Louisiana State Bar Association

Recent Development Dos and Don'ts

• Do follow the format in the Journal. Length is limited to 900 words inclusive of subheadings.
  
  
• Do not design your own format.
  
  
• Do submit your article on disk.
  
  
• Do label your disk with your name and address.
  
  
• Do not label your disk "Journal Article."
  
  
• Do use one inch margins for your article.
  
  
• Do not set your article in columns.
  
  
• Do use subheadings in your text. Limit the subheadings to four to five words. (You can use a primary subheading and a secondary subheading as in the sample.)
  
  
• Do not set the subheadings in all CAPS.
  
  
• Do set the subheadings in upper case and lower case.
  
  
• Do indent your paragraphs with one [tab].
  
  
• Do not use extra lines of space between paragraphs.
  
  
• Do underline your case citations.
  
  
• Do not use bold or any other form of emphasis.
  
  
• Do not number your pages.
  
  
• Do use line spacing in format at beginning of article.
  
  
• Do not manually double space between each line.
  
  
• Do capitalize a person's title if it is before their name. (i.e. President Bill Clinton, Gov. Mike Foster, Rep. John Hainkel)
  
  
• Do not capitalize a person's title if it is used after their name. (i.e. Bill Clinton, president, Mike Foster, governor, John Hainkel, state representative)
  
  
• Do follow case citation method in the "Blue Book."
  
  
• Do not use footnotes in Recent Developments.
  
  
• Do capitalize the formal name of a court. (i.e. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals)
  
  
• Do not capitalize the word court when it is not the formal part of a name.

Darlene Labranche
Communications Coordinator
Louisiana Bar Journal
601 St. Charles Ave.
New Orleans, La. 70130
(504) 619-0112
(800) 421-LSBA, ext. 112