Tips for writing an effective brief

Stop all the 19th century nonsense

Let me make this clear, although I have a few appellate wins, including two in the 8th circuit, I am not a appellate lawyer. I have, however, worked with a number a very good appellate lawyers and picked up some of their habits.

I will expand on this in a later post, but here are my quick tips for writing a more effective brief:

1. If you can't make your argument in less than 20 pages, then your argument is not fine-tuned.

Clerks are like the rest of us - short on time and long on responsibility. Except they have hundreds, if not thousands of cases. Be respectful of their time.

2. Get rid of the COMES NOW, and all that old English blah blah. Get to the point. We know who filed the brief!

3. Blue-booking is important. Controversial, I know. But, when I see poor blue booking, I think "sloppy."

4. Judges and clerks live in the same world we do - the world of Twitter, Facebook, everything On-Demand. KEEP IT SIMPLE.

5. Just like in front of the jury, SHOW the evidence, don't just tell. I'm pretty liberal with screenshots of the evidence. . .

6. Keep out the personal attacks, unless you absolutely have to refute them. Judges see them as childish. STAY FOCUSED ON THE SUBSTANCE. Don't take the bait.

Remember, the goal of a motion is to win on an issue, not prove that you are the smartest lawyer in the room. Make your arguments, and the evidence supporting those arguments, easily digestible. Don’t waste anybody’s time.