Legal Writing Prof Blog points (with a link) to a law review article entitled Effective Brief Writing Despite High Volume Practice: Ten Misconceptions that Result in Bad Briefs. I won’t get a chance to read it until I return from San Diego later this week, but an excerpt from the abstract caught my eye:
Many recurring brief writing errors may be caused by the demands of a high volume law practice, which allow little time for the brief writer to achieve the critical distance from the document necessary to edit and revise effectively.
I’ve always considered this “distancing” a critical step, not just on appellate briefs but for any memorandum filed in any court. Appellate briefing schedules tend to allow more time to do this than most trial briefing schedules. I like to get a near-final draft done as early as possible, then put it away for several days before looking at it again. It’s important enough to me to strive for this regardless of how busy I am.
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