I’ve occasionally downloaded scholarly papers from the Social Science Research Network, usually after seeing them mentioned at the Legal Writing Prof Blog. But until that blog’s recent post about how to stay up-to-date with the latest articles on legal writing, which provides links for subscribing to legal writing articles, I hadn’t really poked around SSRN very much. I took the time to do so this evening, and discovered there are some terrific features. Besides the subscriptions, there is a “briefcase” feature that allows you to accumulate articles of interest for later access. Going though the subscription list, I flagged about 30 papers published just this year. I’ll probably be posting…
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A Lesson in Collateral Order Doctrine Jurisdiction
Some lawyers not well-versed in appellate jurisdiction may find themselves fighting against one of two extremes when it comes to interlocutory decisions: the impulse to appeal everything (appealable or not), or failing to evaluate interlocutory orders for possible exceptions to the “final judgment rule,” figuring “why bother” until a final judgment is entered. Then there are those in the middle who recognize opportunity in interlocutory orders, and seize it. Such were the lawyers representing the appellants in Lazy Y Ranch Ltd. v. Behrens, case no. 07-35315 (9th Cir. Sept. 26, 2008). Lazy Y sued, alleging a violation of equal protection, after its bids for grazing on state land were rejected…
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Why Some Lawyers and Their Clients are Reluctant to Engage Appellate Counsel, Part 2: “It’s Just Litigation.”
(NOTE: This post is the second in a series. To read the announcement of the series and/or leave your ideas for subsequent installments, click here.) In my first post in this series, I broke down lawyers’ reasons for not engaging appellate counsel into two broad categories: those related to ability and those related to economics. Today, we will examine a reason related to ability: “It’s just litigation”, or “Hey, I’m a litigator, and appeals are litigation, so I can do it.“ Are appeals litigation? Well, let’s see. Adverse parties? Check. Legal and/or factual disputes? Check. Courtroom and judges? Check. Judgments? Check. Yeah, I’d say that appeals are litigation. That said,…
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Proposed Meeting of Law Bloggers at the California State Bar Convention
Victoria Pynchon of the Settle It Now Negotiation Blog asked that I pass along her suggestion for a law blogger meeting at the California State Bar Convention this week, and I do so gladly. From Victoria: Please let me know if you’re interested in a legal bloggers meeting at the state bar convention in monterey this week. We could have drinks at the Hyatt between, say, 5 and 7 on the 27th — the annual dinner & cabaret starts at 7 p.m. that evening — Saturday — and we could just flow into that event; or we could do Thursday AT the Opening Night reception, which starts at 5:45 .…
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Gee, We’re Smart!
At his Legal-Writing Blog, Wayne Schiess shares some observations from one of his students, who aspires to be an appellate lawyer and worked in the appellate practice department of a law firm. See the professor’s post for all the details, but among the student’s observations: I realized why appellate lawyers at law firms are stereotypically labeled as the smartest lawyers at the firm. The fact that they can come to work, day in and day out, and spend hours thinking and writing at such a level makes them nothing less than brilliant, if you ask me. I can’t figure out why, but that was my favorite part. Actually, I think it’s…
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Why Some Lawyers and Their Clients are Reluctant to Engage Appellate Counsel, Part 1: Categories
(NOTE: This post is the first in a series. To read the announcement of the series and/or leave your ideas for subsequent installments, click here.) Well, it’s been four weeks since I promised a series of posts on this topic. You were probably about to give up on me. I started the first post, and it kept growing, and growing, and growing . . . clearly, some better way of organizing the topics was necessary. And I’ve devoted substantial time to it. How did I get to this point? I started writing about what I figure is the number one reason lawyers don’t engage appellate counsel. The trial lawyer thinks…
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Peremptory Challenge to Judge After Remand Has Its Limits
Virtually every civil litigator knows about the procedure afforded by Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6 for disqualification of the judge assigned to the case. Commonly called “papering the judge,” the requirements of the section are so meager that such challenges are also referred to as “peremptory” challenges, though not technically so (to my mind), and my guess is that any civil litigator who has practiced for more than a few years has invoked section 170.6 at least once. Maybe you didn’t know that this disqualification procedure is available even after reversal on appeal. Subdivision (a)(2) of section 170.6 provides A motion under this paragraph may be made following reversal…
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2008 California Court Statistics Report
Now available for PDF Download: 2008 Court Statistics Report: Statewide Caseload Trends, 1997-1998 through 2006-2007. Always interesting to peruse. The first thing to jump out at me from this year’s report (in my thus far rather hasty review): the median time statewide for civil appeals (from time of filing the notice of appeal to the time of disposition) was 432 days in 2006-2007. That’s roughly 14 months. And 90% of all civil appeals are disposed of within 680 days, or about 22 months. These are statewide numbers. Some districts are better than others. I may be wrong, but I think there is a general impression among many clients (and perhaps…