Formatting is Important!

See Caldwell v. Caldwell, 2006 ILRWeb (P&F) 1435 [ND Cal], 2006 WL 618511, footnote 2, where the court criticized the briefs submitted and refused to consider any of the information in either party's footnotes because they were formatted incorrectly. Here is the court's footnote:

As the court noted at the hearing on the instant motions, both parties filed briefs in violation of Civil L.R. 3-4(c)(2), which requires that all footnotes be of the same font size as the body of the text. Accordingly, and in view of the violation, the court hereby STRIKES all footnotes cited in the parties' briefs, and declines to consider the substance of any content contained therein.

In Massachusetts, formatting requirements for appellate briefs are specified in Rule 20 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure.