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Appellate Law

The California Blog of Appeal

Substantive legal developments in the California Courts of Appeal, California Supreme Court, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; Procedural law relating to the prosecution of appeals, writ petitions, and post-trial motions in state and federal courts in California; and practical skills essential to appellate practice.
By Greg May

Post Frequency: 1.4/day

Last Entry: February 11, 2020 at 16:16:49

Unlike the Ninth Circuit, this blog is soon to be split in two

Posted on December 23, 2009
And just how, you might be wondering, is a blog with a single blogger going to split up? Since this blog’s inception, I have covered case law and issues in the Ninth Circuit as well as California state court. Based on responses to the blog, however, it appears few people arrive by looking for federal information...

SCOTUS holds discovery ruling requiring disclosure of privileged information is not appealable

Posted on December 22, 2009
Richard Westfall at Rocky Mountain Appellate Blog wrote up the first SCOTUS opinion authored by Justice Sotomayor, Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Carpenter, in which the unanimous court (with a separate concurrence from Justice Thomas) holds that a discovery order is not immediately appealable under the “collateral order doctrine...

Make the record easy on the eyes, please

Posted on December 21, 2009
I was updating my blogroll and checking up on some of those links in preparation for a re-vamp of this site and a new blog project (more about that tomorrow), and I ran across a year-old post at Criminal Appeal I couldn’t agree with more, which starts: Dear Court Reporters, Having finished reading another all-capitalized reporter’s transcript [...

Google Scholar?s legal database

Posted on December 21, 2009
Image via Wikipedia I’m a little late on this . . . OK, I’m a lot late. Last month, Google announced a searchable database of case law and legal journals on Google Scholar: Starting today, we’re enabling people everywhere to find and read full text legal opinions from U...

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Lights! Camera! Call your first witness! Ninth Circuit opens up district courts to cameras.

Posted on December 18, 2009
The Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit issued a press release yesterday (PDF) announcing a pilot program allowing use of cameras in district court courtrooms. The release included this comment from Chief Judge Alex Kozinski: “We hope that being able to see and hear what transpires in the courtroom will lead to a better public understanding [...

Arbitration challenges get a big boost ? but maybe not for long

Posted on December 01, 2009
If you’re a litigation or appellate lawyer, you’ve probably already read about Burlage v. Superior Court, case no. B211431 (2d Dist. Oct. 20, 2009 [opinion after rehearing]), and you’re probably not surprised to learn that the petitioners filed their petition for review in the California Supreme Court yesterday...

En banc ninth tries to clear up the ?abuse of discretion? standard

Posted on November 06, 2009
The “abuse of discretion” standard of review, depending on the particular court applying it and the particular case in which it is applied, can sometimes seem about as clear as mud. The en banc Ninth Circuit set out to clear up the standard in United States v...

Big city justices roll into Napa

Posted on October 21, 2009
The First District Court of Appeal convened yesterday in Napa to hear two criminal cases at a public auditorium before about 400 high school students. The justices also treated the students to a Q&A session. Given that most people’s exposure to the law through the entertainment media nearly always involves a trial, this session strikes me [...

Well, just the impetus I needed!

Posted on October 17, 2009
If you are a regular reader, you know I’ve been AWOL for several months. What started as a short break turned into a hiatus, without so much as an announcement from me. Work and family issues made for such a hugely busy few months. For the past few weeks, I’ve been considering how to get started [...

Supreme Court announces court closure schedule

Posted on August 21, 2009
The California Supreme Court has announced the statewide court closure schedule made necessary, according to the announcement, by “California’s current fiscal crisis.” “The Supreme Court of California, the Courts of Appeal, and all superior courts will be closed on the third Wednesday of each month, starting September 16, 2009″...

Review of Remand Orders: One Man?s Obsession

Posted on June 02, 2009
And I mean obsession in a good way. I never thought I’d out-geeked on the subject of jurisdiction, and especially not on the subject of appellate jurisdiction, but I think Jones Day partner Mark Herrmann�pulled it off today at his Drug & Device Law blog...

Can your clients help you be more persuasive?

Posted on May 14, 2009
Here’s an article on my short list of must-reads: in Know Your Client: Maximizing Advocacy by Incorporating Client-Centered Principles into Legal Writing Rhetoric Practice,�Rutgers-Camden law professor Jason Cohen�advocates that lawyers look beyond the typical “write for your audience” mindset and incorporate the client’s values into their legal writing...

A civil case and a criminal case look the same to a mailbox

Posted on April 24, 2009
For an appellant whose mail slot looks like the one pictured, there was an important decision yesterday. The California Supreme Court reached a sensible decision in Silverbrand v. County of Los Angeles, case no. S143929 (Apr. 23, 2009), in which the court holds that a prisoner’s pro se notice of appeal in a civil case is [...

Service of Summons via Social Media

Posted on April 08, 2009
Sometimes, a defendant manages to dodge service of summons quite skillfully. �A colleague of mine once resorted to serving a �defendant with summons at the defendant’s daughter’s wedding because the defendant had successfully dodged many prior service attempts...

Judge Bea calls out his colleagues

Posted on March 31, 2009
In a dissent from a Ninth Circuit denial of en banc review in�Lopez-Rodriguez v. Holder,�case no.�06-70868 (9th Cir. Aug. 7, 2008, r’hng en banc denied March 27, 2009), a case concerning the application of the exclusionary rule to civil deportation proceedings, Judge Bea authors an opinion that puts his view of the panel decision ? [...

Another Supreme Court Justice Meet-Up at Pepperdine

Posted on March 30, 2009
After hosting�Justice Alito and�Justice Scalia, Pepperdine recently hosted an event with Justice O’Connor.�Read appellate attorney Ben Shatz’s account of the Justice O’Connor event at the Los Angeles County Bar Association blog, en banc, where you can also find his previous posts on the�Justice Alito and� Justice Scalia�events.

Manufacturing appellate jurisdiction over a discovery ruling

Posted on March 19, 2009
When I read Brescia v. Angelin, case no.�B204003 (2d Dist. Mar. 17, 2009), I was reminded about how�Saturday Night Live once ran one a commercial parody for a product with the advertising slogan “It’s a dessert topping! It’s a floor wax! �It’s two products in one!” How do I make that connection? Because when I was [...

In re B.S.

Posted on March 18, 2009
I know the title of this post implies that you’re about to read some complaint about an illogical decision. �After all, I doubt there’s a litigator alive who hasn’t received an adverse ruling or verdict and thought, “What a load of B...

Looks Like I was Wrong about Tweeting Jurors.

Posted on March 13, 2009
I didn’t think we’d see them anytime soon. �I was very, very wrong. UPDATE: �So I got to thinking . . �. I’ve got 20 or 30 years left in my legal career. �Will I see a juror’s mental telepathy about a case raised as a ground for appeal? �I don’t know, but if mental telepathy [...

Scalia and Starr at Pepperdine

Posted on March 10, 2009
Too late, you’ve missed it. �But if you want to read all about the “conversation” between Dean Kenneth Starr and Justice Antonin Scalia held at Pepperdine yesterday, check out the very detailed write-up of the event �by appellate attorney Ben Shatz at En Banc...

Trial by Tweet

Posted on March 06, 2009
More accurately, I guess, trial coverage by tweet. �A reporter as been given permission by a federal judge in Kansas to pubish updates from the courtroom via Twitter. �A few of his dispatches by tweet: ? “Judge Marten is talking to reluctant witness in chambers with a court reporter transcribing the conversation...

Your RSS feed reader is not malfunctioning

Posted on March 04, 2009

The ?Poof? Principle

Posted on January 28, 2009
I don’t know if they coined the phrase ? kudos to whoever did ? but “the ‘poof principle” is the phrase the guys at California Attorney Fees use to sum up one aspect of Sanai v. Saltz, case nos. B198217 & B202787 (2d Dist. Jan...

A Published Supersedeas Case. Really!

Posted on January 21, 2009
From my lips to the Court of Appeal’s ears . . . or maybe from my keyboard to the Court of Appeal’s monitors . . . barely a week after I lamented how old most of the published case law is regarding supersedeas and other stays on appeal, along comes Veyna v...

Supremes Grant Cert in Teen Student Strip Search Case

Posted on January 19, 2009
Remember all the blog coverage (and not just here) about school officials’ strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona student in a “zero-tolerance” motivated quest for that dreaded scourge, Ibuprofen?� I covered the original decision upholding the search here, noted the grant of rehearing here, and the en banc reversal here...

Can Bad Legal Writing Get You in Trouble?

Posted on January 13, 2009
You bet it can, and your boss isn’t the only one who can create trouble for you.� To see what other kinds of trouble you can get into, and how to avoid it, check out this oldie but goodie (but just recently posted to SSRN), Ethical Legal Writing, from UT law professor Wayne Schiess of [...

Dominance and Submission at the Appellate Court?

Posted on January 08, 2009
But of course!� Not of the leather, whips and chains variety, though. “Dominance and submission” at appellate oral argument is one of the areas taken up by UNLV law professor Michael Higdon in his forthcoming Kansas Law Review article, available now at SSRN: Oral Argument and Impression Management: Harnessing the Power of Nonverbal Persuasion for a [...

?There is no exception for Supreme Court cases of ancient vintage.?

Posted on January 07, 2009
That’s from Mehr v. Superior Court (1983) 139 Cal.App.3d 1044, 1049 fn. 3, regarding the doctrine of stare decisis.� It’s a handy quote to keep in your arsenal for those occasions when you have to cite very old cases.� I can remember legal research and writing instructors pounding into our heads that we should always [...

Who Says CRC 8.108(f)(1) is for Cross-Appeals Only?

Posted on January 06, 2009
Certainly not Division Three of the Fourth District Court of Appeal.� In The Termo Co. v. Luther, case no. G038435 (Dec. 17, 2008), the court holds that the rule of court allowing the 20-day window for “any other party to appeal from the same judgment or order,” triggered by the clerk’s mailing of the notice [...

Blogroll Addition: ?Courtoons?

Posted on January 05, 2009
Fellow Jones Day alumnus David Mills publishes a daily legal cartoon at his Courtoons blog, recently added to the blogroll under “Legal Humor Blogs.”

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