For several years now, Texas appellate lawyers have had to swing
both ways. No, get your mind out of the gutter,
that's not what we're talking
about. We're referring to
words and
pages.
Since 1998, federal appellate courts have measured the length of
briefs in words: 14,000 for a principal brief, and 7,000 for a
reply brief. (Petitions for rehearing are an exception, at
15 pages.) Gone have been the days when you could play
with margins, typefaces, footnotes, and the like to cram the square
peg of your overlength brief into the round hole of a page
limit. With the switch to words has come a font-size
requirement: 14-point type for ordinary text and 12-point type for
footnotes.
Texas, on the other hand, has long stuck to page
limits. Originally unlimited, the length of principal
briefs in Texas appellate courts is now capped at 50 pages, reply
briefs at 25, petitions for review and motions for rehearing at 15,
and so on. Many are the lawyers who have had to learn new
word-processing features on the date their brief was due in order
to make it fit.
Effective December 1, 2012, however, Texas is joining the
word-limit club. Using a ratio of 300 words per page, the
length limits for appellate documents will be converted to word
limits: 15,000 for a principal brief, 7,500 for a reply brief,
4,500 for a petition for review or motion for rehearing, and 2,400
for a reply in support of a petition for review. The old
90-page-per-side aggregate limit will also be converted, to 27,000
words. These limits are slightly more generous than their
federal counterparts.
As in the federal rules, the preliminary and concluding parts of
the brief – tables, jurisdictional statements, issues,
signatures, certificates, appendices, and the like – are
excluded from the word count. A new "certificate of
compliance" is required. The federal font-size requirements
have been adopted. And, finally, as in federal court, remember:
footnotes count!
The switch from pages to words will provide lawyers with an
opportunity to improve the format and content of their
briefs. White space takes up zero words, and so there is
no reason not to make briefs visually appealing and
easy-to-read. What belongs in the text can be put in the
text, and what belongs in footnotes (a controversial topic for
another day) can be put in footnotes. And editing out
wordiness is rewarded whether it saves a line or not.
Finally, please remember: like page limits, the new word limits
are maximums, not minimums. A 10,000-word brief is too
long if it can be reduced to 9,999 words without loss of clarity or
content!
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.