Historically, parties were faced with page limitations in briefs filed before the Tennessee Court of Appeals, Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Tennessee Supreme Court. And the page limits impacted only the “Argument” section of briefs.
No more. Now, our appellate courts are going to impose word count limitations of the length of briefs.
T.R.A.P 30(a) still mandates the size of paper to be used and the font size:
If not printed, copies should be on paper 8½ by 11 inches, double spaced, except for quoted matter, which may be single spaced, with the text (1) when typewriter generated not smaller than standard elite type or (2) when computer generated not smaller than times new roman 12 point font and, in either event, not to exceed 6½ by 9½ inches on the page. Papers should be numbered on the bottom and fastened on the left.
T.R.A.P. 30(e) sets forth the word count limits:
Except by order of the court, briefs and other specifically referenced papers shall comply with the following word limitations: (1) principal briefs and applications pursuant to Rule 11 shall be limited to 15,000 words, (2) reply briefs, answers pursuant to Rule 11, and supplemental briefs pursuant to Rule 11 shall be limited to 5,000 words, and (3) amicus briefs shall be limited to 7,500 words.
The following sections of a brief and other referenced papers shall be excluded from these word limitations: Title/Cover page, Table of Contends, Table of Authorities, Certificate of Compliance, Attorney Signature Black, and Certificate of Service.
All briefs and other papers subject to word limitations under these rules must include a certificate by the attorney or unrepresented party that the brief or other paper complies with the applicable word limitation and must state the number of words in the brief or other paper. The person certifying compliance may rely on the word count of the word processing system used to prepare the brief or other paper.
(3) A jurisdictional statement in cases appealed to the Supreme Court directly from the trial court indicating briefly the jurisdictional grounds for the appeal to the Supreme Court;
(4) A statement of the issues presented for review;
(5) A statement of the case, indicating briefly the nature of the case, the course of proceedings, and its disposition in the court below;
(6) A statement of facts, setting forth the facts relevant to the issues presented for review with appropriate references to the record;
(7) An argument, which may be preceded by a summary of argument, setting forth: (A) the contentions of the appellant with respect to the issues presented, and the reasons therefor, including the reasons why the contentions require appellate relief, with citations to the authorities and appropriate references to the record (which may be quoted verbatim) relied on; and (B) for each issue, a concise statement of the applicable standard of review (which may appear in the discussion of the issue or under a separate heading placed before the discussion of the issues);
(8) A short conclusion, stating the precise relief sought.
Note: these are mandatory sections of briefs taken from T.R.A.P. 27(a).
Before the rule change, the “Argument” portion of the principal briefs could be 50 pages and the “Argument” portion of a reply brief could be 25 pages. One page of double-spaced, Times New Roman text is about 250 pages, so the Argument portion of a principal brief could be about 12,500 words long. The “Argument” section of a reply brief could be about 6,250 words long. (Really, usually more words would be allowed because block quotes could be single-spaced, resulting in more words per page.) Thus, the word limitations imposed by the amended rules, absent court order increasing the word limits in a given case, will result in significantly shorter briefs.
Abraham Lincoln told a recipient of a letter that “I’m sorry I wrote such a long letter. I did not have the time to write a short one.” Those practicing before our appellate courts will need to build some extra time into their schedules to comply with the word count restrictions.