Preventing Deficiency Notices From The New Jersey Appellate Division

It's 11:55 p.m., and you just put the final finishing touches on your brief to the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, which is due before the clock strikes midnight. For the last few weeks, you pored over the relevant law, crafted your arguments as persuasively as possible and gained confidence that the Appellate Division would ultimately rule in your favor. You make your way to New Jersey's eCourts webpage, upload your brief and several appendix volumes at 11:59 p.m., and exhale.

The next day you receive an e-mail from the Clerk's Office that your submission "has been marked deficient" and that you have 15 days to correct the deficiencies identified in the attached letter. The deficiency letter identifies a litany of citation, formatting, and procedural deficiencies under New Jersey's Appellate Court Rules. Now you have to reopen documents you thought were finished, make additional - sometimes substantive - modifications, re-upload everything and