THE EVERGREEN SUPREME COURT
APPELLATE BRIEF: FORM AND STYLE RULES

A.  COMPONENTS OF THE APPELLATE BRIEF

1. COVER PAGE

Must include:

  • "In the Supreme Court of Evergreen, Fall, Winter or Spring Term 2002"
  • Name of litigating parties (Appellants or Petitioners vs. Appellees or Respondents)
  • "Writ of Certiorari To The (name of lower court just before Supreme Court)"
  • Brief for (Appellants or Petitioners) or (Appellees or Respondents)
  • Names, addresses, telephone numbers and identification of attorneys
  • See sample brief
    • 2. QUESTIONS PRESENTED FOR REVIEW*

    These should be presented on their own page. See sample brief. There must be a close match between the Questions Presented and the point headings and subpoint headings in the brief.

    3. TABLE OF CONTENTS*

    This should list all sections (QUESTIONS PRESENTED FOR REVIEW, TABLE OF CONTENTS, TABLE OF AUTORITIES, CONSTITUTIONAL AND/OR STATUTORY PROVISIONS INVOLVED, STATEMENT OF THE CASE, STATEMENT OF THE CASE, SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT, ARGUMENT, POINT HEADINGS, subpoint Headings, and CONCLUSION). The TABLE OF CONTENTS should also include the page numbers where those sections begin. See sample brief.

    It is in the TABLE OF CONTENTS that you should indicate who wrote what part of the ARGUMENT. You do this by writing the co-counsel's name in parentheses at the end of each POINT HEADING and/or each SUBPOINT HEADING. For example:

    I. The Right Of Citizens To Participate Equally In The Processes of Government Is A Core Democratic Value And Fundamental Right (Jane Student). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
    4. TABLE OF AUTHORITIES*

    List all authorities you cite in your brief. They should be listed in the following order:

  • CASES (alphabetical order) and pages where cited in the brief
  • CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS (federal listed before state)
  • STATUTES AND ORDINANCES
  • OTHER AUTHORITIES (books, articles, etc.)
    • 5. CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS INVOLVED or STATUTORY PROVISIONS INVOLVEDor REGULATORY PROVISIONS INVOLVED or any combination of these if more than one is involved. List federal provisions before state or local provisions, if any). Please note the difference between CONSTITUTIONAL (OR OTHER) PROVISIONS INVOLVED here and authorities (including CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS, STATUTES and ORDINANCES) that you include in the TABLE OF AUTHORITIES.  On the CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS INVOLVED page of the brief, you must provide the text of the constitutional provisions that are involved in the controversy at hand.

    6. STATEMENT OF THE CASE

  • Statement of Facts
  • Proceedings Below (Also known as Procedural History. If this is brief, it need not be a separate subsection; merely append to Statement of Facts.)
  • Summary of Argument (You will want to wait until you have written your argument before you write this subsection.)
    • 7. ARGUMENT

    POINT HEADINGS SHOULD BE IN CAPS, IN BOLD AND SINGLE SPACED

  • Sub-Point Headings, if any, should be in Title Case and in bold.
  • Text of the Argument should be double-spaced (one and one-half spaces is also allowed).
  • Footnotes, if any, should be singled-spaced and typed in 10 or 11 point font.
    • 8. CONCLUSION

    *Pages in these sections of the brief should use pagination in lower case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All other sections of the brief (with the exception of the title page, which has no page number) should use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc). See the sample brief.

    B.  OTHER RULES OF THE COURT:

    Fonts.  No fancy fonts are allowed. Please use Times Roman or Times New Roman. Please use 12 point font.

    Margins. Use standard margins.

    Stapling. The brief should be stapled in the upper left-hand corner.

    Printing. Please print on one side of each page.

    Spacing. There are places in the brief where you need to single space, double (or 1.5 ) space or triple space.  Here's a summary:

    In the text of the Questions Presented page, Statement of the Case, Argument and Conclusion you should use either double or 1.5 spaces (The sample brief uses 1.5 spaces between lines).

    The point headings should be single spaced.  You should use double spacing between the point headings and the text.

    You may use triple spacing between paragraphs (as in the sample brief).

    You should use triple spacing between Argument sections (as in the sample brief).

    The title (cover) page sections should be single-spaced, but you will need to use whatever amount of space you need to balance the information on that page.  See the sample brief for the parts that are printed in bold and italics.

    The Table of Authorities and the Constitutional Provisions Involved sections of the brief should be single-spaced with double spacing between items or paragraphs.

    Italics. Please note the use of italics in the brief proper (everywhere but the title page): names of cases and titles of journal articles.

    Citations.  Try to use proper citation form.  Examples of frequently used citations can be found in the sample brief as well as in the Basic Forms of Citation handout (http://192.211.16.13/curricular/equality/citations.htm).  If you are unable to find an example for a citation you need to make, you may want to consult the Bluebook: Basic Legal Citation (http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/).

    How do you make a  § in Word if you need it in a statutory citation?  Click on "Insert" in the Word menu.  Then click on "Symbol".  Select the symbol you want.  Then click the "Insert" button.