Order 19 — Briefs of Argument

This Order shall apply to all appeals coming from any lower court from which an appeal lies to this Court.

The Appellant shall within forty-five (45) days of the service on him of the Record of Appeal from the lower court file in the Court a written brief, being a succinct statement of his argument in the appeal.

(1) The brief, which may be settled by Counsel, shall contain an address or addresses for service and shall contain what are, in the Appellant’s view, the issues arising in the appeal.

(2) The reasons in the brief shall also be supported by particulars of titles, dates and pages of cases reported in the Law Reports or elsewhere including the summary of the decisions in such cases, which the parties propose to rely upon. Where it is necessary, reference shall also be made to relevant statutory instruments, law books and other legal journals.

(3) The parties shall assume that briefs will be read and considered in conjunction with the documents admitted in evidence as exhibits during the proceedings in the lower court, and, wherever necessary, reference shall also be made to all relevant documents or exhibits on which they propose to rely upon in arguments.

(4) All briefs shall be concluded with a numbered summary of the points raised and the reasons upon which the argument is founded.

(5) Except to such extent as may be necessary to the development of the argument, briefs need not set out or summarise judgments of the lower court, nor set out statutory provisions, nor contain an account of the proceedings in the lower court nor of the facts of the case.

(6)—(a) Except where the Court directs otherwise, every brief to be filed in the Court shall not exceed thirty-five (35) pages.

(b) The brief shall be legible, well-bound, prepared in 210mm by 297mm paper size (A4) and typed in clear typographic character. The font type shall be in Arial, Times New Roman or Tahoma of 14 font size with at least 1.5 line spacing between.

(c) Every brief, whether in physical or electronic form, which does not comply with the page limit and page size requirements of this Order shall not be accepted by the Registry for filing.

(1) The Respondent shall also, within thirty (30) days of the service of the brief of the Appellant on him, file the Respondent’s brief which shall be duly endorsed with an address or addresses for service.

(2) The Respondent’s brief shall answer all material points of substance contained in the Appellant’s brief and contain all points raised therein which the Respondent wishes to concede as well as reasons why the appeal ought to be dismissed. It shall, mutatis mutandis, also conform to Rule 3 (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6) of this Order.

(1) The Appellant may also, if necessary, within fourteen (14) days of the service on him of the Respondent’s brief, file and serve or cause to be served on the Respondent, a reply brief which shall deal with all new points and points of preliminary objection or any challenge to the appeal raised and argued in the Respondent’s brief.

(2) Except where the Court directs otherwise, every Reply brief to be filed in Court shall not exceed fifteen (15) pages and shall conform with Rule 3 (2), (4), (5), (6) (b) and (c) of this Order.

All parties whose interests are identical or joint shall file joint briefs. Separate briefs may be filed only by those parties whose interests are separate or are in conflict.

(1) A Respondent may, without leave, include arguments in respect of a cross-appeal or a Respondent’s Notice in his brief for the main appeal and the cross-appeal or Respondent’s Notice.

(2) Within thirty (30) days of service of the Cross Appellant’s brief in the cross-appeal on the Appellant, the Appellant shall file a Cross Respondents brief.

(3) The Cross Appellant may, if necessary, within fourteen (14) days of the service on him of the Cross Respondent’s brief, file and serve or cause to be served on the Cross Respondent a reply brief which shall deal with all new points and points of preliminary objection or any challenge to the cross appeal raised and argued in the Cross Respondent’s brief.

(4) All briefs under this Rule shall conform with Rule 3 (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6) of this Order.

Briefs shall be filed in the Court in hard/physical and electronic forms. For the purpose of physical filing, ten copies of all briefs in respect of the appeal and a copy of an electronic device containing the briefs, duly and carefully preserved shall be filed in Court. All such copies shall be duly endorsed for service on the other side, which shall also be duly paid for by the party filing the same.

(1) Oral argument may, at the discretion of the Court, be allowed at the hearing of appeal to emphasise and clarify the written argument appearing in the briefs already filed in Court.

(2) The Appellant shall be entitled to open and conclude the argument. Where there is a cross-appeal or a Respondent’s Notice, the Appeal and such cross-appeal or Respondent’s Notice shall be argued together with the appeal as one case and within the time allotted for one case and the Court may, having regard to the nature of the Appeal, inform the parties who is to open and close the argument.

(3) Unless otherwise directed, fifteen minutes on each side will be allowed for argument.

(4) When an appeal is called and the parties have been duly served with the notice of hearing, but a party or any Legal Practitioner appearing for him does not appear to present oral argument even though briefs have been filed, the appeal shall be treated as having been argued on the briefs so filed.

(1) Where an Appellant fails to file his brief within the time provided for in Rule 2 of this Order, or within the time as extended by the Court, the Respondent may apply to the Court for the appeal to be dismissed for want of prosecution. If the Respondent fails to file his brief, he will not be heard in oral argument. Where an Appellant fails to file a reply brief within the time specified in Rule 5, he shall be deemed to have conceded all the new points or issues arising from the Respondent’s brief.

(2) Where an Appellant fails to file his brief within the time provided for in Rule 2 of this Order, or within the time as extended by the Court, the Court may, suo motu, dismiss the appeal for want of prosecution.

(3) Where a Respondent, who has been duly served with the Appellant’s brief, fails to file his brief within the time stipulated in this Order, or within the time as extended by the Court, the Court shall, upon being satisfied that the Respondent was duly served with a hearing notice, hear the appeal without the necessity of an application by the Appellant to hear the appeal on the Appellant’s brief alone.

The Court may, where it considers the circumstances of an appeal to be exceptional, or where the hearing of an appeal ought to be accelerated in the interest of justice, waive compliance with the provisions of this Order in so far as they relate to the preparation and filing of briefs of argument either wholly or in part or reduce the time limits specified in this Order, to such extent as the Court may deem reasonable in the circumstances of the case.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Order 19 Rules 2, 4, and 5 of this Order and Order 12 Rule 1 of this Rules, the computation of time to
(a) file any court processes within a prescribed period;
(b) do any act provided by this Rules; or
(c) pay default fees for extension of time within which to file a process or do an act;
shall be exempted during the occurrence of any event which disrupts the normal conduct of the business of the Court.