Contributing to CLEBC Publications

Author Guidelines

Thank you for writing for CLEBC

Thank you so much for contributing material to a CLEBC publication!  

We hope these author guidelines will aid you as you write your chapter. They provide information on research, content, and style, and will help you become familiar with the editing and production processes at CLEBC.

Sending an Electronic Version

• Please prepare your chapter in MS Word and email the file as an attachment to the CLEBC Legal Editor you are working with.
• You do not need to provide a hard copy.

Choosing Content

While writing your chapter and choosing content, please keep these things in mind:

• Readers of CLEBC publications are practitioners at differing levels of experience and are looking for a concise, practical discussion of your topic.
• Include references to statutory authority, discussions of relevant case law (including your analysis and conclusions), and discussions of practice and procedure as appropriate.
• Your material should be organized according to the sequential order in which lawyers would encounter problems in a typical case.
• Please do not write a “law review” article. Your main contribution as an experienced practitioner is to make your chapter a practical working tool. Please do not discuss the law at length.
• Since much of your practice is based on cases, statutes, regulations, and rules, briefly summarize applicable legal principles when appropriate to the discussion and cite relevant statute and case authority in support.
• Please include any checklists, forms, and precedent pleadings that relate to your topic. Do your best to ensure that precedents exhibit a clear, modern style of organization and writing.

Using Clear Language

• Please use clear, concise language.
• Avoid legal jargon or terminology familiar only to those who practise in your area of law.

Using Brief Sections

• Organize your chapter in brief sections with headings to make your topic more understandable and useful to readers.
• Break the chapter into as many sections and subsections as the topic will accommodate.
• Short sections more clearly convey the elements of the topic and the relationships among them.
• If a discussion exceeds one page, consider breaking it into several sections.

Adding Headings

• Use clear headings and subheadings to help your reader find specific information.
• Informative headings attract your reader’s attention, especially when written using a verb phrase. For example:

1. Proving a Charter Infringement
   1.     Identifying the Rightholder
          2.    Defining the Right

Numbering headings

• Use the following heading style, matching the numbering of the various levels of heading and subheading:

1. MAJOR HEADING
   A.    Subdivision Heading
          1.     Subdivision Heading
          a.    Subdivision Heading
          i.     Subdivision Heading

Citing Cases

• Cite your case authority in the text after the appropriate sentence or paragraph. Please avoid footnotes.
• When citing cases in annotations, put parentheses around the citation. For example:

The party being examined has no obligation to say what infor­mation any witness may have (Hunter Engineering v. Hunter Machinery (Canada) Ltd. (1978), 8 B.C.L.R. 121 (S.C.)).

• Use the neutral case citation if available. Parallel citations are not necessary in the text (i.e. give one citation only).
• Case names need not be in italics or any other form of special formatting in your draft. Case citations will be italicized by CLEBC during the editing processes.

Using Quotations

• As you know, all material must be your original work unless you indicate clearly what parts are quoted or paraphrased from other publications and their source.
• Quotations of 50 or more words should be set out as a block quotation, indented left and right, without quotation marks.

Obtaining Permissions

• Fair use principles suggest that any quotation greater than several paragraphs should be used only with the permission of the original publisher or author. Try to paraphrase as much as possible rather than quoting this amount of material directly.
• If you have drawn from the work of others, please let your CLEBC Legal Editor know immediately of any permissions that CLEBC will need to obtain from publishers or authors.

Editing Processes at CLEBC

• The role of your CLEBC Legal Editor is to review your chapter thoroughly and ensure accuracy and completeness of the material.
• The work of CLEBC Legal Editors is supported by that of a copy editor who checks style, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and case and legislative citations.
• Your work may also be reviewed by one or more of your co-authors in the publication.
• The editing process may result in substantial changes in content and organization, and your chapter may be returned to you for revision.
• You will have the opportunity to see a near-final copy of your chapter before the publication is published.
• In the unlikely event that you are not satisfied with the revised version, you have the right to have your name deleted as author, and CLEBC will have the right to use the material.

Author Acknowledgment

• CLEBC will acknowledge your contribution to the publication unless you request otherwise.
• You will receive one free copy of the publication.
• If others (e.g. associates and articled students) helped you with your research or writing, please let your CLEBC Legal Editor know so your colleagues can be acknowledged in the publication as well.

Deadlines

• Please submit your material by the deadline agreed upon between you and your CLEBC Legal Editor, who will contact you periodically to ask how you are doing and offer assistance.
• Please let your CLEBC Legal Editor know immediately if you anticipate any difficulty in meeting your deadline.

Questions?

If you have any questions as you are working on your chapter, please contact your CLEBC Legal Editor:

Jonathan Vogt	604.893.2109	jvogt@cle.bc.ca
Laura Selby	604.893.2104	lselby@cle.bc.ca
Joy Tataryn	604.893.2148	jtataryn@cle.bc.ca

Formatting Instructions

Thank you for writing for CLEBC

Thank you so much for contributing material to a CLEBC publication!  

These formatting instructions provide general guidelines for use when drafting and word processing a chapter for a CLEBC Publication. Please ensure that your word processing staff receives a copy of these instructions and follows them closely.

Sending an Electronic Version

• Please prepare your chapter in MS Word and email the file as an attachment to the CLEBC Legal Editor you are working with.
• You do not need to provide a hard copy.

Avoiding Extra Spacing

• Extra vertical spacing in your material is unnecessary.
• Please do not add extra line spaces above or below headings or between paragraphs.
• The amount of space that will appear around various sections in the final version of the publication will be determined by the book designer and then programmed into an electronic style sheet.

Word Processing Format for CLEBC Manuscripts

CLEBC format conventions differ from those commonly used in legal correspondence. We ask that you:

• Keep all text and headings flush left, although you can use one tab to indent points.
• Do not indent the first line of a paragraph.
• Do not italicize or underline.
• Do not justify the right margin.
• Leave only one space after a colon.
• Leave only one space after the end of a sentence.
• Do not use the numbering or footnote features of your word processing software.

The electronic version that you send to CLEBC should not contain any commands for boldface, centering, running heads, footnotes, justified margins, automatic numbering, or hyphenation.

Deadlines

• Please submit your material by the deadline agreed upon between you and your CLEBC Legal Editor, who will contact you periodically to ask how you are doing and offer assistance.
• Please let your CLEBC Legal Editor know immediately if you anticipate any difficulty in meeting your deadline.

Questions?

If you have any questions as you are formatting your chapter, please contact your CLEBC Legal Editor:

Jonathan Vogt	604.893.2109	jvogt@cle.bc.ca
Laura Selby	604.893.2104	lselby@cle.bc.ca
Joy Tataryn	604.893.2148	jtataryn@cle.bc.ca

How to Calculate and Report Your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Hours

1. Go to the Law Society of BC website and log in to your account.
2. Click on the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) link.
3. Choose the “Record/Request Credits” tab.
4. To request writing credit, fill in the form following the guidelines below or refer to the View Instructions link at the top of the form:
   • Name of Writing Project:
     Enter the name of the CLEBC publication as indicated on the title page of the course materials.
   • Total Writing Hours:
     Enter the total number of hours that you spent to prepare and write your paper.
   • Total Writing Credits:
     Enter the number of hours that you wish to claim to a maximum of 6 hours. Hours can be accredited based on the actual time to produce the final product.
   • Detailed Description of Writing Project:
     Enter a detailed description of the writing project. You should include the following information: the title of the CLEBC course materials (found on the cover page of your binder), the title of your paper, and what areas of law it covered. For example: “I wrote a paper for the CLEBC publication [title of course materials compilation]. My topic was [x] and I discussed the following: [brief description of paper].”
   • Writing Project Link:
     Optional. You can paste in the URL of the CLEBC course materials web store page. You may contact the Program Lawyer or Publications Assistant if you would like to provide this information.
   • Primary Target Audience:
     Most CLEBC course materials are targeted to lawyers. CLEBC course materials that list Legal Support Staff in the course name are targeted to Paralegals.
   • Is it published?
     Choose “Yes” and enter “CLEBC; Vancouver, BC” in the next box to indicate where it was published.
5. When finished, click on the “Submit Your Request” button. You will receive a message advising you if your form was submitted properly. Staff at the Law Society of BC will review your request. If approved, LSBC staff will update your CPD hours for you and send you a confirmation email from Member Services. Please note that it usually takes at least two weeks for the form to be reviewed and the credits to be added to the account.