Legal Preferences Profile

Depends on: FTR-07 — Folder Structure

What this is

A one-time capture of a legal project's document standards — caption format, formatting defaults, file naming, citation style, motion structure, and any user-supplied templates — so every legal document Claude produces matches the user's court and firm standard automatically. Legal projects only; skip otherwise.

This feature also packages a ready-to-use starting point for motion/pleading formatting:

• Motion Branding Spec — a full generic (de-identified) formatting standard for motions and pleadings: page setup, the caption box's exact table structure, small-caps usage, footer and page-number construction, signature block, notary layout, Certificate of Service, and pagination control — including several real, previously-encountered implementation gotchas (a table-border default that renders correctly in some previewers but not in actual Microsoft Word; a page-number field bug specific to programmatic .docx generation) that are worth knowing before building a filing from scratch.
• Generic Motion Template — a de-identified .docx built to that spec, ready to download and fill in for a specific matter.

Together these mean a new legal project doesn't have to start from a blank page or reverse-engineer formatting from an old filing — there's already a checked, working starting point.

Assess first

• Confirm the project type is Legal. If not, skip this feature.
• Check for an existing admin\Legal_Preferences_Profile.md and read/carry it forward.
• Check brand\templates\ for any user-supplied sample filings or templates — these are highest priority and get matched exactly.
• If the user provides an existing filing, extract the caption format and all formatting rather than asking field by field.
• If there is no existing filing or template yet, note that the Motion Branding Spec and Generic Motion Template (linked above) are available as a starting point rather than starting from nothing.

Ask, only if needed

• Caption: "Do you have an existing filing I can pull your caption format from? If not, I can start from a generic motion template and spec instead — want that?" If yes to the first: extract, reproduce, confirm, lock in. If no existing filing but yes to the generic starting point: proceed per Write below. If neither: collect alignment, case name format, small caps usage, docket placement, document title format, jurisdiction line field by field.
• Formatting: confirm the preferences table below (body font, spacing, margins, page numbers, header/footer, signature block, exhibit labels).
• Citation style: Bluebook / ALWD / Local rules / footnote preference.
• Motion structure: standard sections and signature block format.

Write

Save Legal_Preferences_Profile.md to admin\. Save any user-supplied templates to brand\templates\. Then add this section to admin\AGENT_INSTRUCTIONS.md:

◆ LEGAL PREFERENCES PROFILE (Legal projects only)

Profile file: admin\Legal_Preferences_Profile.md
Caption template: [Inline or see file]
Body font / spacing: [e.g., Times New Roman 12pt / Double]
File naming: [PREFIX]_[CaseCode]_[Subject]_[YYYY-MM-DD]_v[X.X][_Draft].[ext]
Citation style: [Bluebook / ALWD / Local]
Template documents: [List in brand\templates\]

When producing any legal document: load Legal_Preferences_Profile.md first.
Apply all preferences without being asked. If a user-supplied template
exists, match it exactly — every time.

The Legal_Preferences_Profile.md file itself records the full detail:

A. Caption Format — alignment, case name format, small caps, docket
   placement, document title format, jurisdiction line (or a reproduced
   caption from a supplied filing).
B. Document Formatting
   | Preference     | Chosen value                                      |
   | Body font      | Times New Roman 12 / Garamond 12 / Century 12 /  |
   |                | Arial 11                                          |
   | Line spacing   | Double / 1.5 / Single                             |
   | Margins        | 1" all / 1" TB + 1.25" sides / Court-specified    |
   | Page numbers   | Bottom center / Bottom right / Top right          |
   | Header/footer  | Case name + docket / Document title / None        |
   | Signature block| Stacked left / Two-column / Centered              |
   | Exhibit labels | Exhibit A,B,C / Exhibit 1,2,3 / Tab 1             |
C. Legal File Naming:
   [PREFIX]_[CaseCode]_[Subject]_[YYYY-MM-DD]_v[X.X][_Draft].[ext]
   Legal prefixes: MTN MEM BRF ORD AFF DEC EXH LTR CMT ANS OPP RPL NOT STI
   PRO INT REQ ADM DEP SUP DKT RES STR
D. Citation Style: Bluebook / ALWD / Local rules / footnote preference
E. Motion Structure: standard sections, signature block format
F. User-supplied templates (HIGHEST PRIORITY): read, extract all
   formatting, reproduce for confirmation, save to brand\templates\, apply
   to all documents of that type going forward without being asked.

If no user-supplied filing or template exists and the person wants to start from the generic foundation instead: copy both legal-motion-brand-spec.md and generic-motion-template.docx (from this feature database) into the project's own brand\templates\ folder — the same location user-supplied templates would live — so the spec and template are available locally going forward without needing to re-fetch them. Note in Legal_Preferences_Profile.md that these are the generic starting point (not yet matched to a specific court's local rules or a specific case), and that the person should confirm court-specific formatting requirements before relying on it for an actual filing.

Confirm

Confirm: your legal preferences are captured and saved to admin\Legal_Preferences_Profile.md — every legal document will match your caption, formatting, naming, and citation standards automatically. If the generic Motion Branding Spec and template were copied in as a starting point, confirm that too and note they're in brand\templates. Want to install another, or is that everything for now?