2d DCA Pro Tem update + "cease ire"

The following are currently sitting on assignment:

• Judge Helen Bendix of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division One until April 30, 2015
• Judge Anne Harwood Egerton of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Three until April 30, 2015
• Judge Allan J. Goodman of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Five until May 31, 2015
• Judge Bruce G. Iwasaki of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Seven until April 30, 2015
• Judge Mary H. Strobel of the Los Angeles Superior Court, will be sitting Pro-Tem in Division Seven beginning April 1, 2015, until May 31, 2015

Today's Recorder presents Myron Moskovitz in Don't Let Personal Attacks Invade Your Arguments

It isn't wise to insult opposing counsel or the trial judge in your appellate briefs:

Lawyers love to attack their opponents. Judges hate it. They place a high value on professional courtesy, and they don't like an attorney who patronizes or demeans opposing counsel. So never attack opposing counsel's integrity or intelligence, even when he deserves it. It's OK to vent a bit in your first draft, but don't forget to take it out of the final....[A]ttack the ruling, not the judge. Appellate justices resent attacks on their "lower" brethren. They bristle at personal attacks on the judiciary. 

A classic citation along these lines is Pierotti v. Torian (2000) 81 Cal.App.4th 17 (2000) (An appellate brief is “not an appropriate vehicle for an attorney to ‘vent his spleen’ after losing” in the trial court.)

Also of interest in the NLJ (i.e., National Law Journal): D.C. Circuit Warns Against Overuse of Acronyms—Again:

The overuse of acronyms has long frustrated the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (or, we should say, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.) On Tuesday, the court clerk’s office sent a letter to lawyers in a campaign finance case warning them to limit acronyms and “avoid using acronyms that are not widely known.”

And for a nice explanation about why a notice of appeal filed on day 62 is untimely (despite multiple notices of entry), see this upub'd decision here.