Electronic Legal Brief

Electronic Legal Briefs (a/k/a "e-briefs" or "digital briefs" are renditions of an ordinary electronic format (usually Adobe PDF) brief, with the exception of hyper-linked exhibits instead of standard footnote notation. While electronic filing of briefs is now required by some state and federal courts, they do not require --and often are not especially accommodating to-- hyperlinked e-briefs.

E-briefs are also used for summation of trial exhibits and testimony. As noted above, e-briefs are typically created in Adobe Acrobat, and provided on CD-Roms to the court for filing. The electronic brief should be used as an extension of the standard brief, when specific points need to be made and to provide information contained in cites, exhibits, and other types of evidence, readily to the reader of the brief.

Currently these briefs cost premium dollars as they are very time consuming to create. The price should drop considerably as tools become available to assist in creating these briefs on the desktop. Services and briefing tools can be found on the web by searching for "digital briefs," "electronic briefs," or "e-briefs." Several firms in the legal support industry provide electronic legal brief services.

Companies that provide software are:

Companies that provide consulting and services, include: