One of the most common questions we hear from our customers is, “How late can I send you my Supreme Court brief draft?” And many of those customers are surprised to learn that in most instances, they can send the draft as late as the morning before the due date (and sometimes even later if they are willing to pay rush fees).
“How can you possibly get it done so quickly?” our customer might ask. One reason, frankly, is that we are very, very good at printing Supreme Court briefs. World-class good. Industry-beating good. That’s not false bravado, but a simple observation of the results we achieve for our customers every day.
But in fairness, we should also acknowledge that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Our results rely on the achievements of other people who were very, very good at their work: the pioneering men and women who brought us into the Information Age.
Supreme Court Briefs: The Early Years
In the days before copy machines and desktop computers, every appellate court required briefs to be prepared in the booklet format the U.S. Supreme Court still requires. And most communities had a local printer that could prepare this type of document. When Albert and Eda Cockle first opened Cockle Legal Briefs in 1923, their customers were Nebraska attorneys filing briefs in the state and federal courts. Often hand-written, local attorneys would mail—or sometimes just walk—their brief drafts to Cockle’s print shop in downtown Omaha. Lawyers as far away as the Nebraska panhandle, several hundred miles to the west, actually put their drafts on eastbound passenger buses that would travel through the night and arrive in Omaha the next morning.
After typesetting, the Cockle staff would then send proofs back to the attorney, reversing the long course of the draft’s original journey. The annotated proof would then work its way back to the print shop for final edits and printing. In these analog days, turn around might be measured in weeks.
Supreme Court Briefs: A Time Of Change
In the 1980’s, Cockle—now specializing in U.S. Supreme Court briefs—became one of the first companies to have a dedicated, in-house facsimile machine. Think of it! The customer could drive to his local FedEx, have his draft fed into a machine the size of a small desk—one page every six minutes—and have the entire draft arrive directly at the Cockle offices within hours of leaving the attorney’s desk. Not long after, as fax machines became ubiquitous office equipment, the time scale for Supreme Court brief turn around could be just a few days.
And then, the Internet. In the mid-1990’s some customers began sending their drafts and receiving their proofs by electronic mail (some people called it “email”). Today, in just minutes, the Cockle staff can review a Supreme Court brief draft, perhaps call the attorney to suggest a revision, and get new copy back, all in less time than it takes for a cup of coffee to cool. Then later, maybe around the time the attorney finishes her afternoon cup, she will see the marked-up proof land in her inbox. The next morning, she can talk to our corrections staff about changes to the proof, maybe see another proof—or two, or three—and still be assured that we have enough time to get the Supreme Court brief printed, bound and filed by the end of the day.
So, yes, we are quite good at producing timely, quality Supreme Court briefs. But it helps that we live in an amazing time.