Litigation Journal Guidelines for Contributors

Litigation, published four times a year by the ABA Litigation Section, offers practical articles on topics of interest to lawyers who try cases and the judges who decide them. It focuses on how litigators do what they do and is intended to inform and stimulate trial and appellate lawyers at all levels of experience.

Style

Litigation articles present substantive material in a conversational rather than academic style. They are not intended to compete with, or sound like, law review pieces. In writing your article, make your points as concrete as possible by using examples from actual or hypothetical cases.

The Manuscript

• Articles generally run between 3,500 and 7,000 words (10 to 20 pages).
• Text should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins.
• Avoid excessive document formatting, which must be stripped out before typesetting.
• Number all pages consecutively from beginning to end.
• Use 12–point type, Times New Roman or Courier.
• Include a suggested title and a byline at the top of the first page.
• Include author’s contact information (name, affiliation, address, phone, fax, email) on a separate page. Do not include a biographical summary.
• Do not use footnotes/endnotes, subheadings, tables, or artwork.
• Keep citations to a minimum. Embed citations within the text, following the material being cited. If you decide to cite or quote materials, you are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of both the quotation and the citation information.

Please submit your manuscript via e-mail attachment in Word format to Scott Lewis, Managing Editor.

Editorial and Production Process

The editorial and production process takes a minimum of six months from acceptance of a first draft to final publication. All manuscripts are reviewed and edited by Litigation’s editorial board and copyedited to conform to Litigation’s style and design. Thus, your article as printed in Litigation may differ from its original form.

All authors must sign the ABA’s standard publication agreement to ensure that the article consists of original material that has not been printed in another publication. Authors will receive the agreement from the ABA via email, as a PDF attachment; it must be signed and returned before publication.

As a token of appreciation for contributed work, each author receives five complimentary copies of the issue in which his or her article appears.