Many courts and judges have specific rules about the format of documents that counsel file. Ignoring these rules can draw the ire of the court and, in some cases, lead to sanctions.

In a recent case, a district court judge rebuked a party for circumventing a court's order limiting the number of pages of its response brief. In a case arising out of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the court issued an order allowing the defendant to file a response brief that was no longer than 35 pages double-spaced. Although the defendant filed a brief that was 35 pages, it did so by reducing the line spacing to less than double. When converted to double-spacing, the response brief exceeded the limit by approximately six pages. The judge called the defendant's attempt to skirt the court's order inappropriate and stated that the court would strike any future briefs that did not conform to its rules. (See Order, In re Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "Deepwater Horizon" in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, 2:10-md-02179, at *3 (E.D. La. Sept. 15, 2014).)

Before filing any document with the court, counsel should be sure to check any formatting requirements the court and judge may have. These rules often specify:

These rules also may set out requirements for:

Practical Law has a variety of resources to help counsel ensure their briefs conform to the formatting rules of the court, including:

For more formatting checklists, see Court Filing Checklists.

For links to all federal court local rules, see Westlaw's Federal Court Rules page.