How to Perfect Your Legal Briefs in Less Time
Copy: The following is an excerpt from the white paper, Meet your new workflow: A faster way to perfect your legal briefs.
Most work has a cadence and flow. Step One followed by Step Two followed by Step Three. Repeat. Complete. It’s a distinguishable harmony one you recognize it, and that instills a sense of comfort. A familiar flow that you can recite in your sleep.
Sometimes that means using a brief that you have used before. You know there’s no shame in reusing quality work product, especially one that has proven to be successful. You always do due diligence to ensure that it accurately reflects the current state of the law. Of course, that research takes time, but you give what time you have. That old familiar process kicks in once again.
THE PROCESS AS IT WAS
Once you have determined the facts of your case, you know what legal issues you need to research. You use your preferred search tool to find caselaw and court decisions that will help shape your argument.
You tailor your brief for this specific case and cite your authorities. You pore over the research, checking and cross-checking, trying to ensure that you don’t mistakenly cite bad law. But there’s only so much you can do, because there’s only so much time in a day.
WHEN DOES “DONE” MEAN DONE?
In the old world, even after you had spent days finalizing your arguments, ensuring you had the strongest authority and cases, it was difficult to feel like you were done. Because “done” meant there was nothing more you could do, and you know there is always more you can do.
Time constraints and competing priorities often meant that “done” happened only when time was up. But did you feel done? Or did you stay up at night wondering if there was something important you missed?
More likely than not, you’re working up until the very last second because you want to be sure you haven’t missed anything. You write your conclusion, proofread your work, and make sure you have accurately represented the state of the law. It’s here that attorneys turn a final critical eye against their own work. Best-case scenario — any mistakes you find are small.
In the worst-case scenario, when you check your work and determine that you’ve centered your argument around a case that has been overruled by a higher court or overturned by statute, you’re forced to start the process again. While it’s frustrating and time consuming, it’s definitely not optional. Therefore, you do it again and again because there is no alternative.
Until there is.
MEET QUICK CHECK
Westlaw Edge Quick Check™ is a new tool that will immediately transform how you do your job. Quick Check offers state-of-the-art AI technology combined with more than 100 years of attorney-editor annotations. It doesn’t just suggest authority, it highlights additional details for why that authority might be important to your case, such as from a high court, frequently cited or available within the last two years.
Quick Check also shows you the outcome of the case and the relevant portions, making review easy. Additionally, you can quickly filter by what matters most to you at the time: jurisdiction, date of the opinion, or documents you’ve viewed in the last 30 days.
Quick Check does things that the average human would struggle greatly to do for a number of reasons: a lack of time, efficiency, finances, or resources. It looks at more things than you can reasonably look at, in ways you simply cannot look, in places you might not look.
To learn more about Quick Check and see how it can set you on a faster path to finished, download the free white paper. Or if you’re ready to try Quick Check, you can sign up for a completely free trial.
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