Why must legal writing follow the correct format?

What’s the fuss? Why must my legal writing follow a rigid set of rules about the format? What’s the big deal? Why can’t I be creative, and write a brief in a format of my choosing? Why indeed.

A very real example should set that straight.

Immigration court is a very unforgiving animal; the Department of Homeland Security developed a set of rules that are so rigid and so inflexible and so different from the Article Three courts that we are more familiar with.

As the old saying goes, “Do it my way or the Highway.” So I listen and learn. A colleague of ours tells this story.

It’s not called a “brief” in Immigration Court. The Judge wants to see a “Memorandum of Law.” And your Memorandum of Law had better follow the sample format as it is laid out in the sample offered. Why?

Imagine what would happen if your Memorandum of Law DID NOT follow the correct format. Opposing Counsel would be in his right to propose a Motion to Strike the non-conforming paper. Imagine what could happen if the motion were GRANTED!!

There goes your client in chains, on his way back to the detention center, in chains, ready to be shipped off to the nearest facility before his deportation. (Did I mention that he is in chains?) And you are left to explain to the client’s wife what just happened.

The client’s wife has been sitting next to you in the courtroom, and she heard what just happened. Now you have to explain to her WHY your Memorandum of Law was struck – it’s because you didn’t follow the proper format. And she is trying to figure out why she just paid you five thousand dollars. All you can do is mutter something about filing an appeal. Meanwhile, your client will be long gone from this country …

Black's Law Dictionary defines "Motion to Strike" this way:

Motion to Strike:

1. Civil procedure. A party’s request that the court delete insufficient defenses or immaterial, redundant, impertinent, or scandalous statements from an opponent’s pleading. Fed. R. Civ. P 12(f).

2. Evidence. A request that inadmissible evidence be deleted from the records and that the jury be instructed to disregard it.

Black’s Law Dictionary, Deluxe, Seventh Edition, 1999

I think I’ll make CERTAIN that all my court papers are conforming . . .