You wake up in the middle of the night in a panic, sweat beads prickling your forehead. The deadline to perfect your appeal is next week, and you forgot about it until a small voice deep in your subconscious reminded you in your dreams.
No problem, you think. I have a week before the deadline. Plenty of time, right?
Wrong.
Over the next few days, you will frantically search for your notes and sources to help you with writing your brief. You realize you won’t be able to write a compelling one without help from an appellate attorney (because the issues you raised in your motion for summary judgment or at trial are not the same ones that will lead you to victory in an appeal).
You email an appellate attorney the next day and tell her you have an excellent appeal issue and can she help you.
Sounds promising, she says. When’s your deadline to perfect?
Next week, you say. We have six days left.
I’m sorry, she says. There is no way I can write the type of persuasive appeal brief that you and your client deserve in six days. Besides, my schedule’s packed for the next four weeks.
Your heart sinks. You’ll handle it yourself, you think. It’ll be easy, right?
Wrong.
You spend the next five days scrambling the facts of your case with the case law you think should apply. You ask a colleague for a model appeal brief you can use (or you find one on the internet). You slap together your arguments without brainstorming or outlining them first. You lose sleep and drink too much coffee. You don’t leave yourself any time for editing. Your brief makes the basic arguments you think are necessary for your client to win. You send your brief to the printer in the nick of time and congratulate yourself for pulling it off.
But…
Your brief has typos. It references facts that you know as attorney of record, but they don’t appear anywhere in the record. You failed to cite properly to the record. You missed the controlling standard of review, so you crafted an argument that isn’t relevant on appeal. Your statement of facts copies and pastes the one you used in your motion or trial opening. Your arguments restate the (logically sound) ones you made in the motion or trial court.
But.
Your brief falls flat.
It misses a golden opportunity to tell your client’s story.
It lacks any discussion of the dominating appellate principles.
It’s hard to understand. The arguments are confusing (though they make perfect sense to you).
It’s subpar. You and your client deserve better.
How do you ensure this does not happen to you?
Here’s how: Don’t wait until the week—or even the month—before your deadline to talk to an appellate lawyer.
Why?
It takes time to find the best argument for your appeal.
An appeal is not won by simply regurgitating the arguments you already made. The style of an appellate brief also allows for a unique opportunity to persuade through skillful storytelling. Most lawyers miss it.
I like to say that I need time for appeal issues to marinate.
Like haute cuisine, the best appeal briefs are an exquisite mix of specific pieces added at a particular moment for an intended effect. To do this, I need to ponder the issues as I work on other projects, read the news, and engage in my daily life. During this time, the issue is soaking in my years of experience—both in law and my other pursuits.
Over time, it becomes clear to me how to masterfully mix the elements in a way that is convincing to appellate judges. Only then do I carefully put the brief together through my streamlined writing process.
One week is not enough. Neither is two.
I need at least a month to work my magic on your appeal. It’s the reason why my briefs are a pleasure to read—and why courts have no problem understanding the arguments I’ve made (whether they agree with them or not).
PLUS, you will need time to coordinate with the printer to compile the record for your appeal and put both the record and your brief in the required digital format.
So.
Don’t wait until the week before your appeal deadline to reach out for help with your brief. Help me help you by telling me about the brief you need today.
Want to make sure you have my contact info handy when you are ready to get help with your appeal? Put your email in the box below to signup for my quarterly newsletter (an example of which you can see here).
NOTE: this post was written during the Coronavirus pandemic, during which time many state court statutes of limitations and notice of appeal deadlines have been suspended as the courts have closed. Federal courts have remained open with rolling extensions granted for pending appeals.
Even with the closures, suspensions, and extensions, it is imperative that you speak to an appellate attorney about your appeal as soon as you know you need to take one. The more time there is to marinate your appeal issues, the better. Get in touch today.
