Writing Briefs Judges
Want to Read
By Christine M. Kieta
Law Office of Christine M. Kieta, PC
L
egal writing – or any writing
–
intrigues
me
mostly
because you can tell almost
all that you need to know about
your opponent’s skill from the
documents that he produces.
If
his legal analysis wanders through
endless sentences and puked up
commas, then it’s likely that his
ability to argue that point is equally
disorganized. But if the analysis
is short and focused in getting
to its point, then your opponent
is a bit more indomitable. He is
intellectually clear in his thoughts,
can understand an issue against
a rule with precision, and has the
unique ability to communicate the
result of that analysis. This is what
makes your opponents afraid of you.
When I first wrote about legal
writing several years ago it was
because a friend of mine needed
a space-filler for a legal newsletter.
So I fluffed together the only thing
I knew in the absence of any real
practice otherwise: strong legal
writing. Years later I still support
this noble cause of ‘document
sanity’ and advocate aggressively
against slowly killing a judge with
bad grammar and foggy thinking.
I.
Conquering Unknown
Laws: Digesting The
Unappetizing.
II.
Opening a solo practice just out of
law school meant that I took on areas
of law that I didn’t know existed.
Indeed, I likely would have been
better off and a more whole person
if I never knew these areas existed.
But being a starving lawyer in 2009
and beyond required that I take my
best shot on cases that smarter,
more solvent lawyers declined.
That being said putting together a
legal analysis on any issue meant
that I started with laws that I just did
not know. So I started with what
I did know: the law library. Years
later I now joke with the librarians
at one of my favorite libraries that
no one knows of this resourcefilled land. It’s a far away world
with books that will tell you how
to complete your task, inventions
called databases housing legal
information that only the future can
fathom, and fairy dust to blow on
yourself once you open a book.
Actually, that may just be regular
dust accumulating since no one
seems to visit law libraries anymore.
The
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
advancing
technological
Winter 2015
environment
brings
incredible
resources to the legal community.
New resources.
Law libraries
generally have the ability to
pay for these resources. So do
associations. Stuff that was once
confined to a book – like Illinois Law
and Practice which gives you an
incredible roadmap on handling a
case – is now electronically stored
and waiting to be sent through
e-mail to you. Now you can do an
hour of research in minutes. This
is important because if a judge or
his clerk has to research a law they
typically go to the law library in the
courthouse. And they likely know
how to use these resources as well
as the law librarians themselves.
Trapping
Your
III.
Audience And Piercing Your
Opponent’s
Legal
Writing
The first time I worked with another
attorney on a brief he sent me
his draft of it as he started it.
Good thing we live in the age of
technology because I cannot hide
my emotions. When I asked him
if he knew what IRAC was he said
‘no’ but that he learned in law school
– guess how many decades ago –
that a legal analysis is supposed
to provide a bridge for the judge.
That explanation was as useless as
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