Wednesday, March 15, 2023

1st DCA orders

The Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, issued two new Miscellaneous Orders on Monday, March 13.
  • The first, Miscellaneous Order 2023-1, lifts the requirement that those attending oral argument in the courtroom wear face coverings, but encourages them to do so. It also describes protocols for attendance in the courtroom so as to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
  • The second, Miscellaneous Order 2023-2, states that while renovations are being made to the courtroom from April 17, 2023 to May 22, 2023, or shortly thereafter, all in-person oral argument sessions are suspended, and counsel and self-represented litigants who choose to present oral argument must do so remotely. The public may continue to access oral argument via live streaming on the court’s Calendar webpage, https://www.courts.ca.gov/11245.htm. Recordings of oral arguments will continue to be archived for subsequent viewing.
An arbitration case involving Coinbase Inc. set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court next week shows the thorny issues that can arise after the justices refuse to divide argument time between two unrelated respondents, with one of the attorneys feeling compelled to give up the chance to argue the case out of fear that "infighting" will lead to it being dismissed.

And don't miss the Wall St. Journal's: Font Wars Spread After State Department Replaces Times New Roman With Calibri, which concludes:

Rebecca Creed, a Florida-based appellate attorney, had in the past used Times New Roman or Courier New for court briefs and other legal documents. In 2021, the Florida Supreme Court adopted a rule requiring Arial or Bookman Old Style, chosen for their readability on screens, for computer-generated documents. At Ms. Creed’s law firm, Bookman Old Style won out. “We just liked the way it looked,” she said. “That sounds dumb, but it’s really just what it came down to.”