Illustrated Court Filing of the Day: The Sound of Silence

Are illustrated court filings the future of legal writing? Probably not, but they're pretty funny anyway.

We’ve recently encountered an unusual number of unconventionally-formatted court documents. To name a couple, there was that graphic novellette of an amicus brief, and the Emily Dickinson-inspired judicial order.

Today we’ve got another brief that wouldn’t appear out of place on a Reddit thread.

It’s not high-quality art by any means, but there’s (maybe) something to be said for illustrating your points with clip art of crying babies and crickets chirping.

And besides, isn’t humor the best way to win an argument?

The case in question is Smoot v. Hopper, out of Oklahoma. I’d like to think the eccentricity of the filing has something to do with the state’s overall weirdness, but it doesn’t really matter.

This particular motion, from the end of last week, is apparently a continuation of sparring each side’s alleged problems with filing court documents in a timely manner. After defense counsel apparently complained about plaintiffs’ alleged tardiness, the plaintiffs had a little something to say.

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Attorney Jasen Corns has taken the admirable, ‘Don’t get mad, get funny” tactic:

Ah yes, the sound of silence and unfiled court briefs. But hopefully not his joke falling flat in front of a judge.

Corns’s motion is only a few pages (crazily, this isn’t a pro se document. He’s a real lawyer with a legit website), but it’s also got these two gems:

Effective? Who knows. Professional? Eh. Awesome? Definitely.

Response: Smoot v. Hopper [District Court of Tulsa County, State of Oklahoma]

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