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​To properly transcribe numbers in legal documents, proofreaders are guided by two simple rules and some related exceptions. Among the latter is the presentation of phone numbers, addresses, and years as figures only when they are located at the beginning of sentences.


When legal transcripts deal with numbers 
The basic rules are only two.
Exceptions, though, expand the counting,
And tell that two can barely do.

Think first of ten and down to zero,
Expecting there to spell them out.
Eleven then and up to heaven,
Sketch rising numbers, draw them out.

Exceptions force a switch to digits
For money, measures, dates, percent.
Aside from "One," the same with houses--
And figures that from nouns extend.

Not all exceptions favor digits,
Example being sentence starts;
When numbers get the ball a-rolling,
It’s mostly time for spelling arts.