I received an Amended Complaint for Divorce today, but no copy showing changes from the original Complaint.  The attorney who drafted it was probably in a hurry because trial is coming up.  Or maybe, like me, he has an old copy of the Maryland Court Rules on his desk.

In 1995, Section (e) was added to Rule 2-341, the rule that concerns amendment of pleadings.  Entitled “Highlighting of Amendments”, it requires a comparison copy be filed showing deleted text by lining through or enclosing it in brackets, and text that has been added by underlining or bolding it.

Lawyers sometimes call this redlining because the wordprocessor will do it for you in red, and before there were word processors, we probably used a red pen.

The lawyer’s punishment for failing to provide a redline?  I’m working on the Motion to Strike Amended Complaint right now.