Apparently, It’s Ok To Argufy Before The Delaware Supreme Court

Yesterday, I received a notice from the Delaware Supreme Court informing me that a case in which one of my clients is a party has been called for argument. The notice asked that the enclosed “oral argument scheduling acknowledgment form” be completed and returned. I was immediately struck by the signature block which calls for the signature of the “Argufier or Local Counsel’s Signature”. I must confess that this is the first time in nearly 30 years of legal practice that I’ve come across the word “argufier”. In fact, I could find only one reported decision in any state or federal court that actually uses the word:

My Brothers note that not “a single applicable case” has been cited to the point “that judges performing forming like functions must receive the same salaries.” Here I cannot resist noting — for the amusement and possible enlightenment of readers in other States — that this is a peculiarly hearty old wheeze of Michigan trial courts (Michigan’s magniloquent own, so to speak). True, it is now hoary and shopworn. Yet it remains an occasional favorite of elder argufiers when they have no authority, and no reasoning of their own, with which to impress the wide-eyed attenders of periodic assizes.