What is Tenth Lining?
Tenth lining — sometimes written as tenthlining or tenth-lining — is the practice of placing a line number in the right-hand margin of a legal document at every tenth line. The numbers run sequentially through the document: 10, 20, 30, and so on, restarting on each page.
Why does it matter at the Court of Appeal?
When advocates argue before the Kenyan Court of Appeal, they need to direct the bench to specific passages in often lengthy documents — Records of Appeal that can run to hundreds of pages across multiple volumes. Saying "see paragraph 3 on page 45" is imprecise, because paragraph 3 might span many lines and the bench may be looking at a different copy.
Tenth lining solves this. Once every page carries line numbers in the margin, an advocate can say: "Page 45, Volume II, lines 20 to 30" — and everyone in the courtroom can locate exactly those lines instantly.
What documents require tenth lining?
At the Kenyan Court of Appeal, tenth lining is most commonly associated with the Record of Appeal — the compiled bundle of documents from the trial court that forms the basis for the appellate proceedings. The requirement for line numbering is set out in the Court of Appeal Practice Directions.
Beyond Records of Appeal, the same format is sometimes applied to written submissions and other bulky court bundles where precise cross-referencing is needed during oral argument.
What does a tenth-lined document look like?
The line numbers appear in the right-hand margin. Each page starts a new count from line 1. A number is stamped at line 10, line 20, line 30, and so on. The rest of the lines are left blank in the margin. The numbering does not interfere with the text of the document.
What happens if a document is not tenth lined?
The court registry can reject documents that do not comply with formatting requirements, including tenth lining. A rejection means the advocate must reformat the document and refile, which takes additional time and can create delays if the filing deadline is near.
Historically, advocates either typed line numbers manually — a slow, error-prone process on long documents — or paid for specialist typing services. Online tools such as WakiliGO have made it possible to process a document in significantly less time.
How WakiliGO handles tenth lining
WakiliGO provides an online tenth lining tool for Kenyan advocates. You upload a PDF, configure the court details, and the tool processes the document by adding line numbers at every tenth line in the right-hand margin. After processing, you pay KSh 500 and download the stamped PDF.
Ready to tenth line your document?
Process a PDF online — KSh 500 per bundle.