I’m a first-year & I often draft pleadings/motions. We have cases in many federal courts, & some states. I waste so much time trying to format papers properly per the jd (ie- is the caption formatted right, is the font ok, do I need table of auth, cert of service). I read local rules, search my firm drive for docs, & search random dockets. But is there a better resource for this?! Like a database with a sample filing from each jd? My westlaw access doesn’t seem to have what I need

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Wow. I normally asked the paralegal for a shell and just used that.

Seriously, your law firm should have a shell document with all that formatting for every single jurisdiction they have filed in. The paralegals are the best people to keep those updated. If you have no paralegals, that has now become your job as a first year. Don’t force next year’s first years to wade through the same crap.

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A good admin/secretary can set up shells as well. I do it for every one of my attorneys as soon as a new case comes in. They can find the information just as good as you can and then you can focus on being an attorney.

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Westlaw or Bloomberg practical law. Or look at dockets for the jurisdiction you’re in.

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I practice in federal courts across the country and check the local rules every time.

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Depending on how much you trust others, you could pull half a dozen recent complaints from other cases and see what they all do the same.

Yeah nothing is an adequate substitute for checking the local rules—even if your firm had a template, the rule may have changed, or the judge may have a different preference, or your colleague may have gotten it wrong. No matter how long you practice, you check the local rules for every case multiple times, it’s just the job.

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Work off of the same template each time. Don’t start from scratch.

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