Contents and Length of a Brief or

Memorandum (a) Contents. (1) In General. A brief or memorandum must be compact, concise, logically arranged, and free of burdensome, irrelevant, immaterial, and scandalous matter. The court may disregard a brief or memorandum that fails to comply with this rule. (2) Initial Brief or Memorandum. Except in a brief or memorandum of 10 pages or fewer or in pretrial findings under first brief or the Appendix A, memorandum must contain the following items, arranged under proper headings and in the following order: (A) a table of contents, including the specific contents of any appendix or appendices or memorandum, listing a description of every item or exhibit being reproduced in the appendix and the page number at which the item or exhibit appears; brief the to (B) a table of cited constitutional provisions, statutes, treaties, regulations, and cases, giving the volume and page number of the edition where each may be found (using the United States Claims Court Reporter or the Federal Claims Reporter for all published United States Claims Court and United States Court of Federal Claims orders and opinions) and arranging the cases in alphabetical order; (C) a concise statement of each question presented; to (D) a concise statement of the case, specific reference making findings, stipulations of fact, or other pertinent portions of the record and setting out verbatim the pertinent applicable of portions constitutional provisions, treaties, statutes, regulations, and texts of all administrative decisions directly the in (unless the involved previously reproduced in or as an exhibit to the complaint); case (B) the list of citations to constitutional statutes, provisions, regulations, and cases; and treaties, (E) a clear statement of the argument, setting forth the points of fact and law being presented and the authorities relied upon; (F) a concise conclusion, indicating the relief sought; and to the brief or (G) any appendix memorandum, numbered consecutively within itself to enable the court to find and read the material more easily and, if set forth in a volume separate from the brief or memorandum, containing a table of contents with a description of every item or exhibit being reproduced and the page number at which the item or exhibit appears. (3) Opposing Brief or Memorandum. An opposing or answering brief must conform to the requirements set forth in RCFC 5.4(a)(2), except that the items referred to in 5.4(a)(2)(C) and (D) need not be included unless the party is dissatisfied with the other side’s presentation. (4) Reply Brief or Memorandum. A reply brief or memorandum must conform to the requirements of RCFC 5.4(a)(3). (5) Cross-Motions. (A) Initial Motion. Any cross-motion must: (i) conform to the requirements of RCFC 5.4(a)(3); (ii) be contained same document as the response to the original motion. the in (B) Response. A response to a cross- motion must be contained in the same document as the reply to the original motion. (b) Length. (1) Initial Brief or Memorandum. Except by leave of the court on motion, a party’s initial brief or memorandum must not exceed 40 pages (50 pages for a cross- movant), not including: (A) the table of contents; (C) any appendix of portion setting out the any pertinent constitutional provisions, treaties, statutes, regulations, agency and board decisions, court decisions, of excerpts testimony, documentary exhibits. transcripts from and (2) Reply Brief or Memorandum. Except by leave of the court on motion, a reply brief or memorandum must not exceed 20 pages (30 pages when a response to a motion is included). (3) Relying on a Previously Filed Brief or Memorandum. A party must not incorporate a brief or memorandum by reference; the court will disregard any such incorporation. To rely upon a previously filed brief or memorandum, a party must: (A) reproduce the brief or memorandum (or, when appropriate, the selected excerpts of such document) in an appendix; (B) identify the total number of pages considered relevant in a footnote included on the first page of the brief or memorandum; and (C) include the number of pages the identified when calculating maximum allowable pages set forth in RCFC 5.4(b)(1) and (2). (c) Citations. (1) In General. All citations must follow the formats in the most recent edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. (2) Citation by Document Number. (A) References to documents filed in the court’s electronic filing system must follow one of the citation formats established by the court. (B) Citation formats are posted on the court’s website or may be obtained by calling the clerk’s office. 9 RCFC 5.4 cont. (As revised and reissued May 1, 2002; as renumbered Nov. 15, 2007; as amended Nov. 3, 2008; Aug. 3, 2020.) 2020 Amendment RCFC 5.4(c) has been added to address citation formats. Rules Committee Notes 2002 Revision RCFC 5.2 has no FRCP counterpart. The rule formerly appeared in these rules as RCFC 83.1. The renumbering of RCFC 83.1 was intended to reflect the in organizational structure of the court’s rules. logical placement its more Several changes have been made to the rule; they include: First, the deletion from subdivision (a) of language identifying the plaintiff’s brief or memorandum as “the first brief or memorandum” normally to be filed. Second, subparagraphs (A) and (G) of subdivision (a) were revised to indicate that any index to a separate appendix should be included both at the beginning of the appendix and at the beginning of the accompanying brief or memorandum. Third, subdivision (b)(4), relating to “a motion for leave to exceed the page limitation,” was deemed unduly burdensome and was therefore stricken. 2007 Amendment RCFC 5.3 formerly appeared in these rules as RCFC 5.2 and has been renumbered in light of the adoption of FRCP 5.1, effective December 1, 2006, to preserve the consistency in numbering systems between the court’s rules and the FRCP. 2008 Amendment In addition, The language of RCFC 5.4 has been amended to conform to the general restyling of the FRCP. improve organizational to structure, the subdivision dealing with the contents of cross-motions, formerly included in these rules as RCFC 7.2(e) (“Time for Filing”), has been included as paragraph 5 to RCFC 5.4(a). RCFC 5.4 formerly appeared in these rules as RCFC 5.3 and has been to accommodate the court’s adoption of FRCP 5.2 (which became effective December 1, 2007) and to preserve the consistency in numbering systems between the court’s rules and the FRCP. renumbered