Category Archives: Appellate Record

Style Guide for the United States Supreme Court.

06 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Appellate Law, Appellate Writing, Citations, Citations to the Record, Court Rules, Courts, E-Briefs, E-Filing, Federal District Court Rules, Legal Writing, Local Rules, State Appellate Courts, Style Manuals

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The U.S. Supreme Court’s Style Guide, by Louis J. Sirico, Jr., Legal Skills Prof Blog

http://bit.ly/2jnq60t

When I was starting out in my paralegal career, I created cheat sheets for filing motions and briefs in state and federal district courts. The rules, especially for federal circuit court briefs, are complex and require checking multiple sections, local rules, e-filing rules, and your judge’s personal court rules (if any exist). I found these cheat sheets were the most popular handouts at my legal writing courses and paralegal seminars, and included them in the Appendix of Practical Legal Writing for Legal Assistants.

Regardless of where you are in your paralegal career, I recommend creating a similar cheat sheet for yourself. Updating your cheat sheet when the rules change force you to examine every addition or revision. Keeping your cheat sheet current will reinforce the rules in your mind, and will help you stay on top of your game.

When it came to analyzing rules for the U.S. Supreme Court, I passed. I left it to the professionals who format and print these briefs for a living. Now, at last, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Style Guide is available for all. -CCE

A Benchslap By Judge Gorsuch. And It’s A Really Good One, Too.

17 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit Practitioner's Guide, Appellate Judges, Appellate Law, Appellate Record, Benchslap, Citations to the Record, Immigration Law, Judges

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Benchslap Of The Day: No More Mr. Nice Guy, by David Lat, Above The Law Blog

http://abovethelaw.com/2015/03/benchslap-of-the-day-no-more-mr-nice-guy/

It’s Monday, which makes it a good day for a good old-fashioned benchslap!

Our Judge for today’s benchslap is none other than newly appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch of the United States Supreme Court, back when he was at the United States District Court for the Tenth Circuit. Judge Gorsuch’s opinion is an excellent lesson on the basic elements of a successful appeal. An immigration lawyer ignored the Court’s local rules. A serious mistake, and a thorough benchslap. -CCE

An Expert’s Guide To Formatting An Appellate Brief.

20 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by in Appellate Law, Appellate Writing, Brief Writing, Citations, Citations to the Record, Court Rules, Courts, Legal Writing, Local Rules, Table of Authorities

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How to Format an Appellate Brief, by Deborah Savadra, Lawyerist Blog

(Deborah Savadra is editor and chief blogger at Legal Office Guru, which offers The WordPerfect Lover’s Guide to Word as well as Microsoft Office video tutorials. You can follow her on Twitter at @legalofficeguru.)

https://lawyerist.com/70334/format-appellate-brief-microsoft-word/

Appellate briefs are not a project for beginners. And, regardless of what you read in this tutorial, you must follow your appellate court rules to the letter.

When your court’s rules tell you that it wants citations done a certain way, it mean exactly that. If the court’s rules say a brief must not go over a certain number of pages, do not even think about “fudging” the rules by changing the font, page size, or line spacing.

You see, all courts, not just appellate ones, write local rules for a reason. Whatever “trick” you may try to skirt around those rules, that court has already seen it and knows it when it sees it again. Courts take their local rules seriously, and so should you.

There are many posts and articles posted on my blog about the strategy and nuances of writing appellate briefs, as well as many excellent books on the subject. This tutorial will help you with the nuts and bolts of writing the bare bones, which is always useful regardless of your writing proficiency.

I also highly recommend Ms. Deborah Savadra’s blog, Legal Office Guru. She does an excellent job. -CCE

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The appellate brief is undoubtedly one of the most complex pleadings, formatting-wise. Formatting requirements vary from court to court, going so far as to dictate the size and font of your type, your margins and your line spacing. (If you’ve ever had to do a U.S. Supreme Court brief, I feel your pain.) Even before you consider the text of your argument, you have to wrap your head around which pages have which style of page numbers, whether you must furnish a table of authorities, and how you have to deal with any appendices or references to the record. . . .

Continue reading →

No Sandbagging!

13 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by in Appellate Law, Appellate Record, Issues On Appeal, Preservation of Error

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Thou Shalt Not Sandbag, by Raymond P. Ward, Louisiana Civil Appeals Blog

http://raymondpward.typepad.com/la-appellate/2015/03/thou-shalt-not-sandbag.html

In the last post, we looked at the jurisdictional foundation of the law on preserving error. Today we will look at one of two purposes of this law: prevention of sandbagging.

What is sandbagging? Black’s Law Dictionary defines it as ‘[t]he act or practice of a trial lawyer’s remaining cagily silent when a possible error occurs at trial, with the hope of preserving an issue for appeal if the court does not correct the problem.’ Black’s Law Dictionary 1542 (Bryan A. Garner, ed., 10th ed., Thomson Reuters 2014). Justice Scalia once described sandbagging as ‘suggesting or permitting, for strategic reasons, that the trial court pursue a certain course, and later — if the outcome is unfavorable — claiming that the course followed was reversible error. Freytag v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 501 U.S. 868, 895 (1991) (Scalia, J., concurring).

Appellate courts hate sandbagging. As proof of this proposition, here are some quotable quotes:

  • ‘The Sixth Circuit’s decision to require the filing of objections is supported by sound considerations of judicial economy…. The Sixth Circuit’s rule, by precluding appellate review of any issue not contained in objections, prevents a litigant from ‘sandbagging’ the district judge by failing to object and then appealing.’ Thomas v. Arn, 474 U.S. 140, 147–48 (1985).
  • ‘The rationale behind this Court’s opinion in Lewis was distaste for the ‘sandbagging’ practice in which defendants circumvent district judges and raise objections for the first time on appeal.’ Perales v. Casillas, 950 F.2d 1066, 1071 (5th Cir. 1992).
  • ‘If the record indicates that counsel for the complaining party deliberately avoided making the proper objection or request, plain error will almost never be found. This court will not tolerate ‘sandbagging’ defense counsel lying in wait to spring post-trial error.’ U.S. v. Sisto, 534 F.2d 616, 624 n. 9 (5th Cir. 1976).

Ththere no-sandbagging rule is a consequence of the appellate court’s jurisdiction, which is limited to reviewing the trial court’s actions. It is also a matter of fairness to the district court. In the appellate courts’ view, it is unfair to the district court to complain of that court’s error on appeal without having given that court a fair opportunity to avoid or correct its own error.

Preserving Issues On Appeal.

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by in Appellate Law, Appellate Record

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Series Of Posts On Preserving Issues For Appeal, by Raymond P. Ward, Louisiana Civil Appeals

http://raymondpward.typepad.com/la-appellate/2015/03/series-of-posts-on-preserving-issues-for-appeal.html

The first of Mr. Ward’s series on this subject. -CCE

Monday’ blog post reminded me of some materials I’ve accumulated on preserving errors for review in Louisiana state courts. Recently I shared those materials with a colleague, who suggested writing an article about the topic. I decided instead to self-publish a series of posts here on preservation of error. I figured that breaking down the topic into a series of short blog posts and self-publishing them would be easier than trying to write one big lengthy article and then shopping for a publisher.

Let’s begin by defining preservation of error. Black’s Law Dictionary defines it as ‘the taking of all steps necessary under the rules of procedure or at common law in bringing an improper act or statement to the trial court’s attention so that, if not corrected, the mistake can be reviewed on appeal.’ Black’s Law Dictionary 1375 (Bryan A. Garner, ed., 10th ed.,Thomson Reuters 2014). In Louisiana, substitute Code of Civil Procedure for rules of procedure, and substitute case law or jurisprudence for common law. This definition is reflected in La. Ct. App. Unif. R. 1-3, under which the court of appeal ‘will review only issues which were submitted to the trial court ….’

But why must an error in the trial court be brought to the trial court’s attention before it can be argued in the court of appeal? The next few posts will answer that question.

 

Good Advice On How to Avoid Embarrassing Mistakes In An Appeal.

16 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by in 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Appellate Law, Bad Legal Writing, Brief Writing, Case Law, Citations, Citations to the Record, Legal Analysis, Legal Writing, Mandatory Law, Primary Law, Proofreading, Research, Statement of Facts, Texas Supreme Court

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Common Mistakes Seen in Appellate Petitions and Briefs, by Chad M. Ruback, Appellate Lawyer

http://news.appeal.pro/appeals-to-texas-supreme-court/appellate-petitions-and-briefs/

Mr. Ruback served as a briefing attorney to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals. Here he shares the common mistakes that are normally seen in appellate writing. Because an appellate court never questions witnesses or hears evidence, the written documents submitted by the parties are all it has upon which to base its ruling. Sloppy and lengthy garbled arguments simply will not do. Mr. Ruback’s comments are worth noting.

I would like to add to Mr. Ruback’s list – neglecting to verify the accuracy of the appellate record while it remains in the jurisdiction of the trial court. It is a simple exercise to compare the record compiled by the trial court clerk using the Designation of Record and Counter-Designation of Record to make sure that the record is accurate.

This may seem a waste of time until the appellate record includes a deposition that was never admitted into evidence or a crucial piece of evidence is overlooked by the court clerk who assembled record for the appeal. No one is perfect; mistakes can happen.

Too often, counsel ignore this simple step. Personally, I would make sure the person you send to check the record put the trial exhibits together and/or was part of the trial team. Or to put it another way – how do you explain to a client that you couldl have avoided the appeal’s fatal flaw if you had checked the record before it was sent up on appeal? -CCE