The second thing you should do when writing an appellate brief

The first thing you need to do when writing an appellate brief is, of course, to get your hands on the record. Once you’ve done that, the next thing you should do is write the jurisdictional statement for your brief. I don’t mean some generic, blah-blah-yada-yada such as “This Court has jurisdiction under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.” I mean a jurisdictional statement that specifically answers two questions, with legal authorities and record citations in support: (1) Is this an appealable judgment? (2) Is the appeal timely and otherwise procedurally proper?

Do this before you do any other work on the brief. Why? Because if the appellate court doesn’t have jurisdiction, any effort on the merits of the appeal is wasted. You don’t want to waste your time or your client’s money. Also because the appellate court wants these questions answered before it expends any time or effort on the merits—appellate judges and their law clerks are not interested in wasting their time or the taxpayers’ money. And you’re going to have to write the jurisdictional statement eventually, so you might as well write it when it will do you the most good: before you dive into the merits.