{"id":9169,"date":"2010-03-02T12:14:45","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T17:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=9169"},"modified":"2010-03-02T16:02:57","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T21:02:57","slug":"capitalization-in-briefs-to-a-trial-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/03\/capitalization-in-briefs-to-a-trial-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitalization in Briefs to a Trial Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-9170\" title=\"chart_capital\" src=\"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/chart_capital-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"chart_capital\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>Right now, our first-year students are finalizing their trial-level briefs in the LAWR 2 course.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been discussing when to capitalize certain words in a brief.\u00a0 Here are the general rules according to the 18<sup>th<\/sup> edition of the Bluebook.\u00a0 (Rule 8 and B10.6):<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>1. \u00a0When to capitalize references to a court:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Referring to the U.S. Supreme Court (by full name or \u201cthe Court\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>Referring to a court by its proper name (\u201cthe Wisconsin Supreme Court\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>Referring to the court reading your brief (\u201cthis Court should find\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>But NOT capitalized:\u00a0 Referring to a precedent decision (\u201cIn 1977, the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Shepard<\/span> court held\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2. \u00a0When to capitalize party designations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Capitalize references to parties in the current action.<\/li>\n<li>Example:\u00a0 \u201cDefendant Carlson failed to stop at the intersection and hit Plaintiff Jordan\u2019s car.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Note that when referring to a party without adding their last name, add the word \u201cthe.\u201d\u00a0 <em>See<\/em> Anne Enquist &amp; Laurel Oates, <em>Just Writing<\/em> 265 (3d ed. 2009).<\/li>\n<li>Example:\u00a0 \u201cPlaintiff Ludke alleges that <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">the<\/span> Defendant committed theft by contractor.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3. \u00a0Capitalize the specific titles of court documents, but not generic references to court documents.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example:\u00a0 \u201cIn the Plaintiff\u2019s Brief in Support of His Motion to Dismiss\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Example: \u00a0&#8220;The Court\u2019s order provided that\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4. \u00a0When to capitalize references to a constitution:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Capitalize \u201cConstitution\u201d when referring to the U.S. Constitution or another constitution by its full name.<\/li>\n<li>In a generic reference, the Wisconsin Constitution becomes \u201cthe constitution,\u201d but the United States Constitution is still capitalized as \u201cthe Constitution.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>5. \u00a0When to capitalize references to a state:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Capitalize \u201cstate\u201d when referring to the state as a party to litigation (\u201cthe State brought this action\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>Capitalize the full title of a state or the word it modifies is capitalized (\u201cthe State of Kansas\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>6. \u00a0When to capitalize certain nouns:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Capitalize nouns referring to \u201cspecific persons, officials, groups, government offices, or government bodies\u201d (the FDA or Congress)<\/li>\n<li>Capitalize acts when referring to a specific act by name (the National Labor Relations Act)<\/li>\n<li>Capitalize specific codes (the 1959 Code)<\/li>\n<li>Capitalize circuits when using a number (the Seventh Circuit)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right now, our first-year students are finalizing their trial-level briefs in the LAWR 2 course.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been discussing when to capitalize certain words in a brief.\u00a0 Here are the general rules according to the 18th edition of the Bluebook.\u00a0 (Rule 8 and B10.6):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-writing","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}