If briefs were music...

Too many briefs sound like this.
A good brief should sound something like this.

Publication & Incivility articles

Today's DJ has two articles of appellate note.

• First, today's cover story, Justices Take Conservative Approach to Publication, points out that 4/2 apparently has the lowest publication rate, and attempts to find out why.

• Next, appellate specialist Charlie Bird offers Fed Up With This Derision of the Bench, which justifiably bemoans "discourtesy to the court and ad hominem attacks at opposing counsel" that seem to have become more prevalent: "I have observed borderline contempt in California appellate courts in San Diego, Santa Ana, Riverside and San Francisco." "Judges may not be fed up with insulting, discourteous, obdurate or offensively familiar counsel, but I am." "Our judiciary needs to rediscover its collective backbone."

Please sanction me!

Blog Founder Profiled

Today's DJ profiles OCSC Judge Nathan Scott, a former 4/3 research attorney, for 8 years with Justice Ikola -- and most importantly, the founder of this blog! Yes, he is "gentlemanly and professional," "courageous," "patient," "diligent," "intellectually curious," "creative," "thoughtful," etc. But he also forged this blog, getting it off the ground and rolling years ago. So for that, we at SCAN salute our founding father.

Justices trapped in a Stale Marriage?

Not all matches are made in heaven...

The DJ's Emily Green is at it again, writing articles only appellate nerds would love -- and they do!

Today's venture discusses the division system used in the 1st and 2d Districts (State Appellate Divisions Too Stale, Critics Charge). In his book, former CJ George criticized the divisions "as sometimes evolving 'into something like a stale marriage.'"

Some divisions work out fine: 2/3 has been together for decades. Others, not so much: Can you say "dysfunctional work environment"? Cue MoFo's Miriam Vogel, formerly of the infamous old 2/1, to provide choice quotes to the effect that "working on a four-judge panel is intellectually stifling." In contrast, PJ Gilbert says of 2/6, "I like what we have going here and would want to continue that." He thinks, however, that lawyers would prefer having open divisions and a greater mixing of justices. But many practitioners would disagree: Set divisions develop styles, reputations and internal practices that appellate regulars appreciate, at least in terms of being better able to advise clients, a la the devil you know. Cf., the 9th Circuit, where you never know might be on a panel. CJ Kozinski is quoted: "I love all my colleagues, ... [but] I might love them slightly less if we had to sit together every sitting."

Appointments!

Here Come the Judges...

Governor Brown has been making appointments: Of appellate note, 2d District Research Attorney Armen Tamzarian was appointed to the LA County Superior Court. (Press Release here.) And up North, appellate specialist Ethan Schulman has been appointed to the SFSC. (See Recorder article here.)

Exploring the Governor's webpage is always worthwhile. Did you know about Sutter Brown, California's First Dog?

5th Requires Special Record Citations

5th Circuit, that is.
Law360 reported earlier this week that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is now requiring standardized record citations that allow for a special software program (created by the 5th Circuit) to instantly access electronic copies of the underlying documents. (See 5th Circuit's E-Briefing Innovation Prompts rule Change.) The program automatically scans a brief and inserts an internal link to an e-copy of the record. This is similar to an earlier hyperlinking feature that the 5th Circuit uses to allow instant access to cases or statutes cited in briefs via Westlaw or Lexis.
Sounds pretty spiffy, no?

Well, this precise 5th Circuit-created software won't be coming to the 9th Circuit any time soon. Apparently in the 5th Circuit, the entire record is converted into a single pdf, and this new program links to that, rather than to the actual underlying cm/ecf documents. The 9th Circuit is working on its own innovations, so stay tuned.

Appellate Recusal article & FPPC Form 700s

Wealth & Poverty, 17th Cent. Flemish painting.

"The Center for Public Integrity gave California the best ranking for judicial financial disclosure among all 50 states and Washington D.C.," according to this interesting article in today's Recorder. Hey appellate practitioners, are you not familiar with Form 700 (here)? Perhaps you should be. (FYI, they are available when purchasing judicial profiles from the DJ. Or take a look here (COA) and here (Supreme Court) for  examples.)




Appellate Bar Junkie update
The MetNews has a snippet piece about H&L's Brad Pauley becoming chair of the ABA's Council of Appellate Lawyers. "The Council is part of the ABA's Appellate Judges Conference and is the first and only national appellate bench-bar organization" Brad is also the vice-chair of LACBA's Appellate Courts Section.


Also of interest, the 3d Circuit has started a chambers sharing plan: see Appellate Court Saves Money by Making Chambers Space Go Farther

Just when you thought J.Beds' had said it all...

Interactive Urinal Cakes to Fight DUIs. Huh? Justice Beds explains all.... here.

And in an eerie parallel to PJ Gilbert's most recent column, he mentions "disembodied voices."

Airplane mode for Div. 7 now in effect!

Buckle up. Oral argument will begin shortly...

 

Effective January 1, 2014, electronic devices will be permitted in the Second District Court of Appeal’s courtroom. As a result, the Presiding Justice of Division Seven, using the guidelines and restrictions of the rule that will take effect in January 2014, already permits electronic devices without a court order. Please be advised of the following rules you must comply with if you bring your iPad into the courtroom:

1. The device is powered off,

or

2. Is silenced and placed in “airplane mode” and used only for court business.

No Audio or Video recording or the taking of photographs is allowed unless approved by court order.

Any person who fails to comply with these restrictions will be removed from the courtroom.

[*Airplane Mode is a setting that when activated suspends the device’s wireless features and limits interference with the courtroom sound system.]

(Hat tip to Jessica Coffin Butterick for passing along the text of this Div. 7 order)

New CA Appellate Rules Coming

John Taylor (Horvitz & Levy) has an article / "lyrically annotated summary" in today's DJ reviewing the 2014 changes to Title 8 of the CRC. And as usual, he does it with elan and "a little help from his friends," using lyrical quotes to add moisture to an otherwise arid area. Read John's amusingly edifying article, or buckle down and go directly to the dry source:
www.courts.ca.gov/documents/jc-20131025-agenda.pdf


See also of note:

• "California's trial court judges were the fourth highest paid general jurisdiction judges in the nation in 2012, the most recent year figures were available from the National Center for State Courts." That's a tidbit from The Recorder article State Judges Will See Pay Increase.
• Also in The Recorder this week, Quinn Emanuel's Successful Bet on Kathleen Sullivan, which is a very in depth report that touches on the establishment of the firm's appellate practice. (See also today's DJ with a story titled At Quinn Emanuel, So Much Litigation, So Little Management.)