If you just lost your appeal, handled by attorneys at a high-powered law firm, with fees approaching – oh, heck, who knows, but three lawyers billing at a “BigLaw” firm have to run up a pretty hefty bill on a case potentially worth billions of dollars – you might not be happy with language in the introduction of the opinion characterizing your appeal as “utterly without merit” and noting that the court declined imposing sanctions only because the court did “not wish to further delay the long-overdue trial of the merits of [the] action.” That’s exactly how the court opened its opinion in Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Oracle Corp., case no. H039507 (6th Dist. Aug. 27,…
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Mandatory E-filing comes to the Third District Court of Appeal
Details here. The court has adopted a new Local Rule 5 covering e-filing procedures, which become effective September 14. It looks like documents need to be filed through the proprietary TrueFiling system. If you have an appeal pending in the third district now, make sure you register for the e-filing system promptly.
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Four added to pool of prospective First District Justices
The Recorder reports on three judges Governor Brown has asked to have evaluated for vacancies on the First District Court of Appeal. Brown has asked the State Bar’s Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation to vet San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marla Miller, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Diana Becton and ACLU staff attorney Linda Lye for openings on the San Francisco-based appellate court. Therese Stewart of the San Francisco city attorney’s office is also being evaluated by the commission. Of course, everything will remain up in the air for a while. Submission of a name to the commission usually indicates serious interest on the governor’s part, though there are…
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Some appreciation for the appellate courts
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform has released a 158-page report called “The New Lawsuit Ecosystem: Trends, Targets and Players” (which I learned about through a piece at The Recorder giving a detailed summary of the report). The Institute succinctly describes the report this way: This report examines the developing “ecosystem” of the plaintiffs’ bar, including litigation trends, key lawyers and target industries. The report also looks beyond litigation to examine how the plaintiffs’ bar is attempting to influence public policy and implement a liability-expanding agenda. In addition, the report explores the growing alliance between the plaintiffs’ bar and some state attorneys general. What’s all that got to do…