10. Procedures for Oral Argument

A. Oral Argument in General

Generally, the Sixth Appellate District holds oral argument four days each month.

A party requesting oral argument must serve the request on all other parties.

If the parties wish to submit additional authorities not cited in their briefs, they must do so no later than three days prior to scheduled oral arguments.

At the beginning of oral argument, the presiding justice may inform counsel of any particular issues the panel wants addressed.

Counsel should remember that oral argument presents the opportunity to emphasize or clarify key factual or legal points not fully treated in the briefs and to discuss the relevance of authorities decided since briefing was completed.

Counsel may not stipulate to the continuance of the date scheduled for oral argument.

If a request for oral argument is not filed, oral argument will be deemed waived, and the court will proceed with the processing and filing of the opinion.

B. Argument by Teleconference System

To reduce costs to the parties and provide greater convenience to counsel, the Sixth Appellate District has installed a telephone conference system that enables attorneys to present oral arguments by telephone as an alternative to personal appearance in court.

In all cases, civil, criminal, and juvenile, in which a party has a right to present oral argument, counsel may elect to present oral argument by telephone conference.

Counsel’s request to present oral argument by telephone conference shall be made in writing and served on all parties. The request shall contain the following information as indicated on the forms supplied by the court:

1. The name of counsel who will present oral argument.
2. The designation of the party counsel is representing.
3. The telephone number to be used for the conference call.
4. Estimated duration of the call.

The Sixth District Teleconferencing Oral Argument Procedures manual is available for download in .pdf or .doc format.

The court may record oral arguments by telephone conference call and a request for oral argument by telephone will be deemed consent to such recording.