When I was a Staff Attorney for an Associate Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in the 1990’s, I read countless appellate briefs. I really only remember one. That brief contained a Statement of Facts that opened my eyes to how well an appellate brief could be written. It was simply the best Statement of Facts that I have ever read.

It was a wrongful death case. A single mother was killed in an automobile accident when pulling out onto a county highway from a local road at dusk her car was struck by a logging truck going well over the posted speed limit. The jury had awarded a sizeable verdict for the decedent’s estate and the Alabama Supreme Court, then composed of a majority of Justices elected as business-supporting Republicans, affirmed the verdict without opinion.

I don’t recall the name of the case, the details of the facts, the…