Brief in Chief

[Lil Nubbin]

If an appellant is creating their own Brief in Chief (working pro se) in a civil case - does the judge allow for mistakes made? Or will it be thrown out if there are errors?Or can you get a "redo?" Also, does the appellant have to send a copy to the appellee(s) or does the court do that for you? When you have a deadline, is it from the date of mailing or the time the court receives it?

Thanks

[Lil Nubbin]

Every state has very specific rules governing formatting, content and service of appellate briefs. Generally speaking, the court of appeals will consider anything timely filed, but the persuasiveness of the brief may be undermined. In federal Court the Clerks don't have the discretion to refuse any document submitted for filing. In every system with which I am familiar, service on the opposing side is always the responsibility of the party. The Appellate rules you are operating under will explain how to measure deadlines and whatnot.

A hint: be familiar with the standard of review for your appeal and gear all your writings to that context. Good luck.

Thank you.

A lawyer gave me an example of a Brief in Chief, so I did make it look real pretty with all the legal mumbo jumbo at the top. I cheated a little on the left margin. It said 11/4" (which, if my math is correct... is 2 3/4? The print then just looked way too narrow!) So I just used 1" all around.

I am more worried about content. I wrote in the third person (and felt a bit like Bob Dole :) ) but I wandered a bit near the end, that gave more of a character assessment of the appellee, (which I thought it may help to show the character of the appellee in other matters) but now wonder if the judge will just disregard it as being off the issue.

The lawyer I spoke to said the same as you... even if you do it yourself, the more professional it looks the more seriously they will view the whole case.

Thanks again for your help.

[Jay]

If an appellant is creating their own Brief in Chief (working pro se) in a civil case - does the judge allow for mistakes made? Thanks


I am somewhat familiar with this doctrine. On the federal level, a court may defer technicalities in the pleadings, yes, per case law, especially in prisoner litigation that is not vexatious in nature.

States may or may not as a matter of thier own case law.

Key in:

pro se litigant + less stringent standard than attorney + your state


See what you come up with.


Bottom line, be as procedureally accurate as possible. If not, even if allowance is permitted, remember, even a bad attorney is generally better than a good layman. Give the other side as little ammunition as possible.