Over the years, the Table of Authorities in briefs has always required a significant investment of time and resources. Is it worth it?

Question:
Is the Table of Authorities in a brief useful? Is it a good use of our time?

Choices:
I always look at the table of authorities and find it useful
I sometimes look at the TOA and find it useful
It is not useful to me, but others might find it useful
I seldom look at the TOA, and it is a poor use of time to produce.
I never look at the TOA and it is a waste of time to produce

 

Considering the brief must contain an index of authorities under TRAP 38.1(c), I guess it is presumed to serve a useful purpose (for someone). Do I ever look at the table in the appellant's brief? Rarely.

I look when I want to see if anything is missing. I also figure the courts might find them useful even if I don't.

I give it a glance over to see if the cases I expect to see are in there.

Ditto David & LAH.

One addition: I consider my time creating the TOA as a way to check my final citation form. (Did I put short cites where needed? Did I accidentally omit a long cite. Did I put an ">" instead of a "." in a "S.W.3d" reference?) So I guess the TOA has some purpose.

I never had the justices for whom I worked tell me a TOA was useful. Before the advent of permanent staff attorneys and Westlaw/Lexis, briefing clerks were sent to the stacks to pull all the listed cases. That practice went away several decades ago. Today, I see little added value for the end user brought by having a TOA.

I have always thought it a waste of resources. I can't remember any of the judges I clerked for who expressed that they added any value. I have always found that they are difficult to accurately produce using the built-in features of WordPefect or Word, and the tools available to produce them, Best Authority and Cite Advisor, are fairly expensive for what you get. I'm pretty skilled with Word, and I can produce them myself fairly quickly, but that time is still wasted, IMHO. I hope that the Courts will consider dropping them someday.