In what will be a sea-change for Texas appellate briefs, the Texas Supreme Court has issued a proposed rule change that will eliminate page limits and instead, impose a word-count limit for most briefs. The federal appellate courts have mandated a similar word-count limit for years.
The new limit for the appellant's and appellee's briefs will be 15,000 words, with a limit of 7500 words for a reply brief. Other word-count limits are specified for other types of briefs.
One great advantage of a word-count limit is that it gives attorneys the freedom to employ good typography to make briefs more readable, without running into a space problem due to page limits.
To read the proposed rules, click here. The rules will take effect on December 1, 2012, but there is a public comment period until November 1, 2012. Submit your comments to the court's rules attorney, as stated in the court's order.
-- Scott Stolley, Thompson & Knight
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