No, I haven’t “lost it” during my absence. The title of this post is a parody of a bad issue statement — something we all see way too often. As for an answer to the question itself, this looks like a pretty darn good place to start.
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Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! And has anything interesting happened while I’ve been out?
Just a short post to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving Day. My work schedule remains light as I continue to struggle through whatever crud I have. Honestly, I thought I’d be over this by now, but the duration of this energy-sapping malady is going on four weeks! Thanksgiving Day reminds me, however, that I should grateful my illness amounts to nothing more than a severe inconvenience. I haven’t been looking at the courts’ output for the last month or so, so if there’s anything of appellate interest that you think I should write about, email me with the case information and I’ll try to get to it. I am hopeful that…
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Where are all the new posts?
Regular readers who are wondering where I’ve gone (and are, hopefully, disappointed at my lack of posting the last few weeks) should know that the blog lives! I, on the other hand, have barely felt among the living the last few weeks, dogged by some kind of head/sinus/allergy/flu/who-knows-what-it-is that has really wiped me out. I’ve been able to work only on those projects demanding my immediate attention. Since my blog can’t be dismissed for failure to post, while my cases can be dismissed for failure to file, my limited hours of coherence each day have been devoted to my cases. I finally feel like I’m on the mend, and hopefully,…
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The Mindset of Appellate Judges
Here is a well-stated look into the minds of appellate judges, from a 2-year old column by Howard Bashman: One essential trait that an appellate lawyer must possess is the ability to think about legal issues from the perspective of judges who serve on appellate courts. Appellate courts are not only responsible for trying to reach the correct result in the cases on appeal, but their rulings often create precedents that will govern other cases that don’t even exist yet. Thus, an appellate lawyer must be cognizant not only of how existing precedent will affect an appellate court’s view of a newly filed appeal, but also about how the precedent…