Numbered Pleading Paper

[Dave28C]

If you can solve this problem, you'll really make an ol' lawyer happy.

In California, lawyers must use precisely defined pleading paper that has 28 numbers vertically down the left side, a vertical set of double lines on the left,and another line vertically down the right. The margin must not be less than 1 inch, and the text must line up with the numbers down the left side.

In a posting last January, a Councilman referred the writer to OpenOffice.org. I looked at both templates in OO, and neither comply with the California Rule of Court.


In WordPerfect, making a pleading is a piece of cake, and I have hundreds of formats/templates anyone can have for the price of a smile and some help here. But, they're only for Windoze. Now that I've switched to the Mac for all my business and personal use, creating a Pleading that works has been next to impossible. NeoOffice opens these pleadings from WPerf, but the lines and numbers simply disappear -- They're Gone Gone Gone. The same thing happens with Word pleadings, and getting them to work has also been impossible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dave
see, http://www.clarklawfirm.com
http://home.earthlink.net/~dc1999/

[MacRat]

[sardisson]

See also the suggestion I left in the other thread.

Smokey

[Dave28C]

Thanks for the help. The one by Rene is closest to what I'm looking for, but still not consistent with the California Rule. And, the lines and numbers should repeat page to page without all the fuss of cut/paste. This happens in WordPerfect and Word with ease as watermark and header/footer.

Does NO have headers that will function for these items?

Also, the margins are not consistent with the Rule. The vertical numbers need to be "at the left margin", which is 1" from the paper edge, and the right margin need be 1/2".

When one is doing a fifteen page Brief or Memorandum of Law for the court, these things matter, unfortunately.

Dave

[Baggypants]

Actually this proved to be easy as eating pancakes

I downloaded the pleading.stw and moved the numbered line anchor from the page into the header and Bongo! numbers on every page. Its a new feature in OOo2

I've an odt I can get by some means if you pm me on this board.

As for the margins. I live in the UK and have no interest in fiddling with margins for US paper sizes

[Jim]

First thing you need is a page style. Open a new Writer document. Select Format->Styles and Formatting. A Styles window will open showing all the automatic paragraph styles. Click the fourth icon from the left (at the top of the styles window); it's name is "Page Styles." The Default style is preselected.

Right-click (Cmd-click) on the Default style. A context menu will offer two choices: "New" and "Modify." Choose "New." A big dialog will open. Note the tabs across the top of the dialog. The "Organizer" tab is selected. Click in the "Name" area, and change "Untitled 1" to "Pleading First." Click in the Next Style area, and change that to "Pleading First." Now, go back to the top of the dialog window and click on the "Page" tab.

Set the left margin to 1.00 inch and the right margin to 0.50 inch; set the top and bottom margins appropriate to the Court's requirements. Be sure the page is set to the paper size required by the Court (Letter, in CA, I believe). The rest of the stuff on this page can be left alone. Now, back to the top again, and select the "Borders" tab.

In the upper left quadrant, you see a page represented. Click where the left margin will be (never mind the distance, just click the line). Now, to the right of that page image is a bunch of border lines in a list. Select the 3.00 point double rule (you can change it later if you decide you don't like it.) Leave the color black, if that's what you want. (In my jurisdiction, I change the color to red, that way copies always show up as black lines). Now click on the right margin, and select the 0.5 point line for the right margin. Leave it black.

Go all the way down to the bottom of the window, and click the "OK" button. You have created the "Pleading First" page style.

We'll get to line numbering later on. Right now, you'll need another page style to deal with the following pages, footnotes, and page numbering. So go to the "Styles and Formatting" window, (which should still be open), select the "Pleading First" style, right-click on it, and select "New" again. Set it up the same way you set up the "Pleading First" style, but name it "Pleading Following." Set your right and left margins and borders. But this time, select the header tab.

Check the "header on" checkbox; "same content left and right" is checked by default. Leave it alone. There are margin settings in this dialog, too, and they refer to the offset from the page margins. Leave'em at zero for now. Spacing to the text is set here. For now, accept the default and see how it looks. You can always adjust any of these styles later.

Now, set up your Footer in the same manner. Click the tab, turn it on, set the spacing. Next, click the footnote tab and set the appropriate values.

Click on the "OK" button at the bottom of the window, and the style is created.

Now click back in the "Styles..." window, click on "Pleading First", right click on it, and select "Modify." Change the "Next Page" selection to "Pleading Following." Click the "OK" button at the bottom again.

Now we're gonna set line numbering: On the top menu bar, select "Tools->Line Numbering..." About all you'll have to change is the interval. It defaults to "5," so change it to 1. Choose whether you want it to number blank lines, and check the box to restart at each page. DON'T set it to number lines in text frames. Click "OK" in the upper right corner.

Now, let's save this as a template: Choose File->Templates->Save. A dialog opens. You're offered "My Templates" as a default choice, which sucks. Go over to the right and click on the "organizer" button. A new dialog opens. Click on "My Templates." Go to the right side and click the "commands" button, choose "New" from the dropdown menu. A new folder is created named "Untitled." Rename it to "Pleadings." Close the Organizer dialog. You're back in the Templates window. Select the new "Pleadings" folder (highlight it). Then click in the blank space under the words "New Template" at the top. Name your new template "Generic Pleading." Click "OK."

Now you've got the basic page format set. To finish the template, PM me at jimplante at charter dot net if you can't figure it out. This ain't Word Perfect. You're going to want at least one text frame for the Title, a couple of sections, and some autotext. And that's just for starters. We can go on to add tables of contents, an index, and all the other stuff you need for a hundred-plus page appellate brief. I'll have to do some thinking about a table of points and authorities; never had to do one of those with Neo or OOo.

[sardisson]

I added a link to Jim's post to the wiki page on styles and templates (now renamed "Editing Default Styles and Using Templates" to better capture (hopefully!) the range of content covered in the article and to make it easier for LemonAid to find

Smokey

[LemonAid]

[Jim]

You're very welcome. I think this could be very constructive information for others faced with similar tasks.

Dave, could you post either the entire Rule or a link to it? There are other aspects of legal pleadings that need to be addressed, like electronic filing, for example. And if I have the Rule itself, I won't have to guess at the requirements which aren't at the forefront of a problem.
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Edit: Never mind. I found CRC201 (f)
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Edit again:
Would it be better to continue this tutorial here, or should I move it to the Wiki? Having looked at the Rule, this is going to take up quite a bit of room. If you elect for posting here, I'll break it into two or more additional posts: adding the required text and formatting the paragraphs; and additional goodies like adding specific autotext. What say you? Here, or Wiki?

[Guest]

Great solution people. Just one question struck me, is "right-click" "Command-click" or "Control-click" on a one-button mouse in this instance as stated by Jim above? Maybe I'm confusing the typical Mac way w/ OO_o conventions.

[Samwise]

On a single-button mouse, right-click is Ctrl-click (not Cmd-click).

[Guest]

Agree wise Sam, I just tested it and it's still Control-click even in Neo...

[Jim]

Dave,
I just had a look at one of your pleadings (linked from your website, ABM Industries v. Continental). The "line numbers" on that page are as you described, but they're more like page index numbers.

Now, you can get a page like that. Carefully measure the distance from the top of the page to the baseline of the first line number, and the distance between the baselines of the following line numbers. Let's say Line 1's baseline is 1.5 inches from the top, and they're 0.5 inch apart (vertically.) Open a Draw document and lay out the numbers in text boxes. Make sure the spacing between the numbers is correct, and that the first one is where it's supposed to be. Select'em all and group them. Move that group horizontally until the numbers start 1" from the edge of the paper. Save the document and close it.

Now, open that template which I talked you thorough earlier. Open the Styles menu, select the Pleading First style, right-click, select "modify", and turn off line numbering. Select the Background tab, and instead of a color, select Graphic. Navigate to that draw document you just saved, and select it. Close the dialog, select the Pleading Following style, and repeat. Close the dialog, and you should be ready to complete your template.

If the courts accept those fake line numbers, go for it. Personally, I like the real ones that Neo provides.

I'll try duplicating the first page of that ABM Industries complaint. California's formatting requirements really offer a fine opportunity for Neo to strut its stuff. F'rinstance, I notice on your website that you practice in several jurisdictions. Neo's got a List Items field which can be inserted for the Court title line. Click on the Court title, and however many different courts you've stuck in that list will drop down to allow you to select one. Try it yourself: Put the cursor on the Court Title line and select Insert->Fields->Other:Functions:Input list.

[LemonAid]

Jim, et al,

OpenOffice.org is having a contest to gather more templates. Items like this Pleading are just what they are looking for.
If members on this message would like to submit the results listed here - I'm sure that others would greatly appreciate your efforts. Some folks will even win some prize money AND you will have the chance to have your template added to OOo (OpenOffice.org, and hence NeoOffice! )

http://documentation.openoffice.org/contests/template_clipart_2006/announce.html


Patrick also posted this on this fora - OOo Template/Clipart Competition
http://trinity.neooffice.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3289&highlight=

I think it would be a great way for our forum users to contribute to the OOo.

What do others think

Philip ( ALways amazed at the quality of contributions on this fora! )