After the reply brief.

• Jurisdiction: United States

Section 86. After the reply brief.—Some lawyers, like many women, are uneasy unless they have the last word; and, after brooding over the argument, decide to file still one more written document. Some courts do not permit the filing of anything after the reply brief without special leave,¹⁴⁹ and others similarly limit the filing of any document whatever after the argument.¹⁵⁰ What, then, is the lawyer with the last-word-itch to do?

The best advice for this sort of impulse is: don't! Far better to write out what you have in mind, read it aloud to as sympathetic an audience as you can muster—and then relegate it to your file, circular or otherwise.

Post-argument filings are justified in only a rigidly limited class of instances—and their form depends on the rules and practice of the court in question. In the Supreme Court, a letter to the Clerk is acceptable—which is to say, it will not be bounced back for being in letter form. In many Courts of Appeals, on the other hand, a motion for leave to file must be affixed to anything at all submitted after oral argument. Checking with the clerk in advance in this connection may save much embarrassment.

In my view, there are only two instances in which the filing of additional material after the argument is justified:

(a) First, when the court at the argument has asked counsel for additional data of any kind. If a memorandum has been...