How to Write a Legal Brief in Nigeria

For pleading to attract the attention, interest and understanding of the courts, it must be carefully typed in legible type and, above all, precisely created. On the one hand, cleanliness, like cleanliness in relation to piety, is a virtue. On the other hand, both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court are staffed and presided over by judges who deal with varying degrees of eye strain and other eye problems arising from their age and the abundant amount of reading or revision they have had to face in the course of their judicial duties. It is therefore believed with confidence that an orderly and readable pleading will be of immense help to their seigneuries of the two courts of appeal. On the question of the correctness of the pleading, the reader`s attention is drawn to page 17 of this essay, where the A.B.C. of all legal writings, i.e. ACCURACY, BREVITY AND CHARITY. Nevertheless, the accuracy of pleadings must be emphasized again, as this quality is absolutely necessary in shorthand. Therefore, it cannot be strongly recommended that the pleading be thoroughly reviewed and examined before being signed and filed. And the reason for this is that, although the short writer may be one of the infallible mortals, the typist certainly is not: after all, the writer wants to express his gratitude for the opportunity given to him over the years to make his modest contribution to the success of these advanced courses organized by the Institute. Indeed, the author strongly believes that his work on this subject has the positive effect of keeping him informed of the rules and practices of the art of short writing in the light of the relevant decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Nigeria. 4.

Arguments: The arguments of the party are recorded in this part of the argument. Here you state your position and try as much as possible to convince the court to see the reasons for your client`s case. Arguments must be based on facts. While judges don`t necessarily criticize your writing skills, during a hearing, listen to comments that might give you a clue to what they think of your style. For example, if a judge comments on voluminous briefs that he or she had to review in preparation for the hearing, try to shorten the vocabulary. It is a pleading filed on an occasion where the court authorizes the presentation of a brief amicus curiae by a person who is not a party to the case but who is accepted as a friend of the Court. The purpose of such a document is to assist the Court in deciding questions of law of interest and national or public importance. 2. Conduct extensive research on this topic: Once a lawyer understands their client`s case and defines it as an area of law, they need to thoroughly research that area of law. If it is a contractual case, he must do more thorough research and a more thorough reading of the contract in order to be adequately prepared for the case.

Do not simply embark on the writing of a briefing without having a thorough knowledge of the subject or the field in which the case is located. On the other hand, a respondent who does not file submissions is heard at the hearing only with leave of the court. [40] [41] It should be noted that the radical dismissal of the complaint due to the appellant`s failure to present a pleading, which was previously a dismissal on the merits or beyond revocation; has since been tempered by section 9 of Order 6 of the 1991 Rules of the Supreme Court (Amendment), which instead provides for the appeal to be quashed, presumably with the freedom to resume or resume on application. In order to facilitate the court`s analysis and understanding of the pleading, it is strongly recommended that the reasoning be organized into headings and subheadings relating to the wording of the questions that arise for the decision on the appeal. `It is appropriate to conclude with a numbered summary of the points to be raised and the grounds on which the argument is based.` Arranged in this way, the first envelope and the register serve as a table of contents, give a final summary of all the pleadings and provide the open sesame that should convince the court even in the most difficult case. 4. Avoid verbosity: A briefing is essentially written to prove your client`s case, not to prove how knowledgeable you are. Your customer`s interest should be your priority. Given this, simple and normal words of daily use will go a long way in proving your point. Avoid using large words if there are smaller equivalents. Avoid repeating words that have the same meaning. Also avoid using foreign expressions unless absolutely necessary.

Of course, the requirement for a short letter in appeal proceedings before the Court of Appeal was also taken into account. Reference was made to the provisional basis on which a short letter was first submitted to this court in 1983 to deal with the decision on appeals against decisions in many electoral applications following the parliamentary elections held that year. Reference was also made to the subsequent formal submission of a short letter to the Court of Justice in September 1984 under the Court of Appeal (Amendment) Rules 1984. On the other hand, the Court of Appeal in Okoroafor & Anor v. The Miscellaneous Offences Tribunal and Anor. [7] tends to consider that a pleading on an important issue such as the interpretation of a statute is perfectly acceptable, even if there is no judicial rule expressly providing for the filing of such a pleading. The Court distinguished the Supreme Court`s decision in Onuoha v. Ibero as a simple motion that contradicted the important issue raised in Okoroafor;2 following which Pats-Acholonu JCA, which announced the decision in principle, strikingly stated, among other things: However, there can be no objection if the argument submitted to the Supreme Court is accompanied by the arguments or applications submitted to the Court of Appeal. Procedural documents contain or annul procedural documents. The latter concerns the judgment of the lower court. A person who writes a 10,000-word document and always calls it a „letter.“ [13] Williams, Kehinde Sofola Esq., writer P.

O. Balonwu and Alhaji Abdulai Ibrahim, to file oral arguments and appear before the Supreme Court on May 21, 1991 for oral proceedings. While scholarly lawyers responded to the invitation either personally or through their subordinate officials; The five senior counsel accepted the invitation in person. However, there is little difference between the rules for drafting and filing pleadings in appeals to the two courts of appeal. Naturally, Order 6 of the 1985 Supreme Court Rules (formerly ____ 6 As in Amaefule & Anor v. State (1988) 2 NWLR (pt. 75) 156, at p. 174 D, where the respondent appears to have filed its submissions before receiving the appellant`s argument! Also reported (1988) 4 SNAJ 69 at p. 84. Another important difference introduced by the Supreme Court (Amendment) Rules 1991 with effect from 1 October 1991 is the requirement for parties to pay a penalty of N5.00 for each day they are late in filing their pleadings.

[12] It was also noted that the current rules governing appeals to the Supreme Court are in part the 1985 Supreme Court Rules, which repealed and then replaced the 1977 Court Rules; and in part the Rules of the Supreme Court (Amendment) Regulations 1991, with effect from 1 October 1991. It was noted that, although the rules applicable before the Court of Appeal for the short letter were a copy of the rules of the Supreme Court, there were some differences between the rules. As regards the grounds of pleading, there appears to be some discrepancy between section 3(d) of Order 6 of the Court of Appeal (Amendment) Rules 1984, which requires: There is a fundamental similarity between the rules governing the preparation and filing of pleadings in appeal proceedings before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The word „pleading“ is defined in Rule 2 of Order 6 of the Court of Appeal (Amendment) Rules 1984 and Rule 5(1) of Order 6 of the 1991 Rules of the Supreme Court (Amendment): There is also supplementary pleading, which, as the name suggests, is filed in addition to or in addition to the appellant`s or respondent`s main document. In Oduye v. Nigeria Airways Limited2 in a case involving statutory leases and profits from Mesne, the appellant filed a supplementary brief requesting the Supreme Court to depart from, review and set aside its earlier decision under the provisions of Rule 9 of Order 6. The elements of a letter as well as the basic tips for writing a dissertation will be our focus in this article.