App Ad Notes 8/19/04

 

We only have three drafts and we don’t have to start from scratch on our research.  We have lower court decisions that we can look at and we can get our research started from those decisions.  All the homework will be parts of doing the writing.  There are due dates that all occur at once.  Be decent on the day the paper is due.  We only have 10 meetings.  You’re done with the class by Thanksgiving.  80% of the grade is the brief, 20% for oral argument.  That’s a big difference.  Judges in real life care more about briefs than oral argument.  The brief tends to form a rebuttable presumption that gets tested at oral argument.  The goal is to come up with a brief that doesn’t need oral argument.  If you do bad on the drafts, you lose points on the final grade.  But you want to learn stuff from the drafts.  There are 18 adjunct sections.

 

You are not allowed to look at any attorney work product relevant to the case.  No attorney briefs!  No amicus briefs!  None from the court below!  That’s not necessarily like real life, though.  We’re back in academia, and the rules are different.  We can probably do better than the real thing in some cases.  You also can’t consult briefs online or hard copies.  We can’t consult with each other until we’re told that we can.  When in doubt, ask.

 

We will separate the ideal reader from the real reader.  The judge doesn’t read the brief first, the clerk does, and sometimes that’s the only person who reads it.  The judge will only use the brief if it’s helpful.  Clerks may not be totally attentive readers.  Judges might not be that attentive either.  Regular folks will be reading the brief!  You have to write it so that they’ll get it the first time!

 

What’s the significance of dead fish?  Read the book.  Don’t use indented quotes in your writing if at all possible!  Why is research like dating and writing like marriage?  Next week, we’ll find out!

 

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