By Chinua Asuzu
“A brief should be luminous, not voluminous.” Irvin Taylor.
It’s harder, but more profitable, to write a short brief than a long one.
Strive to write succinctly. The judicial branch of government will fall in love with you.
Don’t drown your arguments in stylistic embellishments.
“A style that steals the show from the argument does a disservice to the brief. Ornateness, languidness, verbosity, circuitousness—these do more than steal the show; they ruin it. A brief is not a pasture for the practice of literary gymnastics by frustrated journalists; indeed, it should not be a pasture of any kind but rather a cubbyhole just large enough to hold the essentials, compactly and neatly arranged, of a sound legal argument.” Mortimer Levitan, ‘Confidential Chat on the Craft of Briefing,’ 4 Journal of Appellate Practice & Process (Iss. 1, 2002), 305, 309.
And…
Judges detest verbiage.
The Supreme Court of Nigeria wasn’t impressed with the appellant’s excessively lengthy and pretentious brief in Universal Vulcanizing (Nig.) Ltd v Ijesha United Trading & Transport Co. Ltd. [1992] 9 NWLR (Part 266) 388 (SC).
Omo JSC called it “a 70-page booklet which is more of a treatise than a brief.”
Noting learned counsel’s erudition “exuded” in the brief, Omo JSC complained that the brief was far from “succinct” as required by the Supreme Court rules.
Agonizing over the brief’s verbosity, Omo JSC concluded, “It is lengthy, otiose, and not surprisingly, repetitive. … It is to be hoped that this Court will not be inflicted in the future with the tiresome task of wading through such a document.” Ouch.
