A Level Academy Islamabad
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00:00The opportunity to appeal an unfavorable court decision is a golden one, and it cannot be wasted.
00:07An appeal is literally nothing without an appellate brief to go with it,
00:11because failure to provide one will lead to the appeal being dismissed.
00:15A brief is a document presented to the court arguing why one side should win and not the other.
00:21In the case of an appellate brief, it should argue why a decision either should or shouldn't be overturned.
00:27Knowing how to craft an appellate brief and what content to provide within it is crucial to your case.
00:33The brief should contain, in an organized manner, a concise statement of the case and facts,
00:39a summary of the argument, a standard of review,
00:42and, of course, your argument for why the original decision in the case should be overturned or upheld.
00:49But let's break down the appellate brief into its parts.
00:52The first thing after your cover page is a table of contents and the table of authorities,
00:58which is probably best to complete after the rest of the brief is finished.
01:01The contents table should contain a breakdown of the brief sections and which page number to find each one on.
01:07The authorities table is a list of any previous cases or legal authorities cited in the brief,
01:13indicating on which pages the cases can be found.
01:16Next should come your statement of the case and facts.
01:19This is a breakdown of the relevant history of the original proceedings,
01:23along with the material facts pertaining to the issue or issues at hand.
01:28Appeals cases are often won or lost on the facts presented,
01:31so make them as thorough, accurate, and compelling as possible, without being too argumentative.
01:37If certain important facts are disputed, say so.
01:41Next, you should include a statement of the standard of review for each issue.
01:46You can do this all in one section or separate each issue into their own sections.
01:50The proper standard of review can be complicated.
01:53Even attorneys get that wrong all the time.
01:56Your best bet is to find an appellate decision that talks about an issue such as yours,
02:00which you will need to have for your argument section anyway.
02:04There is a LegalYou video on how to find cases.
02:07Look for where the court says what standard of review they are using.
02:11It might be a strange word like de novo or abuse of discretion.
02:16A quick call to LegalYou can help make sure you use the right one.
02:20After this comes the heart of the brief, the argument.
02:24Part analysis, part logical exercise, and part presentation.
02:28The argument should focus on your strongest points,
02:31and each point should be broken down into its own heading,
02:34with subheadings that support the main point.
02:37You want to finish up naturally with a conclusion that tells the appellate judges
02:41what you would like them to do if they agree with you,
02:44such as reverse the trial court judgment.
02:47In Florida, you are also required to certify what font you used for your brief,
02:51typically 14-point Times New Roman.
02:54Also, in Florida, your first brief is limited to 50 pages.
02:58Not that you have to use that much or even want to.
03:02It's all right to keep your briefs the brief.
03:05If you are the one who filed the appeal, you get a second brief called a reply brief.
03:10At most, that can be 15 pages.
03:13Sometimes an instructional video isn't enough,
03:16so LegalYou also has example briefs, related resources, and live chat to make it enough.
03:21LegalYou, where you are your own best lawyer.