Tidbits...

• PJ Gilbert to be honored at the Fifth Annual Beverly Hills Bar Association Litigation Awards Dinner (Feb. 18, 2015). Details here.
• National Law Journal 2014 Appellate Hot List
• The California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law and the Hastings Law Journal announce a joint project, a blog focused on providing substantive coverage of issues concerning the Supreme Court of California:  SCOCAblog.com
• Conservatorship of Townsend (2/3): "Submission of motion to vacate judgment to temporary judge appointed under Article VI, Sec. 21 of the California Constitution was not equivalent to filing the motion with the superior court clerk and therefore did not toll time in which to appeal the judgment." (quoting MetNews blurb; see also MetNews article: Court Warns on Submitting Motions to Private Judges: Appeal Dismissed Because Litigant Did Not File With Clerk.)

• "The rules governing posttrial motions involve drawing bright lines marking the point when the trial court’s jurisdiction over a case ends and the jurisdiction of the appellate court begins. We caution the bar that stipulating to a temporary judge does not relieve the parties from complying with statutes that affect our jurisdiction. Because the time to appeal was not extended, this appeal is untimely." (slip op. at 3.)

• Gwartz v. Weilert (5th Dist.): "Where plaintiffs identified 47 different transfers of money by defendants that violated the trial court’s orders made during proceedings to enforce judgment, and defendants did not deny that the transfers took place, the balance of the equitable considerations relevant to the disentitlement doctrine favored dismissal of defendants’ appeal from the underlying judgment." (quoting MetNews blurb)(See also in the MetNews: C.A. Dismisses Appeal in Suit Over Fraud in Sale of Ranch Panel Invokes Disentitlement Doctrine After Defendant Shifts Assets)
• Professor Eugene Volokh at UCLA has set up a First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic that might be a great resource. Got a free speech case (or religious freedom or church-state cases) in which you’d like a supporting amicus brief? Check out the details at the clinic’s website.
• Post Trial Motions in California MCLE program (in SF on 1/29/15): info here.
• "DIGging" around also reveals that Monday's DJ featured MC Sungaila's article Improvidently Granted Cases and the Rise of the Amicus Brief.