Measured against the rule of the court it is going to.

77 stages · 10 lanes

1. Authority and citation · 18No case is cited until the opinion has been read in full — not a headnote, not a snippet, not a summary. Each is then checked for what the majority actually held, whether the court reached it, and whether it is still good law.
2. Argument and craft · 15The standard of review, who carries the burden and the relief sought are each stated with the authority that sets them. Every authority the other side cited is answered rather than left silent.
3. Form, forum and filing · 11Caption, margins, page limits and the filing packet measured against that court’s own rule — and a refusal to draft into a court whose procedure we do not hold, rather than applying another state’s by default.
4. Source and provenance · 8Every fact traces to the document it came from. A search result, an internal note or an earlier draft of our own is a lead to read, never a source to cite.
5. Adversarial review · 7Someone goes looking for what kills the argument before opposing counsel does, including the authority that cuts against us.
6. Exhibits and service · 5Exhibits numbered without collision, legible at the size they will be read, and reconciled against what the paper says was served on whom.
7. Release control · 5Nothing regenerates after signature, and nothing leaves without the approval on the record. A signed paper is frozen.
8. Parties and privacy · 3Every party’s identity and role verified from a primary source — no title inferred from a name — and personal data held out of what gets filed.
9. Dates and clocks · 3No “next Tuesday”. Every deadline computed from the rule that sets it and carrying that rule’s citation, so a date can be checked instead of trusted.
10. Numbers · 2Every figure reconciles against its exhibit, and any amount the court may ask about is on one page before anyone stands up.