The form and content of briefs filed in New York Court of Appeals and the four departments of the Appellate Division is prescribed by CPLR 5528 and 5529 as supplemented by the individual rules of those courts. CPLR 5529(a)(3) authorizes each appellate court, “by rule applicable to practice therein,” to prescribe the format, type size and length of briefs. Apart from the two CPLR sections, there are no state-wide uniform rules of appellate procedure. Practitioners familiar with the rules in one court cannot assume that they will be the same in another. There are differences and, in each case, the rules of the court to which the appeal is taken should be consulted. The clerks may refuse to accept for filing any briefs that do not comply with the court’s rules.
General Requirements
Briefs shall be on 8½-inch by 11-inch white paper and may be reproduced by any method that produces a permanent, legible black image on white paper and secure binding on the left side. Letter press printing is no longer required.1 Requirements differ among departments in terms of the size of the words. The requirements in the First and Second departments distinguish between proportionally spaced typeface (in which the sizes of the letters vary in width) and monospaced typeface (in which all letters are the same size).
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