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Minnesota Appellate Court Briefs Collection

Appellate court briefs contain a statement of the issues presented to the higher court for review, an argument as to why the trial court acted incorrectly (according to the appellant's brief) or correctly (according to the respondent's brief), and a conclusion stating the relief sought. They can be useful to the researcher who needs to argue a similar issue or who is simply looking for a model of how a brief is put together.

There are two ways to search this collection:

Select "Issues in Minnesota Briefs" from the Search Page for keyword searching the statements of the issues listed in the briefs filed for published cases. The briefs described in this database are from cases published in the North Western Reporter, 2d series (excluding attorney discipline cases), beginning with volume 637 (January 2002).

To browse, go to the citation list.

The entire set of briefs can be found at the State Law Library and other libraries around the state. Click here for more information about the collection and its availability. (Note that if the case file is confidential, the court will not release the briefs to the Library.) Beginning with cases reported in 705 N.W. 2d, full text PDF copies of selected civil case briefs are available on our website. A yellow bullet () next to a case name on the citation list indicates that briefs are available for a particular case. In accordance with the Public Access Rules, appendices are not available online. To obtain briefs that are not online, contact the Minnesota State Law Library at 651-296-2775 or by e-mail.