Tips and Tricks for Using Legal Symbols Legal Symbols

If you do any kind of writing in the law, you’re probably familiar with symbols. But if it’s been a while since you had a class on legal terminology, or if the only thing you remember is that the symbol for “and” is an ampersand that looks like this: “&” then read on! We’ll show you how to get up-to-speed with using all kinds of legal symbols plus some tips and tricks for formatting your documents so they look professional and impress judges.

Symbols are Everywhere in the Law

Symbols are used in legal documents to represent concepts, numbers, and dates. You may have seen them before without realizing what they meant. For example:

• The circle with a line through it. (No) is used to indicate that something cannot be done or that something is prohibited.
• An arrow pointing up. Indicates an increase in value over time, such as interest rates on loans; this symbol can also mean “to go up.”
• A triangle pointing down. Represents a decrease in value over time for example, when talking about an investment’s loss potential or depreciation of property values during urban renewal projects.
• The upward-pointing arrow facing right. Represents a continuation of the same action or concept. The downward-pointing arrow facing left indicates that something is not only different from what came before but also that it’s a deviation from the direction in which things were going.
• The arrow pointing down and to the right. Indicates a change in direction but only so far as is needed to return to the beginning.

There are Keyboard Shortcuts for Legal Symbols

Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to avoid having to take your hands off the keyboard when you’re working on a document. If you know the shortcut, it’s easy to insert symbols or formatting without even looking at the menu.

Here’s an example for keyboard shortcuts for legal symbols:

• “Ctrl+Shift+C” or “Ctrl+Alt+C” (for “citation” or ©). This one is easy! There’s no reason not to use this one every time because it works in Word and other programs too. It inserts a citation after whatever word is currently selected on your screen (or nothing if nothing is selected). So if you want something like The Law Firm© all you have to do is select that text first and then hit Ctrl+Shift+C or Ctrl+Alt+C (depending the version of Windows).

Auto Text can Help you with your Legal Document Formatting

Auto Text is a feature in Word that can help you save time by automatically inserting text, like headers and footers. You can also use Auto Text to insert legal symbols, like the Latin abbreviation for “et al.” This abbreviation stands for “and others” and is used when listing people or things with similar names in legal documents.

To use Auto Text:

• Click on Tools > AutoCorrect Options from the menu bar at the top of your screen (or press Ctrl+Alt+A). This will open up a new window where all of your current customizations will be shown; if there aren’t any yet, then this box will be empty!
  Scroll down until you find “AutoText Entries”, which should be near the bottom of this list; then click on it once so that its checkbox becomes checked (green). Now close out this window by clicking anywhere outside its frame.

You can create Text Snippets to save time.

If you find yourself typing the same things over and over again, RunSensible offers you a solution for managing documents more easily and efficiently and save those bits of text as a text snippet. Then, when you’re creating new documents or revising old ones, simply choose the snippet from a drop-down list. This will insert all those repetitive words and phrases instantly, saving you lots of time!

Important Things to Remember

• Make sure you’re using the right symbols in your documents by using these tips and tricks, or using our quick video guides!
• When writing legal documents, it’s important to use the correct symbols. If you don’t, then there could be serious consequences for your case. For example: if a judge sees an S where an E should be (or vice versa), they might think that this was done intentionally and throw out your entire case!
• Use Auto Text to insert common legal symbols like © and ® into your document with just one click of a button!

Conclusion
These are just a few of the many legal symbols you can use in your law firm. Hopefully, this article has given you some insight into how to best use them in your documents and presentations. As with anything else, practice makes perfect!

FAQ

1.What are the most common legal symbols?

There are 5 symbols that are used to determine trademarks, registered trademarks, copyright, and sections and paragraphs.

2.How can I type legal symbols in Word?

You need to hit a specific combination of keys to type each of these symbols in Word, but using the auto text, you can make presets to type the symbols more easily.