When an author puts pen to paper, the intended audience should always be one of the paramount considerations. For appellate practitioners, appellate judges and justices at the state and federal level are the audience. As part of its judicial profile feature, The Recorder has collected the following words of wisdom from well-respected appellate level judges on the do’s and don’ts of appellate brief writing.
I think the most important thing is candor, in every respect, whether they’re discussing cases, whether they’re discussing the facts of the case. It’s just critically important to be honest about whatever the situation is. And when you have difficult facts, you’ve got to put them out there and then attempt to provide a rational explanation or mitigation or whatever the situation. But deal with them, don’t ignore them, and don’t twist them. Candor is just critically important. It’s important in the way judges evaluate the lawyers not that we’re sitting here ranking lawyers’ skills, but a lawyer who’s honest, and who we know is honest his arguments will get that much more attention than one who we know tends to shade the facts. From everybody’s standpoint, from the clients’ standpoint, from the court’s standpoint there’s nothing more important than candor.
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