Don’t be Afraid to Ask the Court for More Time or More Space.
Mike Skotnicki
Posted on January 18, 2012
The Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure set a 70-page limit for a principal appellate brief and oddly mandate the text be printed in the font Courier New at size 13. This font style takes up more lines for the same text than other fonts and thereby reduces the “true” number of pages available in the brief. This page limitation can become quite the burden on a brief writer if an appeal involves an extensive set of facts and multiple complex legal issues. However, the rules do provide for a solution to this problem. In “extraordinary circumstances,”a party may file with the appellate court, pursuant to Rule 28(j), Ala.R.App.P., a motion for permission to file a brief exceeding the standard page limitation. This motion must…
Tagged: Appeal, appeal brief, appealsandbriefs.com, Filing deadlines, Font, Page limits