ArkansasAppeals.com

A few weeks ago, I argued a case before the Arkansas Court of Appeals.  The biggest insight I gained was actually with respect to a judge’s comment concerning our Addendum in that case.  Before asking his first question, Judge Price Marshall complimented me for binding the Addendum separately from the remainder of the brief.  We typically bind Addenda separately from briefs when the Addenda are fairly large.  Judge Marshall said that he appreciated it because it made it easier to refer to the Addendum while reading the brief.

A few caveats.  First, this was a very big Addendum (approximately 400 pages), and our argument in this case relied heavily on the documents included in the Addendum.  In cases where the Addendum is extremely small, I still intend to bind the Addendum with the brief.  Second, while the Addendum may be bound separately, the abstract must be bound in the same volume as the brief unless the abstract exceeds 250 pages. See Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 4-2(a)(5)(C)(ii).  Third, I recognize that this was the opinion of one of twelve judges on the Court of Appeals, and I am not intending to suggest that he necessarily was speaking for the entire Court.

The Court’s rules concerning the Addendum to an Appellant’s brief can be found at Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 4-2(a)(8).

–Andy Taylor