LEGAL BRIEFS
Legal briefs are written legal argument submitted by a lawyer (or party) to a court in an attempt to persuade the latter to rule in favor of his client’s interest or to counter the arguments of the opposing lawyers.
Briefs are nothing but a misnomer; typically they are notorious for being long as they must identify all the facts, legal issues, and requests (e.g., to reverse a lower court’s decision, or grant a motion during trial). This is particularly true for major arguments such as appeal.
However, a letter or memorandum brief may suffice if it only deals with minor or follow-up legal issues.
To be admissible, briefs should meet the strict procedural criteria.
Briefs are particularly helpful when making an appeal; in fact, almost all appeals are based on briefs filed by the parties. Unlike the trial court in which a trial is held to detremine the presented facts, appeals court is generally interested only in the legal reasons why it should rule in favor of a party’s position.
PHONE RECORDINGS:
The legality of phone recordings is established by the federal and state wiretapping laws. It is important to note that not all states have the same regulations, thus its legality will depend on several factors.
Federal laws and most state laws require that only one party’s consent is enough to allow phone recordings. Simply put, the other parties do not have to know that their conversations are being recorded.
However, a few states require consent from all the participants, meaning each of them must know and agree that they are being recorded.In situations where the parties are in a different state, the federal law, or the laws in either state, may apply. Hence, a good rule of thumb is to inform every party that the conversation is being recorded to avoid any legal woes.
In terms of giving consent, the other parties may not necessarily verbalize it. For instance, staying on the line after hearing a prerecorded message informing the listeners that all conversations are being recordedwill suffice.
LEGAL PLEADINGS:
Legal pleadings are formal presentation of claims of the plaintiff and the defenses of the defendant, who may also submit a counterclaim explaining a cause of action against the plaintiff.Legal pleadings also serve as a notice to the defendant about a lawsuit concerning him, and a notice to the plaintiff of the defendant’s intentions as regards to the lawsuit.
Aside from giving notice of the claim and defense, pleadings provide other functions such as expressing the issues that need to be resolved; disclosing the facts of the case; and screening the flow of cases to a specific court.
In the past, legal pleadings demanded a rigorous and complicated set of rules and formats that the court may be forced to throw out some meritorious complaints due to some technicality issues. But nowadays, almost all states may forgive some technical flaws provided that relevant facts are presented and the petition is asking for a reasonable remedy.