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Most appellate courts nationwide have gone to remote oral arguments. But Bloomberg Law reports that: “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held two in-person oral arguments in Houston for the first time since the start of the pandemic and scheduled two more.” “Microphones were outfitted with covers that were replaced between speakers and lawyers were required to wear masks until they were presenting.” See Fifth Circuit Holds Rare In-Person Arguments Amid Pandemic. 

Also of note: The Fall/Winter 2020 issue of the California Supreme Court Historical Society’s Review is now available on the Society’s website, https://www.cschs.org/publications/cschs-review/.

Law360 has Tips For Drafting Effective Amicus Briefs, addressing all aspects of such briefs, including the TOC:

Many clerks make their first cut between the briefs that get studied and those that get skimmed based on the table of contents. Especially in a case that has multiple amicus brief filings, an effective table of contents provides a complete overview of the arguments made in the brief.

That means the headings in the table are short, complete sentences arranged to capture the position of the amicus about the case and its proper resolution, rather than a set of out-of-context fragments or phrases.

If the table of contents is not complete, informative and inviting, the clerks and the court might still review the brief, but the submission might not immediately get the kind of attention that an effective outline provided by an engaging table of contents would invite.