Traditionally, in the advocacy context, the word ‘brief’ meant written argument submitted to an appellate court. This nomenclature is historically based. When written arguments were first required or even desired at all in litigation, they were restricted to ultimate courts—there, they were and still are called ‘briefs’. Then they were extended to intermediate appellate courts—here, they were and still are called ‘briefs’. It took decades after their introduction to ultimate and appellate courts for written arguments to be required or welcomed at trial courts. Here, they got an unnecessarily differentiated name ‘written addresses’ or ‘written submissions,’ if interlocutory; and ‘final (written) addresses,’ if terminal. (And why the adjective ‘written,’ when the reader is holding the document?)Join me in dropping this linguistic differentiation. Let’s assign the name of ‘brief’ to all written arguments submitted to a court or tribunal, in interim, interlocutory, or substantive proceedings, at first instance or on appeal. Let’s have not only appellate briefs, but also motion briefs and trial briefs. Your written addresses or written submissions in aid of applications to courts become ‘motion briefs’; and your final (written) addresses become ‘trial briefs.’
Chinua Asuzu, BRIEF-WRITING MASTERCLASS, Partridge, 2017.
