Brief: Everything You Need to Know
A written argument furnished to the court which sets forth the pertinent facts of the case or motion being tried or heard and the laws applicable to it.2 min read
Brief
Defined
- A written argument furnished to the court which sets forth the pertinent facts of the case or motion being tried or heard and the laws applicable to it.
- Either the outline of a case made in preparation for a class, or a written argument for Legal Writing and Research.
- When a party (either through her lawyer or in pro per) submits a written legal argument to a court--usually to support a motion or a position asserted at a trial--the document is often called a brief. It typically consists of a statement of the facts relevant to the case and arguments supported by references to legal authority (statutes, regulations or earlier court decisions). Many briefs are quite lengthy; the label 'brief' is an infamous misnomer celebrated by the writer Franz Kafka who described a lawyer as 'a person who writes a 10,000 word document and calls it a brief.'
Contents of a Brief
A brief usually contains a memorandum of points and authorities. Points and authorities explain why the law authorizes the judge to take the requested action. The term points and authorities comes from the fact that the legal discussion makes certain points followed by citations to legal authority (usually a court decision or statute) supporting each point.
0px;" class="adsbygoogle">