Correct names of Indiana state courts don't include the word "county"

Names of Indiana’s state courts (e.g., Marion Circuit Court) don’t include the word county. Many lawyers, court staff members, and even judges and judicial candidates make this mistake. It’s the sort of thing I always correct but never mention. But it’s also something I learned to catch as a law clerk for the Indiana Supreme Court.

Roundup for August 11, 2015

Here are the posts to the Tatum's Tips Facebook feed, and blog since the last roundup.

Posts to the blog

Correct names of Indiana state courts don't include the word county.

Are briefs due on election day in Indiana?

Indiana lawyers: make sure to start tracking pro bono hours and gifts to legal-services groups. 

Changes to the Indiana Appellate Rules in January 2015.

Use a duplicate contact to simplify changing Outlook forwarding rules in transitions.

How is Judge Altice's replacement on the Marion Superior Court selected? 

Get your Table of Authorities to sort things right.

Stories from around the Internet posted to the Facebook page

 Federal judge imposes arbitrary definition of double-spacing on BP's lawyers, media goes wild. NPR coverage here. Guide on typography with advice on line-spacing here. The order is here.

How to adjust who triggers notifications in your Facebook toolbar. And more general help on notifications here.

The basics of good typography. (If you don't have time for Typography for Lawyers or perusing its companion "Practical Typography."

Test your document's readability. The article's here. Analysis of the accessibility of presidential speeches here. NPR story covering the analysis here.

Don't use headline-style headings. Instead, use sentence-style caps. Article here.

What is an en-dash? Article here.

Let's eliminate Courier from modern typography. Article here.

Add items to the right-click drop-down menu in Windows. Article here. More general set of directions to add shortcuts to the same menu here.

RSVP already says "please," so please RSVP is redundant, and snoots sneer at its unnecessary repetitiveness. Also, it's not a noun.  Slate article on "RSVP" here.

Federal appellate judges are often not assigned randomly. Article here.

Avoid legalese. Article here.

Avoid big words if you want to be taken as smart. Article here.

Use Quick Steps to speed up your Outlook organizing. Article here.

Use toward, not towards. Article here.

March fourth is National Grammar Day. Article here.

Change many file names at once with Ant Renamer. Software download here.

Stop using and/or. Article here.

Caselaw is one word. Article here.

Don't use corporatese. It's annoying and empty of meaning. Article here. ROUNDUP BONUS: Weird Al's excellent takedown of corporatese here.

Create an RSS feed for any Twitter handle. Article here. RSS feed for @incourts here (or copy and paste https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbx_pFhkDQ5C5QvNMG7mJ5AoUdSNfVLTkV2eDH4srGQUdi3tjg/exec?609044444420018176).

Use categories, not folders, to organize Outlook. Article here.

Use a single folder with categories to organize Outlook. Article here.

Use rules to automatically categorize incoming e-mail. Video here.

Use the Resend This Message command for repetitive messages. Article here.

When to italicize foreign terms; and always italicize a word when using it as a term. Article here.

Copy path of a file to the clipboard using SHIFT + Right-Click. Article here.

Don't compare a city to North Korea in a brief to the court. Order here. Subscribe to Short Circuit here.

 

Have a question about writing, software, navigating courts, or resources that are helpful in any of those? I am compulsive about finding answers, so let me know if you have a question about something that might relate to all this. Post a question at www.facebook.com/TatumsTips/.