Supreme Court Rules

First Adopted: January 19, 1973

Most Recently Effective: July 01, 2024

Rule 55 | Rules of Civil Procedure | Rules Governing Civil Procedure in the Circuit Courts | Pleadings, Motions, and Hearings

55.02 | Caption of Pleading – What Set Forth

(a) Every pleading, motion, and other filing shall contain a caption setting forth the name of the court, the title of the civil action, the file number and a designation as in Rule 55.01. In the petition, the title of the civil action shall include the names of all the parties, but in all other filings, it is sufficient to state the name of the first party on each side with an appropriate indication that there are additional parties.

(b) All pleadings, motions, and other filings shall be filed in text searchable PDF, except those filed by parties ineligible for electronic filing, and shall conform to the following provisions:

(1) Documents shall be legible, formatted for pages of size 8 1/2 X 11 inches, and have all pages, including the cover page, consecutively paginated using Arabic numerals at the bottom.

(2) Documents shall have a left, right, top, and bottom margin of not less than one inch and shall have line spacing not less than 1.5, except that the following may be single-spaced: the caption; headings; quotations more than two lines long; footnotes; certificate of service; and signature block. Page numbers may appear in the bottom margin, but no other text may appear in the margins.

(3) The font, including footnotes, shall not be smaller than 13 point, Times New Roman.

(c) Format and Filing of Paper Documents by Parties Ineligible to File Documents Through the Electronic Filing System – Generally. Documents filed on paper shall conform to the following provisions:

(1) Documents shall be printed on one side of paper, size 8 1/2 X 11 inches;

(2) Documents shall be secured by affixing a temporary binding such as a rubber band or a binder clip but not with adhesive tape, staples, spiral binding, or edge sealing products; and

(3) An exhibit may be on paper larger than size 8 1/2 X 11 inches.


(Adopted January 19, 1973, effective September 1, 1973. Amended August 15, 2023, effective July 1, 2024.)
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