Ralph Adam Fine, a Judge on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals since 1988, reveals how appellate judges, all over the country in state and federal courts, really decide cases, and how you can use that knowledge to win your appeal. In this lucid, step-by-step manual, Judge Fine explains and demonstrates how to write effective and persuasive briefs that will get the appellate judges to want you to win. The How-To-Win Appeal Manual - 3rd Edition will give you a judge's-eye-view of the appellate process: what works and why, what destroys effective advocacy, and how you can better represent your clients on appeal. You cannot afford to take or defend another appeal before you read The How-To-Win Appeal Manual! For the third edition, all of the chapters have been revised and updated, along with the addition of a new chapter on Oral Argument in the Real World. Content Highlights: How Judges Decide Cases (and Why That is Important To You) Too Many Cases - What the Heavy Appellate Caseloads Mean to You (and How You Can Get Your Briefs Noticed) The Brief How to Give the Judges the Tools to Decide Your Way The Keys to Writing an Effective and Persuasive Brief Be Honest and Forthright How to Make the Bad Facts Work for You How to Write a Powerful and Persuasive "Question Presented" How to Pick Your Best Issues (and Why This is Crucial) How to Write a Powerful and Persuasive "Statement of Facts" That Will Make the Court Want You to Win How to Write a Powerful and Persuasive "Summary of Argument" How to Make the Statutes Relevant to Your Case Work For You How to Write a Forceful and Persuasive "Argument" How to Make the "Statement of the Case" Clear The Real Role of the "Conclusion" How the Appendix Can Help You Win Why You Should Always File a Reply Brief If You are the Appellant (and How to Use it to Nail Down Your Win) The Secrets of a Winning Oral Argument "Standards of Review" Dangers and Opportunities: How to Make Them Tools for Victory How to Avoid the "Black Hole of Waiver" Why the Typical Appellate Brief is Suicidal (and What you can do to Avoid Common but Deadly Traps) How to Use Unpublished Decisions Advocacy in the Real World: A Step-by-Step Analysis of Briefs in Two Real Cases ( A Civil Appeal and a Criminal Appeal) Learn What Appellate Judges Like and What They Hate Practice Analyzing Issues to Come up with Winning Themes Practice Honing-in on Your Most Powerful Points (and How to Avoid the Traps that Snare Other Lawyers) Practice Crafting a Winning, Powerful Brief That Judges Will Love to Read

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Good legal writing wins court cases. It its first edition, The Winning Brief proved that the key to writing well is understanding the judicial readership. Now, in a revised and updated version of this modern classic, Bryan A. Garner explains the art of effective writing in 100 concise, practical, and easy-to-use sections. Covering everything from the rules for planning and organizing a brief to openers that can capture a judge's attention from the first few words, these tips add up to the most compelling, orderly, and visually appealing brief that an advocate can present. In Garner's view, good writing is good thinking put to paper. "Never write a sentence that you couldn't easily speak," he warns-and demonstrates how to do just that. Beginning each tip with a set of quotable quotes from experts, he then gives masterly advice on building sound paragraphs, drafting crisp sentences, choosing the best words ("Strike pursuant to from your vocabulary."), quoting authority, citing sources, and designing a document that looks as impressive as it reads. Throughout, he shows how to edit for maximal impact, using vivid before-and-after examples that apply the basics of rhetoric to persuasive writing. Filled with examples of good and bad writing from actual briefs filed in courts of all types, The Winning Brief also covers the new appellate rules for preparing federal briefs. Constantly collecting material from his seminars and polling judges for their preferences, the second edition delivers the same solid guidelines with even more supporting evidence. Including for the first time sections on the ever-changing rules of acceptable legal writing, Garner's new edition keeps even the most seasoned lawyers on their toes and writing briefs that win cases. An invaluable resource for attorneys, law clerks, judges, paralegals, law students and their teachers, The Winning Brief has the qualities that make all of Garner's books so popular: authority, accessibility, and page after page of techniques that work. If you're writing to win a case, this book shouldn't merely be on your shelf--it should be open on your desk.

As lawyers, we must not, in hot pursuit of common law, outrun common sense. The dread of that eventuality prompted this book. Learned Writing promotes common sense in legal language. Plain language, which is commonsensical, broadens access to legal documents, thus democratizing the law. If democracy is government of the people, by the people, and for the people, law is the language in which government interacts with the people—it is the language of democracy. The people whose government speaks through law must understand what is said. No democratic society should brook legalese, a dense, verbose dialect known only to lawyers. What then should society do to redress the lawyer-induced obscurity? A Shakespearean character had an alarming proposal: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Apparently, that proposal was not enthusiastically endorsed, which explains why we’re still here. A milder remedy—enrolling lawyers in language classes—has been muted, which explains why this book is in your hands. Learned Writing motivates lawyers to prefer plain language to the legalese and verbosity that have besmirched legal writing for centuries. This book is as sweeping a treatment of its subject as you can find anywhere.

Ralph Adam Fine, a Judge on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals since 1988, reveals how appellate judges, all over the country in state and federal courts, really decide cases, and how you can use that knowledge to win your appeal. In this lucid, step-by-step manual, Judge Fine explains and demonstrates how to write effective and persuasive briefs that will get the appellate judges to want you to win. The How-To-Win Appeal Manual - Fourth Edition will give you a judge's-eye-view of the appellate process: what works and why, what destroys effective advocacy, and how you can better represent your clients on appeal. You cannot afford to take or defend another appeal before you read The How-To-Win Appeal Manual! For the fourth edition, all of the chapters have been revised and updated. Content Highlights: How Judges Decide Cases (and Why That is Important To You)Too Many Cases - What the Heavy Appellate Caseloads Mean to You (and How You Can Get Your Briefs Noticed)The BriefHow to Give the Judges the Tools to Decide Your WayThe Keys to Writing an Effective and Persuasive BriefBe Honest and ForthrightHow to Make the Bad Facts Work for YouHow to Write a Powerful and Persuasive "Question Presented"How to Pick Your Best Issues (and Why This is Crucial)How to Write a Powerful and Persuasive "Statement of Facts" That Will Make the Court Want You to WinHow to Write a Powerful and Persuasive "Summary of Argument"How to Make the Statutes Relevant to Your Case Work For YouHow to Write a Forceful and Persuasive "Argument"How to Make the "Statement of the Case" ClearThe Real Role of the "Conclusion"How the Appendix Can Help You WinWhy You Should Always File a Reply Brief If You are the Appellant (and How to Use it to Nail Down Your Win)The Secrets of a Winning Oral Argument"Standards of Review" Dangers and Opportunities: How to Make Them Tools for VictoryHow to Avoid the "Black Hole of Waiver"Why the Typical Appellate Brief is Suicidal (and What you can do to Avoid Common but Deadly Traps)How to Use Unpublished DecisionsAdvocacy in the Real World: A Step-by-Step Analysis of Briefs in Two Real Cases ( A Civil Appeal and a Criminal Appeal)Learn What Appellate Judges Like and What They HatePractice Analyzing Issues to Come up with Winning ThemesPractice Honing-in on Your Most Powerful Points (and How to Avoid the Traps that Snare Other Lawyers)Practice Crafting a Winning, Powerful Brief That Judges Will Love to Read