BRIEF, a statement prepared by a solicitor for the use of counsel at the trial of a cause with the "proofs" of witnesses, if any. Accompanying the brief may be copies of the pleadings (see PLEADING), and of all documents material to the case. The brief is always endorsed with the title of the court in which the action is to be tried, with the title of the action, and the names of the counsel and of the solicitor who delivers the brief. Counsel's fee is also marked. The delivery of a brief to counsel gives him authority to act for his client in all matters relevant to the case. The result of the action is noted on the brief by counsel, or, if the action is compromised, the terms of the compromise are endorsed on each brief and signed by the leading counsel on the opposite side. In Scotland a brief is called a memorial.
In the United States the word has, to a certain extent, a differ ent meaning, a brief in its English sense not being required, for the American attorney exercises all the functions distributed in England between barristers and solicitors. A lawyer sometimes prepares for his own use what is called a "trial brief" for use at the trial. This corresponds in all essential particulars with the English "brief." But the more distinctive use of the term in Amer ica is that of the brief "in error or appeal," before an appellate court. This is a written or printed document embodying the argument on the case. Most of the appellate courts require the filing of printed briefs for the use of the court and opposing counsel. In the United States Supreme Court and circuit courts of appeal the brief is required to contain a concise statement of the case, a specification of errors relied on, including the substance of evidence, the admission or rejection of which is to be reviewed, or any extract from a charge excepted to, and an argument exhibit ing clearly the points of law or fact to be discussed. This form of brief is also adopted for use at the trial in certain states of the Union which require printed briefs to be delivered to the court.
The brief-bag, in which counsel's papers are carried to and from court, now forms part of a barrister's outfit, but in the early part of the 19th century the possession of a brief-bag was strictly confined to those who had received one from a king's counsel. King's counsel were then few in number, and had a salary of £4o a year, with a supply of paper, pens and purple bags. These bags they distributed among rising juniors of their acquaintance, whose bundles of briefs were getting inconveniently large to be carried in their hands. These perquisites were abolished in 1830. English brief-bags are now either blue or red. Blue bags are those with which barristers provide themselves on their call, and it is a breach of etiquette to let this bag be visible in court. The only brief-bag allowed to be placed on the desks is the red bag, which by the etiquette of the Bar is given by a leading counsel to a junior who has been useful to him in some important case. In the United States the brief-bag is green.