Moving south a bit (in OC), you can find Justice Bed's latest OCBA column, My Designated Mail Reader, in which he amusing explains, "we all need to re-think our pre-conceptions about age and the aging process. They are—in large measure—themselves superannuated." And his "big finish" is "Do not lose sight of the fact that, as a lawyer, your audience will usually be old people or non-lawyers." Related oral argument advice: "Slow down. It makes your argument easier to understand, it makes you appear more relaxed and therefore more confident, and it will disguise those awful moments when you can’t remember how you meant to finish the sentence when you started it."
The Moskovitz on Appeals column offers A Frivolous Appeal, which notes that rarely is an appeal so weak that the court will deem it frivolous, and even rarer is a finding that an appeal was taken "solely to cause delay." But for an example, see Diaz v. Professional Community Management, Inc. (2017) 16 Cal.App.5th 1190.The DJ's 9th Circuit reporter, Nic Sonnenberg, presents 9th Circuit Judge Sandra Ikuta has the ear of high court conservative justices, which notes that SCOTUS took 13 Ninth Circuit cases, of which 3 had dissents by Judge Ikuta, and all 3 were reversed. With so many iconic figures now gone from the 9th, it's time for new voices to arise...
The DJ also has, of course, Brown Fills 23 More Judicial Vacancies, about the recent tranche of appointments. The article notes that 11 appellate and 45 superior court vacancies remain, and that appellate justices earn $228,918 per year, and superior court judges $200,402.
And see/hear Save the Oral Argument! Why It's Endangered (and Does it Matter)
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Snippets:
- The Judiciary employs 30,000 individuals in a broad range of occupations, ranging from life-tenured judges to temporary interns.
- Of the inappropriate behavior that does occur, incivility, disrespect, or crude behavior are more common than sexual harassment.
- There is room for improvement in terms of both accessibility and transparency, but the most significant challenge to accountability lies in the understandable reluctance of victims, especially law clerks and other temporary employees, to report misconduct.
- The Judiciary should reduce barriers to reporting and provide alternative avenues for seeking advice, counseling, and assistance for all employees. Judges have a special responsibility to promote appropriate behavior and report instances of misconduct by others, including other judges.
- First, the Judiciary should revise its codes and other published guidance in key respects to state clear and consistent standards, delineate responsibilities, and promote appropriate workplace behavior. Second, the Judiciary should improve its procedures for identifying and correcting misconduct, strengthening, streamlining, and making more uniform existing processes, as well as adding less formal mechanisms for employees to seek advice and register complaints. Third, the Judiciary should supplement its educational and training programs to raise awareness of conduct issues, prevent discrimination and harassment, and promote civility throughout the Judicial Branch.
- At the circuit level, the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council recently announced the creation of a new office for a Director of Workplace Relations to oversee workplace issues and discrimination and sexual harassment training in that circuit. The Working Group recommends that the Judicial Conference encourage and approve funding through its budgeting process for all other circuits to provide similar services for their employees.
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