Bearing abbreviation

I'm currently working as a cartographer for a county government, and I just found out that we deny legal descriptions that use symbols (° ' ") instead of writing out "degrees," "minutes," and "seconds." For example, a description like N89°50'59"E or North 89°50'59" East would be rejected for using abbreviations.

This seems absurd to me. I’m not a surveyor anymore, but when I was, I always used symbols for bearings. Has anyone else encountered this? Thoughts?