Not that you’d ever know it from reading this blog, but I’m a pretty funny guy. So I like things about humor and the law. A front page article in last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal documents how badly some state bars lack a sense of humor (subscription required — if that link doesn’t work, go to this post at the WSJ.com Law Blog, which appears to allow non-subscribers to link to the article). Take the opening few paragraphs: Syracuse, N.Y., attorney James Alexander ran a TV spot for his firm showing lawyers offering counsel to space aliens who had crashed their UFO. He also did one with lawyers towering like…
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Superheroes or Superegos?
Which best describes bloggers? That depends on whether you listen to Chief Judge Kozinski, whose opinion is noted at The Volokh Conspiracy, or to a tongue-in-cheek appraisal in The New York Review of Books, as excerpted at The UCL Practitioner. Can you match the opinions to the commentators before you look?
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Pro Bono Attorney Fees in the News Again
National Law Journal has a new article called Pro Bono Case Triggers a Fee Fight on the controversy surrounding the attempt of a Seattle BigLaw firm (Davis Wright Tremaine) seeking to recover its attorney fees under a fee-shifting statute even though it took the case pro bono. The case was the closely watched “Seattle Schools” case decided by SCOTUS last year. (If you want some background from the view of the losing party, the school district’s press release from the day of the decision is available as a PDF download.) In a very detailed post entitled The Pro Bono Road to Riches! last October, I discussed the issue in the…
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Weekend Downtime on the Blog
I’ll be upgrading the blog to WordPress version 2.3.3 this weekend. I’ve upgraded several times before, and it usually only requires about a half hour of downtime. But you never know what problems will crop up. So if you try coming here and get a “this site is down for maintenance” message, give it an hour or so, then check back.
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That Must Be One Heckuva Jeep!
You’re busted in L.A. for soliciting prostitution. Worse, you happened to be inside your 2000 Jeep Cherokee when you were busted, so it gets impounded and the city initiates forfeiture proceedings. You oppose the proceedings, spending $49,735.90 on attorney fees. For your 5-year-old Jeep. Wow. You win in the trial court, but go on an appellate court odyssey before everything is finally determined in your favor. The only downside is that your name and your arrest for solicitation of prostitution are now enshrined in a published opinion. But at least your name isn’t in the title: City of Los Angeles v. 2000 Jeep Cherokee, case no. B185673 (2d Dist. Feb.…
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Firestarter Burned by Government Immunity
I’ve been stewing over this post for a couple of days. Sovereign immunity always left a sour taste in my mouth. Yes, I understand all the justifications for it. But it still seems like a raw deal a lot of the time. In California, government immunity (against state law claims) is the rule, and the liability of a public entity is limited to specific statutory exceptions. So . . . you can’t generally sue the government unless one of those exceptions applies (and even then, not until jumping through the necessary administrative hoops). I get that. But what if the government sues you? Surely, those immunity statutes don’t prevent you…
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Comments on Proposed Revisions to Civil Jury Instructions are Due March 7
The Judicial Council of California has posted proposed revisions to civil jury instructions for comment. Comments are due by 5 p.m. on March 7, 2008. I haven’t looked through the proposal, but it’s hefty — more than 200 pages. If anyone sees anything of particular interest in the proposal, shoot me an e-mail.
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LawLink Access to The California Blog of Appeal and More
There’s a new way to access legal blogs and more about your colleagues. And I do mean new. I added The California Blog of Appeal to the blog directory at LawLink over the weekend. This is only the eighth blog to be added, but plenty more are sure to follow. Clicking on any of the blogs in the directory gives you an RSS feed right inside your browser window that shows teasers from the last few (up to 15) blog posts at that blog. Who knows how widely seen it may become? If you have your own law blog, you might as well get it up there now. LawLink appears…
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Preserving Evidentiary Objections for Appeal from a Summary Judgment
Last Friday, the California Supreme Court granted review in Reid v. Google, Inc., case no. S158965. The Supreme Court states the following as one of the issues for review: “Are evidentiary objections not expressly ruled on at the time of decision on a summary judgment motion preserved for appeal?” Until now, the answer has generally been “no.” That’s a rule that has always rankled me because securing a ruling can be out of the objecting party’s hands. No matter how much prodding one does, the court may fail to rule. Tom Caso at the Opening Brief pointed out this likelihood last October, when he covered a series of decisions creating a conflict…
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Ninth Circuit Fires Up Electronic Case Management Efforts
The Ninth Circuit announced last Friday that it “will begin implementation of the appellate version of a new case management system, CM/ECF (case management/electronic case files) on March 3, 2008.” See this link for details about timing, training, and sign-up for e-mail notification of docket activity. Thanks to Criminal Appeal for the link.
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Legal Writing Podcasts from Suffolk
Suffolk University Law School has launched a series of podcasts, including a weekly podcast on legal writing, through Apple’s iTunes U. Wednesday’s press release from the school is here. Go here for Suffolk’s iTunes U portal, which tells you everything you need to know and provides links that will automatically open iTunes to Suffolk’s podcasts. Thanks to Legal Writing Prof Blog.