Make Sure to Put “Good Stuff” About the Client in the Appellate Record

Make Sure to Put “Good Stuff” About the Client in the Appellate Record

Written by Michael S., OLN Freelance Attorney.

An important part of appellate brief writing is storytelling, telling your client’s story to the court in a way that will keep the reader’s attention. To tell a good story and make the client appear favorable to appellate judges, the facts are very important. But don’t just give the facts about the case on appeal. One way a trial court litigator can help the appellate attorney win on appeal is to ensure that the record contains information about the client that the appellate attorney can use to portray the client in a most favorable light, present the facts of the controversy favorably, or otherwise tell a more complete story. This is often missing in appeals from summary judgment rulings or cases involving just a few depositions or a short bench trial. Oftentimes very favorable information about the client is left out of the record and thus non-existent for purposes of the appeal.

While it may not be critical to the issues of the case in the trial court, if the doctor sued for malpractice has won a humanitarian award or takes foster children into his or her home, make note of it in the Answer or have your client work the information into his testimony while giving background information in deposition. If your small business client is family-owned, has been in business for three generations, and is an important local employer, or has won an award for being “green,” don’t hide that fact. Find a way to put it in the record.  If your injured client teaches a Sunday school class or does volunteer work with disabled or underprivileged children, put it in the record. Don’t ever let your client become a generic, faceless “the Appellant” or “the Appellee” when the case goes on appeal. Instead, make sure that favorable facts relating to the client are available to the appellate attorney to portray them in the story of the appeal brief as living, breathing souls or an honest business that the appellate judges can empathize with. In a close case, it can mean the difference between winning and losing an appeal.