12 not 11

The Ohio Supreme Court has announced some rule changes that include modification of the rules governing pro hac vice admission.

 One rule remains the same:

One area of the Rules of Practice that hasn’t changed is the requirement that the text of all documents shall be at least 12-point, double-spaced non-condensed type.

Rule 8.4(A)(3) states: “The text of all documents shall be at least 12-point, double-spaced noncondensed type. Footnotes and quotations may be singled-spaced; however, they shall also be in 12-point, noncondensed type. As used in this provision, ‘noncondensed type’ shall refer either to Times News Roman type or to another type that has no more than eighty characters to a line of text.”

Kristina Frost, Clerk of the Court, said it’s important to issue a reminder from time to time to make sure documents are easy to read and comply with page limit requirements.

“We have noticed more and more documents submitted in 11-point type, which may be the result of a default setting on some word processing programs. We are encouraging attorneys to double-check the font size of documents they plan to file with the Court.”

This reminds me of the classic scene in This is Spinal Tap – when we need an extra push, we go to 11. (Mike Frisch)