The other day I had the pleasure of representing a client at oral arguments before the N.C. Court of Appeals. To see a clip of my argument, you can click Court of Appeals Oral Argument.
Most of an appeal consists of preparing and filing written documents. These include the following:
1) The Record is a subset of the court file, organized in a particular way, and it serves as a reference book for the judges as they consider what matters were argued and presented during the trial phase.
2) The Transcript is a word-by-word memorialization of everything that was said during the relevant hearings or trial.
3) The Briefs are the written arguments submitted to the Court which try to convince the Court of the party’s position.
Often, the Court will resolve the case using only these documents. On occasion, however, the three judges assigned to the case will call the lawyers in for Oral Arguments in downtown Raleigh. The clip above is an example of an oral argument. The record, transcript, and briefs had all already been submitted, but the judges wanted to question the attorneys about their arguments. Oral arguments can be quite the challenge! We have no notice of what the judges will ask, and we have to provide answers that are satisfactory to the judges while also “staying on track” with as much of our pre-planned script of arguments as possible.
The clip is from Munn vs. Rose, a case involving the enforcement of a promissory note debt. For the most part, the case involved questions of contractual interpretation, although it also touched on ancillary issues of estate documents like a will.