Post-Trial Motions: To File or Not?

H&L's Emily Cuatto has a short article in the Recorder's "In Practice" column discussing some basics about post-trial motions in state and federal court.
And H&L's Mark Kressel is featured in the Recorder's "2013 Lawyers on the Fast Track," where he admits to watching the Real Housewives of Orange County.

Mark's favorite En Banc panel?

And the DJ has an article today about interesting Ninth Circuit orders (here and here) to show cause why monetary sanctions shouldn't be imposed against certain lawyers for filing frivolous writ petitions...
Check out Prof. Martin's thoughts here.

In pro-tem news: Judge Rex Heeseman of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Three until July 31, 2013.

Chief Justice Terry & Federalism: A Life & A Doctrine in Three Acts

As noted in an earlier post, on Tuesday evening the Reagan State Office Building hosted a joint presentation of the N.D. Cal. Historical Society, the Cal. Supreme Court Historical Society, the 9th Circuit Historical Society, and the California Historical Society, about Chief Justice David S. Terry (1857-1859) and federalism.
The actors included Justice Werdegar, Justices Epstein and Zelon, and Judges Guilford, Hatter, and Lew, and the audience included many other justices and the usual appellate-community suspects. The play was written and narrated by Richard Rahm (Littler Mendelson) with co-narrator Dan Grunfeld (President of the Cal. Supreme Court Historical Society).

With great elan, Justice Werdegar portrayed Sarah Althea Hill,
mistress to a senator and Terry's wife.

Today's DJ reports on the event, noting that "[i]t's doubtful any of Tuesday night's players will be leaving their judgeships for Broadway, but many of the performances were lively." Hear, hear! We wouldn't want to lose any of these stellar judicial luminaries from the bench anyway.
(Anyone who attended and would like to submit their summary or thoughts is invited to send that to me.)
At the same time, over at the Biltmore a few blocks away, the ABTL hosted a judicial reception -- and some of the actors and audience members from the play ran over to attend that as well. Now that's dedication to bench-bar relations!

2/6's APJ Gilbert in the DJ + 4/3's Justice Beds in the Recorder

You may be thinking, "well, yes, Justice Gilbert has had a regular DJ column for 25 years, so how is his being in the paper today news?" But today's DJ features not a column by Justice Gilbert, but rather a judicial profile of Justice Gilbert. And, yes, his jazz chops receive due props.

Speaking of Justices with regular columns, 4/3's Justice Bedsworth has a provocatively titled piece in today's Recorder: Viewpoint: My Bank Woes Mimic a Porn Star's

Proofing issues?

Below is a line from page 7 in an unpublished decision here:

(Mastick v. TD Ameritrade, Inc. (2012) 209 Cal.App.4th 1258, 1264 [FAA does not preempts application of section 1281.2, subdivision ©, where parties agreed to be governed by California law.

Yes, the open parenthesis and open bracket are unmatched. (See also fn.1 for another missing parenthesis.)
 

But more interestingly, the subdivision (c) was turned into the copyright symbol!

Many word processing programs attempt to do you a "favor" by converting (c) into that symbol, but it's really more of an annoyance and more often injects typos like this one, which spellcheck will not catch. So turn off that feature! (See Typography For Lawyers, by Matthew Butterick, which discusses this issue on pages 50-51.)

Apart from missing a parenthesis, footnote 1 is also interesting because it states that: "There is a split of authority on whether orders denying reconsideration are appealable."
But Code of Civil Procedure section 1008, subdivision (g), states that "An order denying a motion for reconsideration ... is not separately appealable."

"The best appellate judges served on the trial court first." T or F?

Today's DJ's cover story is titled True or false? The best appellate court judges serve on the trial court first.

For decades in California, the path to becoming a state appellate court justice has run through the trial courts. In fact, it's been almost impossible to get appointed to an appellate court if you didn't first sit on a superior court - unless you worked for a governor or came from the federal bench. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, by contrast, has a long history of seating judges without prior judicial experience. But the question of qualifications is timely now as Gov. Jerry Brown looks to fill five seats on the state courts of appeal and President Barack Obama two vacancies on the 9th Circuit.

The article notes that three of the seven justices on the California Supreme Court were never trial court judges. In the 9th Circuit, half of the active judges had no prior judicial experience.

The article quotes Justice Kane on the side who say appellate court judges should serve in the trial courts: "[In] most professions, you don't have people making the rules that never did it. I mean, do we have neurosurgeons at a medical school that have never done surgery? I don't think so. But we do that in the law."

In contrast, Justice Hoch is quoted: "It's beneficial to the courts - whether trial courts, appellate courts or the Supreme Court - to have a variety of backgrounds and experience so you have the benefit of that knowledge on the court, and the benefit of that experience. I don't think it's a cookie-cutter approach."

Gavel cookie cutter!

5th District to destroy cases F00001 to F019300

The Fifth District has announced that it will destroy all files numbered F1 to F19300. If you know of any reason why the records in any such cases should be retained -- for historical or other reasons -- you should send a letter to Clerk/Administrator Charlene Ynson (2424 Ventura St., Fresno 93721) explaining why destruction would be a bad idea.

Overcoming legal writer's block!

GMSR's Meehan Rasch has co-authored an article of interest (already featured on the Wall St. Journal's Law Blog):
Overcoming Writer's Block and Procrastination for Attorneys,
Law Students and Law Professors,
43 N.M. L.Rev. 193 (Spring 2013) (with David A. Rasch, Ph.D.)

The Recorder on Appellate Brief Writing

Not to be outdone by the DJ -- which recently ran four articles on federal appellate practice in a single issue -- The Recorder today features has a six-article "Your Skills" bonanza on "Appellate Brief Writing":

* Appellate Writing Tips from the Bench, collecting wisdom from Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye, Justice Pollak, and Judge Bea.

* Basics of a Sound Appeal (by Michael Reedy): Tell a compelling story; undestand the framework of the story; trim the fat and build the trust; think like an appellate lawyer.

* Appellate Brief Writing: Before, During and After (by Gary Watt): Before Writing: Chase all the rabbits; While writing: Always build trust; After writing: Edit, edit, then edit again.

* The Key to Persuasion is Credibility (by Charlie Bird).

* Writing a Brief -- Lessons from Literature (by Tami Fisher): Tell all the truth, but tell it slant; The elements of style.

* Four Keys to Gaining and Holding Credibility (by Stephen Larson, Jonathan Phillips, Karen Van Essen): Effective and credible briefs are essential.

2d District Pro Tem updates

• Judge Edward A. Ferns of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Two until July 31, 2013.
• Judge Brian M. Hoffstadt of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Six until August 31, 2013.
• Judge Brian M. Hoffstadt of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division One for case B233542 .
• Judge Vincent J. O’Neill of the Ventura Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Five until June 14, 2013.
• Judge Rex Heeseman of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Three until July 31, 2013.
• Judge John Segal of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Seven until July 31, 2013.
• Judge Sanjay T. Kumar of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Five beginning July 1, 2013 until August 31, 2013.

Kane is able

With Fresno raisin farmers the hot topic this week in appellate circles (blow your Horne here)...

...it's only fitting that today's DJ profiles Justice Kane of the 5th District: a "Bay Area native who traded the 'rat race' of city living for the small town comforts of Fresno" and who "exudes an air of Southern genteelness ... with a hint of lurking humor." (The article also quotes blogger/Prof. Shaun Martin.)

Court Reporter: "Sorry, I'm outta here."

A decision of note today sets the stage like this:

The hearing was only reported in part, and the reporter’s transcript submitted on appeal indicated that the reporter left before the conclusion of the proceedings.

Quittin' time! I'm outta here!

Uh, ok, now what? Well, you've entered the Settled Statement Zone.

And once there, you better follow the rules, unlike the appellant in today's case.

Are you Certifiable?

Have you been wanting to become a certified appellate specialist?  If so, plan to attend "Becoming A Certified Appellate Specialist: Everything You Need To Know" -- a special breakfast program to be held this Saturday, June 15, 2013, in downtown Los Angeles.  The Appellate Law Legal Specialist Examination is being offered this October and will not be offered again until 2015.  So this is the perfect time to start planning your road to certification!   

The program is being organized by the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Appellate Courts Section and is co-sponsored by the

Orange County Bar Association's Appellate Law Section, the San Diego County Bar Association, and the Ventura County Bar Association.in downtown Los Angeles.  

 

For more information or to register please click here. 

 

Special Bonus:  All attendees will get a $100 off the Pincus Professional Education exam prep course!

DJ - Federal Appellate Practice Edition!

Today's DJ includes four articles of appellate note, all related to federal practice:

1- Judges Justifiably Oppose Federal Anti-SLAPP, about Chief Judge Kozinski's concurring opinion in Makaeff v. Trump University, LLC (9th Cir. April 17, 2013), calling for en banc review to establish the point that "federal courts should no longer apply the California anti-SLAPP statute in diversity cases because" anti-SLAPP law "is procedural, not substantive." (Article by Anthony Glassman and Rebecca Kaufman of Glassman, Browning, Saltsman & Jacobs.)

2- Case Highlights Importance of Timely Post-Trial Motions, discussing Classic Concepts, Ltd. v. Linen Source (9th Cir. May 30, 2013), by appellate specialist Alana Rotter of GMSR.

3- Seeking Certiorari? Don't Forget to Consider Getting the Circuit Court Mandate Stayed, by Kent Bullard of GMSR.

"The high court is as finicky as Morris the Cat - it grants only about 1 percent of the cert petitions filed."

4- Practitcal Considerations: Supersedeas Bonds, discussing "you shall desist" bonds in federal court, by IP lawyers Matthew Jorgenson and Erik Carlson of Sidley Austin.

Supersedeas Man?