Rule 1116. Brief in Opposition to Petition.

 Within 14 days after service of a petition for allowance of appeal an adverse party may file a brief in opposition. The brief in opposition need not be set forth in numbered paragraphs in the manner of a pleading, shall set forth any procedural, substantive or other argument or ground why the order involved should not be reviewed by the Supreme Court and shall comply with Rule 1115(a)(7) (content of petition for allowance of appeal.). No separate motion to dismiss a petition for allowance of appeal will be received. A party entitled to file a brief in opposition under this rule who does not intend to do so shall, within the time fixed by these rules for filing a brief in opposition, file a letter stating that a brief in opposition to the petition for allowance of appeal will not be filed. The failure to file a brief in opposition will not be construed as concurrence in the request for allowance of appeal.

   Official Note

   Based on former Supreme Court Rule 62 and makes no change in substance except as follows: The time for opposition is increased from ten to 17 days (where service is by mail). This rule and Rule 1115 contemplate that the petition and brief in opposition will address themselves to the heart of the issue, i.e. whether the Supreme Court ought to exercise its discretion to allow an appeal, without the need to comply with the formalistic pattern of numbered averments in the petition and correspondingly numbered admissions and denials in the response. While such a formalistic format is appropriate when factual issues are being framed in a trial court (as in the petition for review under Chapter 15) such a format interferes with the clear narrative exposition necessary to outline succinctly the case for the Supreme Court in the allocatur context.