We have incorporated photos and diagrams in body text, but can you incorporate a cartoon in your brief? Or, can your brief just be a cartoon?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/104999531/Cartoon-Brief

I've been in a couple situations where perhaps someone might have understood better this way.

I sometimes wish I could just submit a PowerPoint.

Cartoons, poetry and what else? What other unconventional briefing techniques are there? Anyone tried them in a criminal case?

I think it's inappropriate, but especially so in a criminal case. Briefs aren't a chance to show off how clever and funny we can be, they're a chance to advocate for a legal position that will affect a real person's life. While briefs like this might make me laugh as an observer, I can't help but think how I'd feel if I was the client and saw this was how seriously my attorneys took my case.

I tend to agree with Andrea. While I might embroider a presentation in an effort to make it engaging, I think the potential for such a technique to go over like a lead balloon is far too great. I do appreciate that sometimes form can help better convey a particular point. And there might be a few rare circumstances where message and medium combine to allow that kind of presentation. But I feel they would be so few and far between that I'm not going to spend a lot of time working on my inking skills. Most I'll do is get creative with a footnote, and even on that I've gotten burned.

quote:

Originally posted by AndreaW:
I think it's inappropriate, but especially so in a criminal case. Briefs aren't a chance to show off how clever and funny we can be, they're a chance to advocate for a legal position that will affect a real person's life. While briefs like this might make me laugh as an observer, I can't help but think how I'd feel if I was the client and saw this was how seriously my attorneys took my case.

Since this was an amicus brief submitted by, essentially, a pro-se attorney, I don't think the client had any objections as to form :P

And because it was an amicus brief, he was at greater liberty to take a crack at the court's briefing limitations. THAT seemed to be the larger point of the cartoon.

Bet that brief gets read (or at least noticed) more than the others.

quote:

Originally posted by Shannon Edmonds:
And because it was an amicus brief, he was at greater liberty to take a crack at the court's briefing limitations. THAT seemed to be the larger point of the cartoon.

Oh yeah, he zinged 'em. He showed that he believed his entire substantive argument could be made in a grand total of 74 speech bubbles. And that includes the ones with such scintillating arguments as "Yup" and "You got it!" In the future, I think I'd just give this particular attorney one page, as he obviously doesn't need any more than that if he can waste his pages with drawings instead of argument.

Well, I think we may be missing the point. The literary world has seen the need for comic book versions of literary classics for the more, ah, reading challenged demographic. I've run into more than a couple of attorneys in this demographic...

So a brief in heiroglyphics would be bad?

Thought 1: How much time would it take for me to prepare a cartoon brief, given my drawing skills?

Thought 2: This presentation was probably just fine, because it ended with "respectfully submitted." That counts for a lot.

There is just so much wonderful material that can be grabbed off the internet now. Perhaps, a brief by collage would work.

Mime.

Why not a pop-up brief, then? Pull this tab and see how Brooks merges factual sufficiency review with legal sufficiency review. Or a constable in pops out of a carriage when you discuss U.S. v. Jones?

Why not origami?

Personally, I plan on submitting my next brief via interpretive dance.

Mime.

Finger-painting with vegetable juices on rice paper. The better for eating and reduces waste (well sort of).

Newell, there's too much hassle involved with mime. Think of the time on the makeup, and that grease paint gets everywhere. You'll be finding little white flecks everywhere.

With the new word count requirements, does a picture equal a thousand words?