Ok, maybe not an octagon, but I am working on an appeal with a complicated "love" fact pattern.

I am wanting to literally map it out for the court of appeals (12th) before my statement of facts to help make some sense all of this... anyone ever include a small and tasteful "flow chart" of relationships in an appeal before?

I am simply talking about names of parties involved with arrows designating who is dating and who is married.

It may seem unorthodox and I don't want to get too far out there but I think it would be helpful. I may take a more traditional approach and just type out the relationships but wouldn't mind taking a more creative approach.

Any thoughts?

I would consider typing out the relationships in the body of the brief, and reference an appendix / exhibit with the chart (I am assuming the flow chart will fit on a single page). That way you don't "color outside the lines" in the brief itself, but you still get the chart in front of the court for clarity.

If it is something that will assist the appellate court understand the facts or law, go for it. Keep it clear and simple. I have seen others do something similar with characters, time lines, offenses, and other information. Charts and diagrams are a useful way of displaying information and relationships and probably should be employed more frequently.

As Larry states you can use an appendix, but if it fits better in the statement of facts or a reply to a point of error, I wouldn't be afraid to incorporate it in those locations. Why make readers turn elsewhere when the information can be right in front of them while they are "digesting" the information.

I've done something similar with a family tree. I think it's extremely helpful to keep things straight -- for me as much as the court! I did it as Larry suggested, typing it out as normal and then dropping a footnote to reference the chart as an appendix.

Appellate judges and staff attorneys love when pictures appear in the middle of briefs if the pictures are actually useful/relevant.

Two good examples where I've seen pictures / diagrams be effective when included in the body of a brief:

A multi-count sex offense case (3 victims, 7 year time period) in which evidentiary sufficiency is challenged, I've seen someone include a chart for the court that sets out the common elements for the HCJC of each count combined with additional separate columns for the different victims, the methods of conduct, and the dates of offenses. Then, in the conclusion of that discussion, the chart reappears with a list of evidence that matches the HCJC elements.

In a different case, a prosecutor scanned an accident reconstruction diagram exhibit used in a felony murder case and pasted the image into the statement of facts portion wherein he was describing the accident. Pretty powerful stuff.(The prosecutor used the text wrap function to create a better layout.)

In a post-conviction writ, the defendant alleged that he was not responsible for the head injury that resulted in the death of the victim. He had found a medical expert to speculate that it could have been caused by an undiagnosed aneurysm.

Since the crime had been captured on videotape, we captured the key moment in a single image and inserted it into the writ findings. Nothing says guilty like a large, well-focused image of a defendant's boot about to strike the back of the head of an unconscious victim.

Writ denied.

Thanks to everyone for the advice/opinions. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything too out of the ordinary.

A small number of effective illustrations in the body of the brief is good. Small tables, too, would be effective. Appendices are less effective because you must flip back and forth. We have effectively used excerpts from plea papers in a similar manner. Try to layout your page so your illustration is in the top left quadrant of the text area--it will probably have the most affect in that location. Crop crop crop--it is more important that your reader have a good view of important stuff rather than a tiny view of an entire document.