A guide to writing sarcastic briefs

This is a good article. It makes the following points:

If an opponent's "tone is unnecessarily nasty, it's pointless to carry on about it. It makes you look like a whiner." Exactly. It's distracting and makes you look weak by avoiding those things we like to call the merits. Judges see crap briefs all day every day, so pointing out one more example isn't going to surprise anyone -- it'll just make yours more like "one of those."

Sarcasm often assumes that the judge already agrees with your side and will just go ahead and join in the abuse of the other party. You know what they say happens when you ASSUME something, don't you? (ass-u-me.)

If you're funny and good at it, then go for appropriate sarcasm/humor/color in your brief. "[O]ne giggle is worth a thousand underlinings, boldface types, and exclamation points." I.e., there's nothing wrong with making the judge chuckle, it will help her remember your point. This is obviously a matter of discretion. But that is exactly what makes a good lawyer -- to have the discretion/judgment to know what's persuasive. Anyone can pull the legal research, it's about knowing what arguments -- and methods of presentation -- will persuade and grab attention.

I've seen some hilarious examples of poorly done attempts that, for the time being, I will decline to post in order to preserve pseudo-anonymity.