Rule 2.Form of documents; caption; name of parties; language; abbreviation; and numbers

Rule 2 spells out the physical and visual requirements for anything filed with an Idaho court. Documents must be printed in black ink on 8 1/2" by 11" white paper, with two narrow exceptions: incarcerated or detained people may hand-print legibly in black ink, and forms approved by the Supreme Court, an Administrative District Judge, or a Court Assistance Office may be hand-printed or typed. Every filing needs a caption with the parties' names, the court's title, the case number, and the document's title, and the court's title must begin at least three inches from the top of the first page.

The rule also dictates where identifying information goes: an attorney's name, address, phone number, email, and Idaho State Bar number — or a self-represented party's contact information — must sit above the court's title, to the left of center, starting at least 1.2 inches from the top of the page, with room to note a pro bono appearance just below the bar number. The body of the document needs double or one-and-one-half line spacing, at least 11-point type, and set margins (which can shrink slightly to keep a document on one page), and the document's title must repeat at the bottom of every page. Exhibits must be legible, and any handwritten exhibit needs a machine-printed duplicate attached. A filing that requires a fee must state the nature of the document, its fee category, and the fee itself. The complaint's title must list every party, though later filings can shorten that to the first party on each side.

Two final requirements round out the rule: pleadings must be written in English, and common abbreviations and either words or numerals for numbers are both acceptable.