Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
Page 50
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 55
Page 56
Page 57
Page 58
Page 59
Page 60
The Mississippi Lawyer Summer 2015 13 An Interview with Chief Justice William L. Waller Jr. VLL What are the particular attrib- utes of an effective brief WLW Let me preface my answer with some comments about an initial appeal. In the system that we have with a deflec- tion court the Court of Appeals is designed to be an error-correction court. The Supreme Court is designed to decide cases in certain categories like death penalty annexations utility rates attorney discipline and judicial discipline. But once you get past categories our job is interpretation. One of the things that a practitioner needs to recognize on the front is what kind of case he or she has. If it is one that involves interpretation a first impression case or a case where the attorney believes we have divergent lines of authorities that seem to say two differ- ent things the attorney needs to be very up front about that. If the attorney wants oral argument then he or she should explain why. For example this case includes an issue of first impression with respect to whatever it is. That will help them get into the right Court. In our screening process we try to make sure that interpretation cases are kept here. We sometimes miss them. Attorneys sometimes fail to tell us up front what kind of case it is. We do not have time to read every line in the brief during the screening process. We have to scan the facts look to see what the issues are and make a determination. It would help the system if attorneys made sure we know what kind of case it is. Even if it is an error-correction case we can retain those cases too if the lawyer says that this case is a matter of great pub- lic importance like the cases involving gubernatorial pardons or the Katrina cases. In summary here is what we need the right facts the best law said as con- cisely as possible and some statement telling us what kind of case it is. VLL Is there a part of a brief that you consider most important WLW Personally I like summary of the argument. I think if you can encapsulate all of that information into the summary of the argument. If you do you will get my attention and I will look at the whole brief. If you do not get my attention there I am not going to say that I will not look at the whole brief but it may take me awhile to get to the real issue or to find something that you think is important. Summary of the argument basically directs me to what is important in the case. VLL What common mistakes do you see in brief-writing Continued on next page