Mich. Admin. Ord. Administrative Order No. 2019-6
(A) Application.
(1) This pilot program shall apply to the length and formatting of briefs, applications for leave to appeal, responses, replies, and other pleadings (collectively "briefs") that are required to be filed in conformity with MCR 7.212 or 7.312.
(2) Filing briefs under the pilot program is optional. Briefs filed under the pilot program must include the words, in bold, "Filed under AO 2019-6" on the caption of the brief and must comply with the following requirements in place of MCR 7.212(B) or 7.312(A). Any requirements not addressed by subsection
(B) of this administrative order shall be governed by MCR 7.212 or 7.312. (B) Length and Format of Briefs.
(1) Length. Unless otherwise lengthened or shortened by the Court of Appeals on motion, the principal briefs of the appellant(s) and appellee(s) and the briefs of amici curiae shall be no longer than 16,000 words, and the reply briefs of the appellant shall be no longer than 3,200 words. Briefs shall contain pagination as specified by MCR 7.212(B). The title page, table of contents, index of authorities, statement of the basis of jurisdiction, statement of the questions involved, signature block and listing of counsel at the end of the brief, certificate of compliance, proof of service, exhibits, and appendices do not count toward the word limit. Footnotes within the non-excluded sections also count toward the word total, as do any words contained in embedded graphics.
Each brief shall contain a certificate of compliance after the signature block, signed by the attorney or self-represented party, stating the number of countable words in the document and the typeface and size used. The person preparing the certificate may rely on the word count of the word-processing system used to prepare the document.
(2) Font. The body text of briefs shall be set in a proportional font no smaller than 12 point. Narrow-style or compressed fonts and condensed spacing are prohibited. Other fonts may be used in captions and headings.
(3) Line Spacing. The line spacing of all text must be set between 133% and 150% of the point size of the text. For example, text set in a 12-point font must be set with line spacing between 16 and 18 points. There shall be a minimum of 6 points of additional spacing between paragraphs and around headings.
(4) Line Length and Margins. The left and right side margins may not be less than 1.5 inches each. This does not apply to captions or headings, which may be formatted with 1-inch side margins.
(5) Electronic format. Briefs must be filed in a text-searchable PDF format that is created electronically by a word processor or similar program. An unsearchable image file of a scanned document is not acceptable.
The electronic brief must be bookmarked to include, at a minimum, all major divisions and headings, and should track the table of contents.
Mich. Admin. Ord. Administrative Order No. 2019-6