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On Fonts: Why Lawyers Should Switch To Century Schoolbook

By Judge Richard Dietz, Drew Erteschik, Clark TewJ.M. Durnovich

Introduction

We know what you’re thinking:  Why should I care about fonts?  The authors of this article—an appellate judge and a few litigators—would like to answer this question in two parts.

The first part discusses the current font norms for North Carolina lawyers, and why the fonts favored by those norms are not optimal for legal writing.

The second part briefly describes how fonts within the Century family increase readability and retention—features that can give lawyers a competitive edge.

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Key Changes to NC Rules of Appellate Procedure

By Laura Graham

On Jan. 1, 2017, a comprehensive revision of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure took effect. The revised Rules apply to all cases appealed on or after Jan. 1. The revised Rules include some brand new provisions, and they also incorporate several changes that had been in effect for some time pursuant to stand-alone orders of the North Carolina Supreme Court.[1]  The revised Rules are available here: http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/html/pdf/therules.pdf.

No doubt, attorneys who regularly handle appeals have already scoured the revised Rules for brand new changes. But for the benefit of the rest of us, I’ve chosen to highlight five provisions in the revised Rules; the first three are new changes, and the other two are codifications of prior stand-alone changes.

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