DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY

College of Law

ADVANCED LEGAL WRITING

ATTY. ANTHONY B. PERALTA
Class:

Attendance is mandatory and I expect you to be prepared to contribute to

every class discussion. Absence from 25% of classes or more will bar a
student from taking the final exam. Expect to be called at random.

Evaluation: 40% of the grade is based on a 2-hour final exam. 30% of the grade is
based on participation in class and the remaining 30% is based on
quizzes/short writing assignments.

Course Code
Type of Course
:
Credit
Total Hours
:
Term/Time/Room :
I.

:
ADVANCED LEGAL WRITING
MANDATORY
:
2 units
28 hours
Third Trimester 2012-2013

Course Description
Overview

This course seeks to educate law students to meet the highest standards of the legal
profession. Our first priority is to train students in analyzing legal authority, and in
using persuasive strategies to frame and develop legal arguments. Most lawyers are
professional writerswriting is the primary tool of our trade, and at the DLSU COL we
take seriously our role in teaching legal writing.
Yet not all law students become lawyers. When our law students graduate, they serve
as lawyers, law clerks, professors, government officials, activists and corporate
executives. They also regularly work with lay people and professionals from a wide
range of other disciplines. The skills we teach must thus be transferable across many
professions. This course prepares students for the demands of working in diverse and
changing environments by teaching students how to analyze sophisticated legal
problems and to write clearly and persuasively. They shall also be introduced to the
professional norms of ethics, timeliness, and courtesy.
At the end of the course, the students are imbued with the ability to express their
analysis with the clarity and precision that is the hallmark of excellent practicing
lawyers.
Class 1

1. Legal Writing is a type of technical writing used by lawyers, judges, legislators,

and others in law to express legal analysis and legal rights and duties.
1.1Authority: Legal writing places heavy reliance on authority. In most legal writing,
the writer must back up assertions and statements with citations to authority.
This is accomplished by a unique and complicated citation system, unlike that
used in any other genre of writing. The standard methods for American legal
citation are defined by The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.1
1.2Precedent: Legal writing values precedent, as distinct from authority. Precedent
means the way things have been done before. For example, a lawyer who must
prepare a contract and who has prepared a similar contract before will often reuse, with limited changes, the old contract for the new occasion. Or a lawyer who
has filed a successful motion to dismiss a lawsuit may use the same or a very
similar form of motion again in another case, and so on. Many lawyers use and
1

Published by The Harvard Law Review Association,

re-use written documents in this way and call these re-usable documents
templates or, less commonly, forms.
1.3Vocabulary: Legal writing extensively uses technical terminology that can be
categorized in four ways:
1.3.1 Specialized words and phrases unique to law, e.g., tort, fee simple, and
novation.
1.3.2 Quotidian words having different meanings in law, e.g., action (lawsuit),
consideration (support for a promise), execute (to sign to effect), and party (a
principal in a lawsuit).
1.3.3 Archaic vocabulary: legal writing employs many old words and phrases that
were formerly quotidian language, but today exist mostly or only in law,
dating from the 16th century; English examples are herein, hereto, hereby,
heretofore, herewith, whereby, and wherefore (pronominal adverbs); said and
such (as adjectives).
1.3.4 Loan words and phrases from other languages: In English, this includes terms
derived from French (estoppel, laches, and voir dire) and Latin (certiorari,
habeas corpus, prima facie, inter alia, mens rea, sub judice) and are not
italicized as English legal language, as would be foreign words in mainstream
English writing.
1.4Formality: These features tend to make legal writing formal. This formality can
take the form of long sentences, complex constructions, archaic and hyperformal vocabulary, and a focus on content to the exclusion of reader needs.
Some of this formality in legal writing is necessary and desirable, given the
importance of some legal documents and the seriousness of the circumstances
in which some legal documents are used. Yet not all formality in legal writing is
justified. To the extent that formality produces opacity and imprecision, it is
undesirable. To the extent that formality hinders reader comprehension, it is less
desirable. In particular, when legal content must be conveyed to non-lawyers,
formality should give way to clear communication.
What is crucial in setting the level of formality in any legal document is assessing
the needs and expectations of the audience. For example, an appellate brief to
the Supreme Court calls for a formal stylethis shows proper respect for the
court and for the legal matter at issue. An interoffice legal memorandum to a
supervising partner can probably be less formalthough not colloquialbecause
it is an in-house decision-making tool, not a court document. And an email
message to a friend and client, updating the status of a legal matter, is
appropriately informal.
2. Transaction documentslegal draftingfall on a similar continuum. A 150-page
merger agreement between two large corporations, in which both sides are
represented by counsel, will be highly formaland should also be accurate,
precise, and airtight (features not always compatible with high formality). A
commercial lease for a small company using a small office space will likely be
much shorter and will require less complexity, but may still be somewhat formal.
But a proxy statement allowing the members of a neighborhood association to
designate their voting preferences for the next board meeting ought to be as
plain as can be. If informality aids that goal, it is justified.
2. Categories of legal writing: Legal writing is of two, broad categories: (i) legal
analysis and (ii) legal drafting. Legal analysis is two-fold: (1) predictive analysis, and (2)
persuasive analysis. Most legal writing courses focus on: (1) predictive analysis, i.e., an
outcome-predicting memorandum (positive or negative) of a given action for the
attorney's client; and (2) persuasive analysis, e.g., motions and briefs. Legal drafting
courses concentrate upon writing appeals or on interdisciplinary aspects of persuasion.

2.1 Predictive legal analysis: The legal memorandum is the most common type of
predictive legal analysis; it may include the client letter or legal opinion. The
legal memorandum predicts the outcome of a legal question by analyzing the
authorities governing the question and the relevant facts that gave rise to the
legal question. It explains and applies the authorities in predicting an outcome,
and ends with advice and recommendations. The legal memorandum also serves
as record of the research done for a given legal question. Traditionally, and to
meet the legal reader's expectations, it is formally organized and written.
2.2 Persuasive legal analysis: The persuasive document, a motion or a brief,
attempts to persuade a judicial authority to favorably decide the dispute for the
author's client. Motions and briefs are usually submitted to judges, but also to
mediators, arbitrators, and others. In addition, a persuasive letter may attempt to
persuade the opposing party in a case.
Persuasive writing is the most rhetorically stylized. So although a brief states the
legal issues,
describes authorities, and applies authorities to the questionas
does a memorandumthe
brief's application portion is framed as an argument. The
author argues for one approach to resolving the legal matter and does not present a
neutral analysis.
2.3 Legal drafting: Legal drafting creates binding, legal text. It includes enacted law
like statutes, rules, and regulations; contracts (private and public); personal legal
documents like wills and trusts; and public legal documents like notices and
instructions. Legal drafting requires no legal authority citation, and generally is
written without a stylized voice.
3. Plagiarism: In writing an objective analysis or a persuasive document, lawyers
write under the same plagiarism rules applicable to most writers. Legal memoranda
and briefs must properly attribute quotations and source authorities; yet, within a
law office, a lawyer might borrow from other lawyers' texts without attribution, in
using a well-phrased, successful argument made in a previous brief.
Plagiarism is strictly prohibited in academic work, especially in law review articles,
seminar papers, and similar writings intended to reflect the author's original
thoughts.
Legal drafting is different; unlike in most other legal writing categories, plagiarism is
accepted, because of the high value of precedent. As noted, lawyers extensively use
formats (contracts, wills, etc.) in drafting documents; borrowing from previous
documents is common. A good lawyer may frequently copy, verbatim, well-written
clauses from a contract, a will, or a statute to serve his or her client's legal interests.
3.1 In the matter of the charges of plagiarism, etc., against Associate Justice
Mariano C. Del Castillo. [A.M. No. 10-7-17-SC]
4. Legalese is an English term first used in 1914 [2] for legal writing that is designed to
be difficult for laymen to read and understand, the implication being that this
abstruseness is deliberate for excluding the legally untrained and to justify high fees.
Legalese, as a term, has been adopted in other languages. Legalese is characterized by
long sentences, many modifying clauses, complex vocabulary, high abstraction, and
insensitivity to the layman's need to understand the document's gist. Legalese arises
most commonly in legal drafting, yet appears in both types of legal analysis. Today, the
Plain Language Movement in legal writing is progressing and experts are busy trying to
demystify legalese.
Some important points in the debate of "legalese" v. "plain language" as the continued
standard for legal writing include:

4.1 Public comprehensibility: Perhaps most obviously, legalese suffers from being
less comprehensible to the general public than plain English, which can be
particularly important in both private (e.g., contracts) and public matters. 2
4.2 Resistance to ambiguity:
Legalese may be particularly
misinterpretation, be it incidental or deliberate, for two reasons:

resistant

to

1. Its long history of use provides a similarly extensive background of precedent

tied to the language. This precedent, as discussed above, will be a strong
determinant of how documents written in legalese will be interpreted.
2. The legalese language itself may be more precise when compared to plain
English, having arisen from a need for such precision, among other things.
Joseph Kimble, a modern plain-English expert and advocate, rejects the claim
that legalese is less ambiguous in The Great Myth that Plain Language is not
Precise.3 Kimble says legalese often contains so many convoluted constructions
and circumlocutions that it is more ambiguous than plain English.
4.3 Coverage of contingencies: Legal writing faces a trade off in attempting to
cover all possible contingencies while remaining reasonably brief. Legalese is
characterized by a shift in priority towards the former of these concerns. For
example, legalese commonly uses doublets and triplets of words (e.g., "null and
void" and "dispute, controversy, or claim") which may appear redundant or
unnecessary to laymen, but to a lawyer might reflect an important reference to
distinct legal concepts.
Plain-English advocates suggest that no document can possibly cover every
contingency, and that lawyers should not attempt to encompass every
contingency they can foresee. Rather, lawyers should only draft for the known,
possible, reasonably expected contingencies.4
4.4 Expectation/preference: Regardless of its objective merits or demerits when
compared to plain English, legalese has a clear importance as a professional
norm. As such, lawyers, judges, and clients may expect and prefer it, although
no client or judge has ever actually expressed such a preference publicly.
Class 2
2. Notarial Laws and Rules
1. Legislative Enactments and Judicial Issuances
1. Act No. 2103-An Act Providing for the Acknowledgement and Authentication of
Instruments and Documents Without the Philippine Islands enacted on January
26, 1912
2. The Old Notarial Law-Sec.245 to 246 of Act No. 2711 or the Revised
Administrative Code of the Philippines
3. Official Oaths-Sec.40 to 42, Book I, Chapter 10 of Executive Order No. 292,s.
1987-Administrative Code of 1987, as amended by Republic Act No. 6733.

2
3

Lundin, Leigh (2009-12-31). "BuzzwordsBang * Splat!". Criminal Brief. Retrieved 2010-02-19.

7 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 109 (19982000)
4
Howard Darmstadter, Hereof, Thereof, and Everywhereof: A Contrarian Guide to Legal Drafting
34 (ABA 2002).

4. Presentation of Community Tax Certificate on Certain Occasions-Sec.163, Republic

Act No. 7160, Local Government Code of 1991
5. Effect of Failure to Stamp Taxable Document-Sec.201, Title VII [Documentary
Stamp Tax] of Republic Act No. 8424 or the Tax Reform Act of 1997
6. 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice-A.M.No. 02-8-13-SC, SC En Banc Resolution dated
July 6, 2004
7. Amendment to Sec 12(a) of the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice, A.M. No. 02-8-13SC, SC En Banc Resolution dated February 19, 2008
2. Ex-Officio Notaries Public
1. Power of Municipal Trial Court and Municipal Circuit Trial Court judges to act as
Notaries Public Ex Officio, Supreme court Circular 1-90, February 26, 1990
2. Guidelines relative to printing and distribution of notarial books, 2004 Rules on
Notarial Practice, A.M. No. 02-8-13-SC, SC En Banc Resolution dated August 15, 2006
3. Cruz v. Centron 442SCRA 53 (2004)
4. Tigno v. Spouses Aquino 444 SCRA 61 (2004)
5. Fuentes v. Buno, A.M. No. MTJ-99-1204 (Formerly OCA IPI No. 97-355-MTJ), July
28, 2008; 560 SCRA 22 (2008)
3. Notarized Document as a Public Instrument
1.
2.
3.
4.

Vda. De Rosales v. Ramos, A.C. No. 5645. July 2, 2002; 383 SCRA 498 (2002)
Dela Cruz v. Zabala, A.C. No. 6294. November 17, 2004; 442 SCRA 407 (2004)
Lee v. Tambago, A.C. No. 5281, February 12, 2008; 544 SCRA 393 (2008)
Dela Cruz v. Dimaano, A.C. No. 7781, September 12, 2008; 565 SCRA 1 (2008)

5. Admissibility of Documents
1. Classes of documents and Proof of private documents, Sections 19 & 20, Rule 132
of the Revised Rules of Evidence
2. Public documents as evidence and Proof of notarial documents, Section 23 & 30,
Rule 132 of the Revised Rules on Evidence
3. Heirs of Amparo Del Rosario v. Santos 108 SCRA 43 (1981)
4. Permanent Savings and Loan Bank v. Velarde 439 SCRA 1 (2004)
5. Tigno v. Spouses Aquino 444 SCRA 61 (2004)
6. Validity of Contracts General Rule: A defective notarization does not
affect the validity of a contract.
1. Chong v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 148280, July 10, 2007
2. Competent evidence of the affiants identity The President of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. BTL Construction Corporation, G.R.
No. 176439, February 26, 2007
Exceptions: Where the law requires notarization as a requisite for validity.
1. Donation of immovable property
1. Article 749 of the Civil Code
2. Quilala v. Alcantara 371 SCRA 311 (2001)
3. Abellana v. Spouses Ponce 437 SCRA 531 (2004)
5

2. Partnership where immovable is contributed

1. Article 1771 to 1773 of the Civil Code
3. Notarial Will
1. Article 805 and 806 of the Civil Code
2. Garcia v. Gatchalian 21 SCRA 1056 (1967)
3. Azuela v. Court of Appeals 487 SCRA 119 (2006)
4. Registration of Documents
1. Forms in conveyancing Section 112 of Presidential Decree No. 1528 or the
Property Registration Decree
5. Transfer of Ownership
1. Delivery of the thing sold Articles 1498 and 1544 of the Civil Code
2. Dy, Jr. v. Court of Appeals 198 SCRA 826 (1991)
6. Effectively as against Third Persons
1. Assignment of Credits and Partnership having a capital of P3,000.00 or more
Articles 1625 and 1772 of the Civil Code
2. Marriage settlements Article 77 of the Family Code
3. Santiago v. Pioneer Savings and Loan Bank 157 SCRA 100 (1968)
1. Affidavit
2. Special Power of Attorney Article 1878 of the Civil Code
3. Last Will and Testament
1. Notarial Will Article 805 and 806 of the Civil Code
2. Holographic Will Article 810 to 814 of the Civil Code
4. Release, Waiver and Quitclaim Article 6 of the Civil Code
5. Demand Letter
1. Preparatory to filing an ejectment case Rule 70 of the Rules of Court
2. Preparatory to filing a complaint for violation of Batas Pambansa Blg. 22 or
the Bouncing Checks Law
1. Rule 7 to 9; Sec. 11, Rule 13 of the Rules of Court
2. Sec. 139 of Republic Act No. 7160 or the, Local Governance Code of 1991
3. Bar Matter No. 287, SC En Banc Resolution dated July 9, 1985, quoted in
OCA Circular No. 10-85, July 24, 1985
4. Bar Matter No. 1132, SC En Banc Resolution dated 12 November 2002
5. A.M. No. 07-6-5-SC, SC En Banc Resolution dated July 20, 2007, Statement
of Contact Details of the Parties of their Counsel in all Pleadings or Papers filed
with the Supreme Court
6

6. Bar Matter No. 1922, SC En Banc Resolution dated June 3, 2008,

Recommendation of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Board
to Indicate in All Pleadings Filed the Courts the Counsels MCLE Certificate of
Compliance or Certificate of Exemption
7. A.M. No. 05-11-07-CTA, SC En Banc Resolution dated November 3, 2005,
Sec. 6, Rule 6 of the Revised Rules of the Court of Tax Appeals
8. Bar Matter No. 2012, February 10, 2009, Proposed Rule on Mandatory Legal
Aid Service for Practicing Lawyers
9. Public Estates Authority v. Uy 372 SCRA 180 (2001)
10. Clavecilla v. Quitain 482 SCRA 623 (2006)
11. Heirs of Dicman v. Cario 490 SCRA 240 (2006)
12. Solar Team Entertainment v. Ricafort 293 SCRA 661 (1998)

7. Notarial Acts
1. Jurat Section 6, Rule II of the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice
2. Acknowledgment Section 1, Rule II of the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice;
Gamildo v. New Bilibid Prisons, G.R. No. 114829 March 1, 1995; 242 SCRA 83 (1995)
3. Affirmation or Oath Section 2, Rule II of 2004 Rules of Notarial Practice
4. Commission Section 3, Rule II of the 2004 Rules of Notarial Practice
5. Copy certification Section 4, Rule II of the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice
6. Notarial Register Section 5, Rule II of the 2004 Rule on Notarial Practice
7. Notarial Certificate Section 8, Rule II of the 2004 Rule on Notarial Practice
8. Competent Evidence of Identity - Section 12, Rule II of the 2004 Rule on Notarial
Practice
9. Signature witnessing Section 14, Rule II of the 2004 Rule on Notarial Practice
10. Authority to certify the affixing of a signature by thumb or other mark Section
1 (b), Rule IV of the 2004 Rule on Notarial Practice
11. Signing on behalf of a person physically unable to sign or make a mark Section
1 (c), Rule IV of the 2004 Rule on Notarial Practice
8. Business Forms. You will learn how to draft clear, effective and plain language contracts
and to analyze other transactional writings used to manage complex business transactions.
Through a series of exercises, you will develop sensitivity to the expectations of your clients
and other lawyers, sharpen your analytical skills in the context of contracts, and learn
specialized research tools related to contractual provisions.

1. Extra-Judicial Settlement Secs. 1 and 2, Rule 74 of the Rules of Court

2. Deed of Sale of Registered Land
3. Contract of Lease with right of first refusal
4. Deed of Donation Article 725 and 773 of the Civil Code
5. Loan Agreement with Real Estate Mortgage Article 2085 to 2092, 2124 and
2131 of the Civil Code
7

6. Chattel Mortgage Article 2085 to 2123, 2140 to 2141 of the Civil Code; Act No.
1508, as amended,

with Affidavit of Good Faith

7. Deed of Release of Real Estate or Chattel Mortgage

8. Pre-Nuptial Agreement Articles 74 to 81 of the Family Code
9. Deed of Assignment of Shares
10. Articles of Partnership- Articles 1767, 1770 to 1774 of the Civil Code
11. Articles of Incorporation-Sec. 10 to15 of the Corporation Code
12. By-Laws-Sec.46 to 47 of the Corporation Code
13. Board Resolution authorizing corporate officer to obtain a bank loan
14. Secretarys Certificate
15. Proxy to attend a stockholders meeting-Sec.58 of the Corporation Code
16. Notice of Stockholders meeting-Sec. 50 to 51 of the Corporation Code
17. Minutes of Meetings
18. Joint Venture Agreement
19. Asset Acquisition Agreement
9. Technology Transaction Forms. You will learn the foundations of drafting contracts in
a modern commercial setting, primarily through hands-on writing exercises that illustrate
business problems commonly found in today's technology transactions law practice. Topics to
be addressed will include basic contract anatomy, common clause ambiguities, structuring for
readable "flow", and drafting-for-negotiation techniques. Final examination will involve crafting
a full-length technology license agreement from a rough term sheet that appears to have been
pecked out on some sort of mobile device.

1. Technology Transfer Agreement

2. Patent Application
3. Software Development Agreement
4. Outsourcing Agreement
5. Website Design Agreement
6. Software Reseller Agreement
10. Judicial Forms. You will draft an office memo and pleadings in a hypothetical case. You
will also complete short
writing exercises in and out of class to practice skills such as omitting surplus words,
preferring active voice, using concrete words, punctuating carefully, etc. This will help you
organize facts and principles in a succinct and logical way and to deepen your
understanding of the legal reasoning process.

A. All Pleadings
1. Complaint
2. Answer
3. Sec. 139 of Republic Act No. 7160 or the, Local Government Code of 1991
4.
5.

Bar Matter No. 287, SC En Banc Resolution dated July 9, 1985, quoted in OCA Circular
No. 10-85, July 24, 1985
Bar Matter No. 1132, SC En Banc Resolution dated 12 November 2002

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

A.M. No. 07-6-5-SC, SC En Banc Resolution dated July 20, 2007, Statement od Contact
Details of the Parties or their Counsel in all Pleadings or Papers filed with the Supreme
Court
Bar Matter No. 1922, SC En Banc Resolution dated June 3, 2008,Recommendation of the
Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Board to Indicate in All Pleadings Filed
the Courts the Counsels MCLE Certificate of Compliance or Certificate of Exemption
A.M. No. 05-11-07-CTA, SC En Banc Resolution dated November 3, 2005, Sec. 6, Rule 6
of the Revised Rules of the Court of Tax Appeals
Bar Matter No. 2012, February 10, 2009, Proposed Rule on Mandatory Legal Aid Service
for Practicing Lawyers
Public Estates Authority v. Uy 372 SCRA 180 (2001)
Clavecilla v. Quitain 482 SCRA 623 (2006)
Heirs of Dicman v. Cario 490 SCRA 240 (2006)
Solar Team Entertainment v. Ricafort 293 SCRA 661 (1998).

B. Motions
1. Rule 15 of the Rules of Court
2. Azajar vs. CA 145 SCRA 333 (1986)
3. Neri v. Dela Pea 457 SCRA 538 (2005)
4. Boiser v. Aguirre, Jr. 458 SCRA 430 (2005)
5. De Jesus v. Dilag 471 SCRA 176 (2005)
C. Civil Case
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.

Complaint for Forcible Entry or Unlawful Detainer (Ejectment) Rule 70 of the

Rules of Court
Complaint for a Sum of Money (based on a Promissory Note) with application for
the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) and/or a writ of preliminary
attachment Sec. 6 to 8, Rules 8 and 57 of the Rules of Court
Complaint for Replevin with application for Replevin Rule 60 of the Rules of
Court
Entry of Appearance
Withdrawal of Counsel Sec. 26, Rule 138 of the Rules of Court
Affidavit of Service Rule 13 of the Rules of Court
Answer with Counterclaim Rules 8, 9 and 16 of the Rules of Court;
Permanent Savings and Loan Bank v. Velarde, 439 SCRA 1 (2004)
Motion to Dismiss Rules 15 and 16 of the Rules of Court
Motion to Admit Sec. 9, Rule 15 of the Rules of Court
Motion for Extension of Time Sec. 11, Rules 15 and 11 of the Rules of Court
Motion to Declare Defendant in Default Sec. 3, Rule 9 of the Rules of Court
Motion to Lift Order of Default Sec. 3, Rule 9 of the Rules of Court
Ex-Parte Motion to Set Case for Pre-Trial Sec. 1, Rule 18 of the Rules of Court
Special Power of Attorney for Pre-Trial Rule 18 of the Rules of Court; Boaz
International Trading Corporation v. Woodward Japan, Inc., 418 SCRA 287
(2003)
Pre-Trial Brief Rule 18 of the Rules of Court; A.M. No. 03-1-09-SC, SC En Banc
Resolution dated July 13, 2004, Rule on Guidelines to be Observed by Trial Court
Judges and Clerks of Court in the Conduct of Pre-trial and Use of DepositionDiscovery Measures
Motion for Postponement Sec. 3 and 4, Rule 30 of the Rules of Court
Motion for Intervention Rule 19 of the Rules of Court
Request for the Issuance of Subpoena Rule 21 of the Rules of Court
Formal Offer of Evidence Sec. 34 and 35, Rule 132 of the Rules of Court
Motion for Execution Rule 39 of the Rules of Court
Notice of Lis Pendens - Sec. 14, Rule 13 of the Rules of Court; Sec. 76 of
Presidential Decree No. 1259
Third Party Claim Sec. 16,Rule 39 of the Rules of Court
Motion for Reconsideration Rule 37 of the Rules of Court
Notice of Appeal Rules 40 and 41 of the Rules of Court
Appeal Brief Sec. 13, Rule 44 of the Rules of Court; De Liano v. Court of
Appeals 370 SCRA 349 (2001)
Affidavit of Merit attached to a petition for relief from judgment Rule 38 of the
Rules of Court
Petition for Review from the Regional Trial Courts to the Court of Appeals- Rule 42
of the Rules of Court

28.

Petition for Review (Appeal from the quasijudicial agency to the Court of
Appeals) Rule 43 of the Rules of Court
29. Petition for Review on Certiorari Rule 45 of the Rules of Court
30. Petition for Certiorari, Prohibition or Mandamus Rule 65 of the Rules of Court

11. Special Proceedings

1. Summary Settlement of Estate of Small Value
2. Probate of Will
3. Opposition to Probate of Will
4. Letters of Administration
5. Claims against the Estate
6. Answer to Claim Against the Estate
7. Project of Partition
8. Administrators Account
9. Administrators Inventory
10.Escheat
11.Guardianship
12.Trusteeship
13. Adoption of Minors
14.Hospitalization of Insane Persons
15. Habeas Corpus
16.Amparo
17.Habeas Data
18.Change of Name
19.Change of First Name and Civil Entries

12. Criminal Cases

1. Complaint
2. Preliminary Investigation Form
3. Information: Abduction, Forcible
4. Information: Attempted Bribery
5. Information: Damage to Property Through Reckless Imprudence
6. Information: Estafa
7. Information: Violation of B.P. Blg. 22
8. Information: Falsification of Private Document
9. Information: Falsification of Official Document
10. Information: Homicide
11. Information: Frustrated Homicide
12. Information: Attempted Bribery
13. Information: Libel
14. Information: Malversation
15. Information: Murder
16. Information: Parricide
17. Information: Serious Physical Injuries
18. Information: Rape
19. Information: Robbery
20. Information: Theft
21. Information: Treason
22. Information: Usurpation of Official Functions
23. Motion to Quash
24. Application for Conditional Examination of Witnesses fopr Defendants
25. Motion for New Trial
26. Petition for Bail
27. Application for Compulsory Process to Secure Attendance of Witness
28. Affidavit of Recognizance in Lieu of Bail
13. Judicial Affidavit Rule (A.M.No. 12-8-8-SC) promulgated on September 4,
2012 but to take effect on January 1, 2013
14. Elements of Thesis Writing
1. Purpose and Significance of the Topic
10

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Theoretical Framework
Methodology
Findings
Discussion
Conclusion
7. Recommendation

11