When top lawyers discuss the procedural history of their case, they use that discussion to advance their clients’ interests.

Novices, by contrast, usually ignore a case’s posture or treat it cursorily — or neutrally. This chapter shows how to frame the posture of your case in a way that helps readers learn what happened in the lawsuit while also helping your client.

The discussion of the case’s posture typically appears toward the end of a Statement of Facts — once you’ve explained how the dispute arose. It can therefore usually be placed in its own subsection within your facts. In some instances, the posture can be very short; in other instances, a detailed sketch proves helpful. A procedural section is a fixture of appellate briefs. Trial motions also frequently use a dispute’s procedural background to persuade a court to award the relief that the motions are requesting. Indeed, the procedural details sometimes reflect the nub of the dispute in a trial court, such as in a motion for sanctions, a motion to compel production of documents, or a motion to dismiss for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. Posture matters.

This book devotes a whole chapter to this skill — using a case’s posture effectively — because posture is so important to effective advocacy and is almost certainly the most overlooked aspect of preparing a stellar Statement.