Before you put together a U.S. Supreme Court petition’s appendix, you must do two things: Forget what you've previously learned about lower court appendices; and Read Supreme Court Rule 14.1(i). Rule 14.1(i)'s limited categories of required documents reflect the Court's unique role and the narrow purpose of a petition for certiorari: to demonstrate a case’s [...]
The term "brief" originated from the Latin word "brevis," which means "short." Legal briefs are called briefs because they are more concise than other legal documents, like pleadings or legal memoranda. Generally speaking, they are meant to provide a summary of the legal issues and arguments involved in a proceeding, rather than a detailed analysis [...]
Day 1 10:00 AM: I’m emailed to Cockle, as scheduled. Right now, I’m a near-final draft of a legal brief in Microsoft Word (though WordPerfect is also acceptable). My text size, formatting, and margins don’t matter. I don’t even have page numbers yet. But over the next two days, I’ll be transformed into a [...]