By Chris Dralla, Esq.
The challenge of creating an appendix
One of the biggest, and most annoying briefing challenges for any appellate attorney is assembling an appendix. Whether you handle it yourself as a solo practitioner or have a strong paralegal and admin team supporting you, creating an appendix is complicated, very time-consuming, and frankly, just not fun.
As Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal of Kowal Law Group recently noted:
“As any appellate attorney or trial attorney who has done a couple of appeals knows, you have to put together the appendix, and you think that you’re done with the brief when you finish the brief, and then you forget—oh God, I’ve got to assemble that terrible monstrosity, the appellant’s appendix, with all of its indexes, and continuous pagination…”
Tim is spot on about that feeling of dread when you think you’re done, but you’re not really done. It’s even worse when you’re working on the appendix and realize that you forgot an exhibit or document. Typically, that means your pagination is wrecked and you, or your legal secretary or paralegal, will need to spend tedious hours reworking all your tables and hyperlinks, redividing your volumes, and so forth.
Like with brief formatting, appendices must meet very exacting requirements that vary by circuit. It’s complex, and the painstaking process of doing it correctly takes valuable time away from more interesting, billable work.
Excerpts of record, record excerpts, and more
To help legal professionals, we published a basic checklist of the required elements on our blog: How to Create a Compliant Appellate Brief Appendix. But as the article notes, beyond the general provisions and formatting rules outlined in Rule 30 and Rule 32 of The FRAP, circuit courts each have their own specific requirements—and some circuits don’t even call it an appendix.
For example, anyone working in the Ninth Circuit knows that you need to file an Excerpts of Record (ER), while in the Fifth Circuit, the court prepares a Record on Appeal (ROA) and you must prepare and file a smaller Record Excerpts. In the Fourth Circuit, both sides must agree on the contents and file a Joint Appendix (JA).
Comparing brief preparation solutions
I was happy to join Tim and his fellow Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis on their popular California Appellate Law Podcast recently to discuss how technology is impacting the briefing process and legal writing.
One thing we talked about is how AI automation is helping legal professionals save time and focus their efforts on what really counts. As Tim notes, too often, attorneys find themselves thinking:
“Did I miss something in law school? Why am I battling Microsoft Word instead of fighting my opposing counsel?”
We’re proud to count Tim among TypeLaw’s nearly 1500 customers, so it was wonderful to hear his perspective on various brief preparation solutions and why TypeLaw “has been a game-changer” for him, especially when it comes to preparing appendices and tables.
You can listen to the full podcast episode, Revolutionizing Legal Writing, here:
Here’s a summary of the episode:
- Why a quality brief matters: We discuss using time effectively in the briefing process, the importance of high-quality briefs, and introduce TypeLaw, an AI-powered service that allows attorneys to transform their draft briefs into fully-formatted, accurately cited and hyperlinked, ready-to-file PDFs.
- Challenges with traditional brief prep tools: We discuss the inefficiencies of using traditional tools like Microsoft Word for legal writing, highlighting how they can be time-consuming and frustrating.
- TypeLaw’s features: We discuss how TypeLaw automates legal brief formatting, citation hyperlinking, and table building, ensuring compliance with local rules and helping attorneys focus time on the substance of their arguments, rather than technical details.
- Comparison with other brief preparation solutions: Tim compares TypeLaw with other briefing solutions, including Clearbrief and CounselPress, noting the unique advantages of each. He points out that TypeLaw’s ability to edit directly in the PDF and see the final version instantly sets it apart.
- Impact on the legal practice: We discuss how TypeLaw reduces non-billable time spent on technical aspects of brief preparation. Tim shares his experience with TypeLaw and how it can improve productivity and efficiency in legal practices.
- The future of legal writing: I share my vision for the future of legal writing and we discuss how technology can further streamline the process and make legal writing more accessible and efficient.