Court Opinion

ID: 9644225
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:50:26.790679+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:10.021448
License: Public Domain

CONKLING, Chief Justice.
I concur in the conclusibn of the principal opinion and in all that is said therein.
In our efforts to decide the cases which come before this Court, upon their merits, we have for some years' pursued a policy of leniency respecting briefs and have overlooked unnumbered- violations of the basic requirements of our Rule 1.08. Ear too many members of the Bar in the preparation of their briefs in cases, in this Court have taken advantage Of.that policy of leniency and have apparently become indifferent beyond all belief in the preparation of their briefs. Each succeeding Session of this Court discloses that an increasing number of briefs are written with no apparent regard for Rule. 1.08, and are subject to the observations the principal opinion makes with respect to appellant’s instant brief.
The preparation of the- brief in a cause on appeal is the function of the counsel in each case. This Court should not have to do that. But to decide the- merits of a case we often have been compelled to do so, and have often done so. We should not be compelled to search through the briefs prepared and filed by counsel to try to determine wherein an indifferent counsel for appellant believes (or hopes) that the trial court prejudicially erred. Nor should an appellate court be compelled to search through a transcript to find the testimony as to specific facts referred to in the purported statement in a brief because an indifferent counsel has failed to comply with Rule 1.08 and has made no page references when stating facts in a brief.
With the volume and character of litigation which now comes to this Court it seems more imperative than it has ever been that counsel comply with Rule 1.08. The mere statement in the “Points Relied On” of abstract principles of law do- not point out to an appellate court, the claimed error of a trial court upon which the appellant relies for a reversal of a judgment from which an appeal was taken. We do get many properly prepared briefs in cases here. But far too many briefs filed here do not comply at all with the simple basic requirements of Rule 1.08.
It is with regret that I feel that the time has now come to dismiss the appeals in cases where the briefs violate Rule 1.08. Therefore, I concur in the dismissal of the instant appeal.