APPELLATE FILES

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Lawyers are raised on appellate cases. Law school's "case method" pedagogy involves review and dissection of countless appellate decisions. Yet curiously, with all of the focus on appellate review, many law students progress through law school without ever seeing any of the briefs or motions which served as the basis for the appellate decisions.

The ignorance of briefs carries over to practice. Attorneys preparing an appeal will pore over relevant precedent in the form of decisions and ask law clerks and associates to dig up analagous cases, remotely related cases--any cases on which to base the argument. Yet attorneys will rarely review the briefs underlying the cases relied on in their appeal for clues as to why a particular outcome resulted.

I cannot say whether this web page will change the way in which lawyers are taught or attorneys practice. But I hope that it will serve as a practical tool to attorneys new to practice before the D.C. Circuit and provide prospective lawyers and the general public with some insight into the appellate process.

Currently, this file contains the petition for review, brief and reply brief and decision from Clifton Power v. FERC, 88 F.3d 1258 (1996) as well as the successful motions for an award of over $65,000 in attorneys fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act. Each document links to related Practice Tips, which provide useful pointers as well as links to the applicable Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and D.C Circuit Rules(note--this link automatically downloads the rules) which are located at the Reference Desk at the D.C. Circuit's Web Site.

Enter the Appellate Files for Clifton Power v. FERC here.

If you or your firm would like to contribute your briefs and motions to these files, please email us at loce@his.com . Each month, we hope to feature a new case as a "Case of the Month."

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