Maryland Supreme Court approves new font list for appellate briefs

For the first time in more than 26 years, Maryland lawyers have new font options for the briefs they file in the state’s appellate courts.

In an administrative order issued last week, Chief Justice Matthew J. Fader approved an updated list of fonts for filings in the Maryland Supreme Court and Appellate Court.

The list comes two months after the justices received a letter from Joseph Dudek, an insurance coverage and appellate attorney at Kramon & Graham, P.A., requesting a modernized font selection. According to Fader’s order, the font list had not been updated since July 1, 1997.

The new list includes some tried-and-true favorites, such as Times New Roman and Helvetica. It also includes Century Schoolbook, the font of choice for the U.S. Supreme Court, and Georgia, a font designed for easy readability on screens.

The issue of font choice can prompt passionate debate among appellate lawyers and judges, who read thousands of pages of briefs as they handle cases. Choosing a font that is easy on the eyes and keeps the reader moving is critical for attorneys who want to ensure judges make it through their entire argument as painlessly as possible.

Though the Maryland justices’ deliberative process remains shrouded in secrecy — a spokesman for the judiciary said Fader’s order speaks for itself — Dudek believes the practicing bar can glean information from the new font choices.

The inclusion of Georgia and Georgia Pro, for example, suggests that the justices are reading a lot of appellate briefs on screens.

“I think this tells us something,” Dudek said. “Namely, that when we’re drafting our briefs, we should be thinking that (the justices are) going to have them on their screen and not necessarily in their hands.”

That could make a difference for formatting, he said. Footnotes, which are convenient when a reader is using a physical document and can jump quickly from the top to the bottom of the page, make less sense on a computer, where the reader might need to scroll if they don’t have the entire page on their screen.

The Court also approved a few sans serif fonts, including Lexend, a font designed by an educational therapist to help students read more easily.

“It’s probably a very accessible font for folks who might have any trouble reading a brief,” Dudek said. “That’s a cool inclusion.”

The new list also removes some oddities that were included previously.

Britannic, which didn’t make it onto the new list, is only available in bold in current versions of Microsoft Word. Century Gothic, a sans-serif font from the old list, is nearly identical to the one used on Weezer’s album covers. It also did not make the cut.

Fonts from the old list can still be used in appellate briefs until Dec. 31.

Dudek is encouraged that his letter spurred the justices to review their font choices and come up with a new list, even if it doesn’t include some of the fonts that he suggested.

“That bodes well, not just for having smart, readable documents now, but for the court coming back to this once in a while and thinking about what they want to see,” he said.