The Winning Brief: 100 Tips for Persuasive Briefing in Trial and Appellate Courts

Easy to followVery useful and helpfulHighly recommend

This book is a must. Even though it has the hideous word "tips" in the title, the book is organized and clear. Every time you turn the page you'll find another gem that will improve your writing. Some tips are global and overarching. For example, Garner at once exposes and destroys unconscious assumptions of the reader. Other tips are on a practical level like how to simplify the heading-subheading scheme so the reader understands your progression of arguments. And still other tips sound like a life coach teaching self discipline methods like clarifying what you need to know before you write. Worth the price. Keep on the shelf for long time to come.

As a practitioner, this was a must for me. Great book. If your position requires heavy amounts of writing and editing (and you DESIRE to improve your writing while impressing your audience in the legal community), bite the bullet and get this resource. PS - the author advises against cliches and idioms.

Admission -- I own and have read the prior edition. While I can't go line by line over the differences, this book is substantially thicker (yes, I know that thickness is a profound yardstick to compare the two editions), which indicates that a great deal of work has gone into this book.I disagree with Garner on some issues (such as defining parties in briefs), I really love the overall guidance. Keep in mind, though, that this is guidance. If you routinely appear in certain courts, you would be well served to go to a CLE at which one or more of the court's judges is speaking and try to determine his or her preferences. For instance, while my local federal appeals court has highly qualified and hard-working law clerks, the court of appeals for the state has no law clerks, which shifts certain burdens to the lawyers (e.g., if your adversary misstates the holding of an opinion, you can't assume that the court will catch it). Also, you should know whether to slavishly follow the local rules (some judges either ignore them or have their own orders which impose other requirements). Garner should have included a section dealing with these practical points.While this book is really good for younger attorneys, even old dogs like me can learn new tricks.

Very informative

Why did I not buy this book before 1L year? It is organized into clearly labeled chapters and subsections. The best part of the book is the examples. I’ve been referencing the book for a few weeks now and my writing has become more succinct yet descriptive. (If you know a law student, this would make a great Christmas gift!)

This book has some great examples of formatting and common logic structure. It borrows, however, almost entirely from the Solicitor General's formatting and style guide. Four stars because of the writer's pretentiousness.

Glad I bought this book, I am a nonlawyer but I still need to upgrade my writing skills every chance I get. I highly recommend this book for those of you who like to write and enjoy technical reading. I appreciate talking with attorneys over legal issues, and this is the type of book that can assist a person if your doing pro se work, and need to express your point of view in a coherent and intellectual manner. Sometimes Court administrator/judges, etc examine documents and it makes their day go a lot smoother when they can read a document or brief and clearly get the message without a lot of redundant and time-wasting lines of thought.