Gressman on Supreme Court Practice – often referred to as the “Bible” on Supreme Court practice – details all matters of the Court, from how to (literally) pass through the Court’s guarded entrance to how to persuade the Court to invoke original jurisdiction.

On the importance of proofreading and finalization, Gressman provides:

Many brief writers do not start their preparation soon enough to allow sufficient time at the end for revising and rewriting, for checking citations and quotations, and for preparing the tables of contents and authorities, all in time for the brief to go to the printer and be filed with the Court.  All good writers know that these processes are essential, take time, and produce better briefs

[and of course, Better Brief Win].  Everyone—printers, typists, and lawyers—makes mistakes, clerical and otherwise.  Whoever’s fault the mistakes may be, the counsel of record is ultimately responsible for the filed brief.  The best protection against such errors is to have several persons, including some who did not participate in the brief writing, review the final draft. FN50*

*FN50  Judge Wald has advised counsel to “proofread with a passion.  You cannot imagine how disquieting it is to find several spelling or grammatical errors in an otherwise competent brief.  It makes the judge go back to square one in evaluating the counsel.  It says—worst of all—the author never bothered to read the whole thing through, but she expects us to.”  19 Tips from 19 Years on the Appellate Bench, 1 J. Appellate Prac. & Proc. 7, 22 (1999).

The Court will not make corrections to briefs.  The Clerk’s policy regarding the correction of errors in briefs filed with the Court is to allow a representative to visit the Clerk’s Office and effect changes to all 40 copies, or to file 40 substitute briefs after receiving the Clerk’s approval.  Errata sheets and letters from counsel concerning errors are not acceptable.

Supreme Court Practice, 9th ed. Eugene Gressman, et al. at 732 (2007).

Without expert legal proofreading, the meaning that you intend to convey to the Court can be diluted or lost entirely.  Nearly a century of experience and Cockle’s expert legal proofreading allows us to ensure that your argument is presented in a coherent and persuasive manner.  We check for misspellings, grammatical errors, sentence structure, and inconsistencies in citations.

Our team will work with you throughout the brief filing process. Contact us today to get started!