Brevity key to effective brief writing.

• Author: Pribek, Jane

Byline: Jane Pribek

No judge has ever thrown a brief down in disgust and exclaimed, "This brief is too damn clear!"

So says Ron Hofer, district staff attorney for District II of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in Waukesha.

Hofer, and one of the judges for whom he works, Judge Richard S. Brown, spend the bulk of their days reading appellate briefs, and have done so many years now. In addition, Hofer is a frequent speaker at judicial education programs on legal writing, as well as an adjunct professor at Mar-quette University Law School, teaching a course on legal writing.

As for Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge John Franke, he is a 15-year veteran jurist who has served in every division of the Milwaukee courts, sans probate and small claims. He, too, has read many a brief during his tenure, and has penned many a decision (many of which he faithfully submits to the Wisconsin Law Journal for summary publication).

Their experience has led them to become connoisseurs of fine written advocacy. Here are their suggestions for writing better briefs.

Begin an appellate brief with a "statement of the case" that gives the reader the key facts and law, and tells the reader where you're headed.

The typical "statement of the case" often is not helpful to the reader, Hofer contends. They tend to turn into a recitation of the entire procedural history, or they contain too many facts for which the reader has no context.

Ideally, the statement of the case should ground the reader in what lies ahead, in anywhere from one to three sentences. It will likely take on several iterations as you progress with the brief; committing your thought patterns to words on paper can make you change directions from time to time.

Make your brief reader-friendly.

Excessively wordy and obtuse titles and headings do not make it easier for the reader to understand the point you're about to make, says Franke.

"Don't put everything in the title in an attempt to make it simple, because then it's not simple," he says. "If you need to explain more about whose brief it is, and whom it's responding to, then you do that in the introductory paragraph."

Along these lines, pay attention to the headings, so that there's uniformity among them, urges Franke. Then the reader can use them to go back and find specific information.

Further, a table of contents is helpful for trial briefs over 20 pages long. In the alternative, for shorter briefs, simply outlining the points about to be made in the introduction can serve the same purpose: to give the reader a map.

Do tell your client's story, but skip the irrelevant facts.

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