A compelling legal brief can significantly increase your chances of winning any case in court, that’s the power of brief writing. Throughout your career as a legal professional, you’ll be judged on two crucial skills — interpersonal and writing skills. Words in the legal industry can make or break your career as an attorney because the way you brief cases ultimately shows how well you can fight the case in court.
What Is a Legal Brief, and Why Is It Important?
A crucial document in the legal profession, a legal brief serves to persuade a court in favor of a client’s position. It functions as a written argument presenting relevant facts and laws supporting the client’s legal stance. A persuasive brief always starts with strong legal research skills — helping attorneys gather accurate facts and precedents that strengthen their arguments.
The significance of a well-crafted brief lies in its potential to influence a judge’s decision, profoundly impacting the case’s outcome.
The importance of a legal brief is rooted in its capacity to articulate a clear and compelling argument before a court. It is a persuasive tool for lawyers, convincing the judge to rule favorably for their client. Additionally, the brief serves as a valuable organizational tool, helping lawyers structure their thoughts and identify vulnerabilities in their cases.
Typically encompassing a statement of facts, a summary of relevant laws, and the lawyer’s arguments and conclusions, a legal brief necessitates thorough research and articulate writing. Clarity and conciseness are paramount, ensuring ease of understanding. Furthermore, a well-organized structure — with each argument building upon the previous one — enhances the brief’s logical and persuasive impact.
In essence, the significance of a legal brief lies in its ability to empower lawyers to present a compelling argument to the court, ultimately shaping the case’s outcome.
How to Write a Legal Brief
1. Understand the Client’s Problem Properly
You cannot write a legal brief if you don’t understand the client’s issue. Make sure you ask the client relevant questions and check all the documents provided. Make a note of everything and prepare briefs in a way that will help you further while arguing in court.
Your briefs should reflect what you are fighting for along with the client’s situation appropriately. Besides this, you should continuously stay abreast of various law books and studies related to your client’s case. Thus, proper research is also required.
2. Don’t Blindly Trust the Information Available Online
While writing a legal brief, it is obvious that you’ll do your own research along with the answers provided by the client, and while jotting down everything, you will have to take references from various law books like Corpus Juris Secundum and American Jurisprudence.
Don’t forget to look at the indexes and digests of these books. Using the information from both the internet and law books, you can get better insights, which are ultimately reflected in your brief. More so, when it comes to web research, you always prefer to read Google Books, or you can also opt for legal writing services for quicker turnaround time and top quality.
3. Exclude Words That Are Not Important
Try to avoid adjectives and adverbs when unnecessary, as they may make your brief appear overly emotional or weak. Make use of nouns and verbs appropriately, as they help transform your sentences into an understandable legal brief format.
Also, avoid using hollow terms or phrases that don’t make sense. Furthermore, don’t repeat information that your clients already know, as it will not help you in an argument and will make you seem like a first-timer in court.
4. Always Write a Strong Subject
Being an attorney, you should always keep in mind that a solid subject leads to a persuasive sentence, as it means someone is taking action. Sidestep terms like “It is” or “There is,” which tend to be weak subjects. Lawyers taking action usually choose strong subjects that highlight the entire case in the brief and make it more interesting to read.
5. Maintain Connectivity Between Sentences
While writing a legal brief, never go off track, which confuses people, leading you to the list of unprofessional lawyers. Therefore, experts recommend that you should always maintain the required connectivity within your text to maintain a flow, which becomes easier for people who are reading it.
And how exactly can you create that connectivity in your brief? You have to make a subject that replicates or refers to the preceding context. You can also connect the sentence by beginning the sentence with a signal, alerting the reader about what you are going to introduce in the next line.
In such a scenario, try to use words like “Also,, or Furthermore,” and to introduce different points, use “First, Second, Third,” and so on.
6. Keep Your Introductory Clauses Concise
Writing long introductory clauses will take you nowhere, as these clauses obscure what you want to convey to the jury.
Make sure readers retain the relevant information before they move on to the subject line of the context. To put it simply, try to limit introductory clauses to four words or fewer.
7. Use a Professional, Natural Tone
Attorneys are taught the standard form of English they should use while writing any brief. Despite this, many inexperienced lawyers often forget to maintain a professional tone and end up writing informally.
8. Proofread Everything Twice
Attorneys should always read whatever they have written in their legal brief. Cross-verify the documents or answers provided by the client to make sure that you have briefed the case properly.
Proofread everything two or three times and edit it accordingly to avoid errors. In simple terms, your brief should be accurate and error-free.
9. Utilize Citations Properly
Don’t overuse the citations or add them at the beginning of the sentence. Citations should be used at the end of the sentence as it helps judges and attorneys to check the assertion because of citations. Many law professionals don’t use the citations properly and thus face reputational damage in court.
10. Emphasize Key Points at the End of Sentences
Keep in mind that the primary emphatic position in a sentence or clause is always at the end, so don’t forget to add the point there. Many lawyers misuse the place of emphasis by concluding the sentence with a date, party name, case name, or qualifying phrases unknowingly.
You don’t have to be one of them; thus, make sure to understand the sentence’s point and see whether it requires such emphasis or not. For example, in the sentence, “The person tested too small a sample from the floor,” – You can put the point of emphasis towards the end like “The sample that the person tested from the floor is too small.”
11. Adopt a Digital Approach
Most judges now review briefs digitally, which means structure and readability matter more than ever. Keep paragraphs short, ensure enough white space, and use clear headings and subheadings.
Digital briefs that are concise, visually clear, and error-free can significantly improve your impression before the court.
Bottom Line
The tips mentioned above can help you craft a persuasive, structured, and impactful legal brief — an essential skill that defines your success as an attorney.
If you’re looking to enhance the quality and accuracy of your legal briefs, consider outsourcing to professional legal drafting services that ensure precision, consistency, and persuasive writing.
