By Louis J. Manetti
Associate, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP
Illinois Appellate Court Justice Delort, with the cooperation of the Chicago Bar Association, recently delivered a seminar accessible on YouTube that serves as a useful primer for appellate practice and procedure. Justice Delort serves in the First District, which is the appellate district that covers Cook County, and was elected to the Appellate Court in 2012.
In The Argument of an Appeal, 26 ABA J. 895, 895 (Dec. 1940), regarded as one of the definitive lists of practice pointers for appellate advocates, John W. Davis, a former U.S. Solicitor General, observed that “discourse on the argument of an appeal would come with superior force from a judge who is in his judicial person the target and trier of the argument[.]” Justice Delort is, in Davis’s words, the trier of the argument, and to the appellate practitioner, these kinds of seminars are invaluable.
The video is a thorough primer on appellate procedure. And Justice Delort imparts practical knowledge about litigating in the appellate court, such as:
- Common mistakes practitioners make when they try to make an order appealable under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 304(a)
- The difference between an ordinary appendix and a helpful appendix
- How to optimize the opening section of a brief—the “Nature of the Case” section
- Writing conventions that risk giving Appellate Court Justices a headache
The video is brimming with practical tips and both new and experienced appellate practitioners will learn something from it.
