8.5.5 TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
As with the table of contents, a table of authorities is not always required in motion briefs, and deciding whether to include one may be up to the filing attorney. If you are in doubt as to whether a table is required, ask yourself if the table will be helpful to either the reader or the user.
If your brief is ten pages or more, you may want to include one to make it easier for the judge, or his or her clerks, to find the sections of your argument that are focused on particular authorities. If you are filing your brief electronically, and you are considering including hot links to the authorities cited, it may be best to do so in a table of authorities rather than in the argument section of the brief. Of course, in practice settings, local custom may be the best guide.To create the table of authorities, use headings to divide the authorities into relevant categories. The most likely categories are (1) Cases, (2) Constitutional Provisions, (3) Statutes, and (4) Other Materials. Obviously, create extra categories as needed to reflect the authorities that are actually included in your brief. Within each category, list the sources alphabetically (not by date). The most important requirement is that the table note each page on which each authority is cited. If an authority is cited so frequently that listing the individual pages would not help the court to find particular discussions of the authority, the table of authorities may note passim (Latin for “throughout”) instead of listing individual pages. Passim is often necessary to refer to a statute that is at issue because the statute may well be referenced on every page of the argument. Take care to use passim only when absolutely necessary; it is not an excuse for being too lazy to search through the brief to find the particular pages on which the citations appear.
Word processing programs may have a “Table” function that will allow you to create a table of authorities more easily. If you use this function, I do not recommend that you rely on it. After the table is generated, double-check to be sure that it includes each needed authority and each needed page reference. To see a sample of a table of authorities, consult any of the appellate briefs in Appendix C. Again, some courts allow electronically-filed documents to include hyperlinks to documents available on the internet.19 If your court does, I recommend that you include those links in the Table of Authorities (rather than within the document itself). Take care to follow rules about citation and appropriate paper copies.20