Guide
Mississippi Table of Authorities: Appellate Brief Guide
On this page2 sections
Mississippi Rule 28(a)(2) calls for a table of cases, statutes and other cited authorities, with brief-page references and cases alphabetically arranged. The rule covers appeals in the Supreme Court of Mississippi and Court of Appeals. Its reply provision expressly requires tables too; a short reply is not automatically outside that requirement.
Generate a standard-format table of authorities from your PDF. Mississippi has no named preset, so review the actual rule and output manually. Source limit: the judiciary's current compilation returned an access error. This guide uses the official First Circuit Court-hosted June 26, 2018 compilation, read October 14, 2026, and does not certify that later amendments are absent.
“There shall follow a table of contents, with page references, and a table of cases (alphabetically arranged), statutes, and other authorities cited, with references to the pages of the brief where they are cited.” — Rule 28(a)(2)
Replies and other briefs are different categories
Rule 28(d) is unusually direct for this practical question: “All reply briefs shall contain a table of contents” and a table of cases, statutes and other authorities, with references to pages of the reply. Build that table from the reply itself. Reusing the opening table creates irrelevant entries and wrong page references even when an authority appears in both documents.
Rule 28(m)'s ten-page threshold concerns briefs other than those listed in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and (d). Read the document category before applying the threshold. A nine-page reply under (d) does not become an other brief merely because it is short. For motions, petitions and unusual submissions, check the governing provision and any court order instead of carrying every merits-brief requirement into the filing.
| Filing or entry | Provision read | Practical check |
|---|---|---|
| Appellant's merits brief | 28(a)(2) | Table after the interested-persons certificate in the listed order; cases alphabetical; include statutes and other authorities. |
| Appellee's merits brief | 28(c) | Use the appellee's authorities and its own brief-page references. |
| Reply brief | 28(d) | Include the reply's table even when the reply is below ten pages. |
| Other brief exceeding ten pages | 28(m) | Tables complying with 28(a)(2); first confirm it is an other brief. |
| Mississippi case citation | 28(f)(2)-(3) | Distinguish the complete authority citation and pinpoint from pages of your brief. |
| Trial-court memorandum | Not established by this appellate table provision | Check trial-court rules, local practice and the actual order. |
Citation identity is not a brief-page number
Rule 28(f) in the compilation allows Mississippi cases to be cited to the Southern Reporter, with the official Mississippi Reports also used for cases decided before 1967, or, for cases decided from July 1, 1997, by the clerk-assigned case number. It separately describes permissible quotation pinpoints, including paragraph numbers for the applicable opinions. These are citation requirements, not instructions to substitute a case's paragraph number for a page of your brief.
Keep one reviewed entry for an authority cited in multiple forms, retaining enough citation information to identify it accurately. Do not merge different cases because their short names resemble each other. The table language expressly alphabetizes cases; clear non-case categories are useful, but that sentence does not prescribe a universal category sequence. It also does not expressly authorize passim. The generator does not restyle reporter or case-number citations.
From a Mississippi PDF to an editable table
- Save the right document. Export the particular opening, response or reply brief with intended printed pagination. Keep the matching Word file if you want insertion. Do not combine the entire appeal's documents into one table.
- Select standard format. Open the TOA generator and confirm actual court/settings after loading. Detected court information or a sample can override the entry selection; Mississippi is not a named preset.
- Audit the entries and pages. Review full citations, case-number forms, short forms and Id.; merge true duplicates, add missed authorities and check each cited page in the PDF. Include authorities outside the argument when they are cited in the brief.
- Export through the appropriate route. PDF-only produces an editable Word table for insertion. Matching Word plus a text-layer PDF can insert ordinary table text into that brief. DOCX-only instead creates Word fields for Word for Windows.
- Re-export and verify. Table insertion and subsequent edits can shift pages. Make a new final PDF and check every reference again. Review current Rule 28, Rule 32 and filing instructions separately; the table is not a whole-brief compliance check.
Frequently asked
Does the appellee need an authorities table?
Under Rule 28(c) in the official compilation read, yes: the appellee conforms to Rule 28(a), with exceptions for specified statements rather than the tables.
Does a reply under ten pages need a table?
Rule 28(d) expressly requires tables in all reply briefs. The ten-page language in Rule 28(m) concerns other briefs, not the replies listed in (d).
Should a case's paragraph pinpoint appear in the page column?
No. The page column identifies where the authority is cited in your brief. A reporter or paragraph pinpoint identifies material inside the cited authority.
Does this establish the rule for a chancery or circuit-court memorandum?
No. Rule 1 identifies appellate proceedings, and this guide does not source a universal trial-memorandum table requirement. Check the specific trial filing and local rules.
Is the source current as of the check date?
The source was accessed on October 14, 2026, but it is a June 26, 2018 official compilation. The current judiciary PDF returned 500. Consult the current rules and amendment orders before relying on this guide for filing.
Source edition and access status
- First Circuit Court: Mississippi Rules of Appellate ProcedureOfficial court-hosted compilation dated June 26, 2018. Rules 1 and 28(a)-(m), including table, reply and citation provisions, read October 14, 2026. Later amendment currency remains unverified.firstcircuitcourt.ms.gov
- Mississippi Judiciary: current appellate rules compilationCurrent official endpoint attempted October 14, 2026; returned 500, including alternate www host. Not the source of the quotations above.courts.ms.gov
BriefAuthority · free
No account · no upload