stand up.
So picayune. However, Scalia, in one of his books on how to argue before the Supreme Court, recommended Century Schoolbook as the preferred font.
Font lives matter 5:09
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