Brief

A written statement submitted in a trial or appellate proceeding that explains one side's legal and factual arguments.

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Answers.com

A formal outline listing main contentions along with supporting evidence and documentation.

A document containing all the facts and points of law pertinent to a specific case, filed by an attorney before arguing the case in court.

FindLaw

A formal written presentation of an argument that sets forth the main points with supporting precedents and evidence.

Law.com Dictionary

A written legal argument, usually in a format prescribed by the courts, stating the legal reasons for the suit based on statutes, regulations, case precedents, legal texts, and reasoning applied to facts in the particular situation. A brief is submitted to lay out the argument for various petitions and motions before the court (sometimes called "points and authorities"), to counter the arguments of opposing lawyers, and to provide the judge or judges with reasons to rule in favor of the party represented by the brief writer. Occasionally on minor or follow-up legal issues, the judge will specify that a letter or memorandum brief will be sufficient. On appeals and certain other major arguments, the brief is bound with color-coded covers stipulated in state and/or federal court rules. Ironically, although the term was originally intended to mean a brief or summary argument (shorter than an oral presentation), legal briefs are quite often notoriously long. 2) v. to summarize a precedent case or lay out in writing a legal argument. Attentive law students "brief" each case in their casebooks, which means extracting the rule of law, the reasoning (rationale), the essential facts, and the outcome. 3) v. to give a summary of important information to another person.

Lawyers.com

A concise statement of a client's case written for the instruction of an attorney usu. by a law clerk.

Lect Law Library

A written argument furnished to the court which sets forth the pertinent facts of the case or motion being tried or heard and the laws applicable to it.

When a party (either through her lawyer or in pro per) submits a written legal argument to a court--usually to support a motion or a position asserted at a trial--the document is often called a brief. It typically consists of a statement of the facts relevant to the case and arguments supported by references to legal authority (statutes, regulations or earlier court decisions). Many briefs are quite lengthy; the label 'brief' is an infamous misnomer celebrated by the writer Franz Kafka who described a lawyer as 'a person who writes a 10,000 word document and calls it a brief.'

A brief usually contains a memorandum of points and authorities. Points and authorities explain why the law authorizes the judge to take the requested action. The term points and authorities comes from the fact that the legal discussion makes certain points followed by citations to legal authority (usually a court decision or statute) supporting each point.

Legal-Dictionary.org

Written presentation to the court that outlines legal arguments of one party in a case.

The Free (Legal) Dictionary

A summary of the important points of a longer document. An abstract of a published judicial opinion prepared by a law student as part of an assignment in the Case Method study of law. A written document drawn up by an attorney for a party in a lawsuit or by a party himself or herself appearing pro se that concisely states the following: (1) issues of a lawsuit; (2) facts that bring the parties to court; (3) relevant laws that can affect the subject of the dispute; and (4) arguments that explain how the law applies to the particular facts so that the case will be decided in the party's favor.

A brief may also contain a synopsis of the evidence and name the witnesses to be presented during the trial. Copies of briefs must be submitted to the court where the case will be heard and to the opposing party.

Wikipedia

The legal brief, or memorandum, establishes the legal position of the party, explaining why the court should decide in favor of that party, or, in the case of appeal, reverse the lower court's judgment. The trial or motion brief argues that the court should alter the course of a trial by resolving and fixing disputed points (failure to adhere to such a motion being estoppel).

To achieve these ends, the brief must appeal to the accepted forces such as statutory law or precedent, but may also include policy arguments and social statistics when appropriate. For example if the law is vague or broad enough to allow the appellate judge some discretion in his decision making, an exploration of the consequences of the possible decision outside of legal formalism may provide guidance. Such arguments may also support a legal argument when the purpose of the law at issue may be clear, but the particular application of that law in service of that purpose is in dispute.