Thursday, August 4, 2016

Kozinski puts chubby briefs on a diet

More from the Great Kozinski today in this dissent from an order allowing an oversized brief:

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  • I do not consent to the filing of a fat brief because the state’s motion is wholly inadequate.



  • To me, it seems perfectly clear that the state filed an overly long brief because it thought it could get away with it.
  • This has become a common and rather lamentable practice: Instead of getting leave to file an oversized brief before the deadline, lawyers wait for the last minute to file chubby briefs and dare us to bounce them.
  • Sly lawyers take advantage of this institutional inertia to flout our page limits with impunity. This encourages disdain for our rules and penalizes lawyers, like petitioner’s counsel, who make the effort to comply.
  • For my part, I don’t feel bound to read beyond the 14,000 words allowed by our rules, so I won’t read past page 66 of the state’s brief.

  • Image result for the great kozinski
    For my next trick, I will shrink your brief.
    See also Kozinski Declares War on 'Fat Briefs'