Indicating emphasis.

• Jurisdiction: United States

Section 81. Indicating emphasis.—On occasion a court will adopt a rule forbidding the use of italics in briefs; most courts, however, leave such matters to the judgment and good taste of the brief-writer.

A sound general rule is to use italics sparingly. If they are used too freely in the text of a brief, they are apt to be regarded as (what indeed they frequently are in fact) insults to any judicial reader's intelligence. It is perfectly possible to write a strong, forceful, even a fighting brief, without...