Delaware's high court now has two open seats, and a Senate hearing later today could mark the first time more than one vacated seat is filled at once. https://www.law.com/delawarelawweekly/2023/05/02/delaware-high-courts-transition-likely-to-go-smoothly-ex-chief-justice-predicts/ #delaware #supremecourt #appellate #law #lawfedi @law

BREAKING --

US appeals court preserves limited approval of abortion pill while legal challenge plays out

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-appeals-court-preserves-limited-approval-abortion-pill-2023-04-13/

#FDA #appellate

Everyone is buzzing about the amicus brief with 45 connect-the-dot famous trademark drawings.

The drawings are fun: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-148/255412/20230223142237872_Supreme%20Court%20Amicus%20Brief%20pdfA.pdf

But the conceit of the brief is an offer to list each Justice and law clerk's work for sale “on a consignment basis.” There are 45 signature lines, prepaid stamps, and preprinted addresses.

Let's just say that filing a brief that proposes a monetary transaction with each Justice and law clerk, by name, is... not something I'd do.

#BadSpaniels #appellate

I've got oral argument Friday, and I am at the point in prep where my brain is so full/fried, I am like

"May it please the Court." [awkward pause] [looks at notes]. "Eric Brignac for the appellant . . ."

#law #lawfedi #appellate #appellatemastodon #appellatefedi #appellatetwitter

@NatlSecCnslrs My experience of #appellate work has been different.

But I do feel the mental hurdle you are describing. In cases where I did substantial writing in district court, it can feel even harder to get started. It's nice to have some legal research done. But the one thing I know about my previous argument prose is that it failed to persuade one judge. And now I need to persuade two.

In the easiest cases, that leads to a harshly critical self-edit. In harder cases, a complete rewrite.

A terminally ill man procured insurance and then, using a broker, sold that insurance to a third party who knew of the man's illness. After the insured died, the insurer refused to pay, citing a Georgia public policy against wagering on human life. Psych! There is no such public policy, says the 11th Circuit, after certifying the question to the GA Supreme Court. #law #insurance #contracts #appellate #litigation
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/contractsprof_blog/2023/01/eleventh-circuit-sale-of-life-insurance-policy-by-terminally-ill-man-not-void.html

I don’t want the #FTX defendants or the #JAN6 defendants to get less procedural protections. It *should* be hard for the state to convict people.

What I want is for *all* criminal defendants in this country to get the same protections in law and in fact.

#Law #LawFedi #Appellate #AppellateMastodon #PublicDefender

Just had a nightmare that I returned from leave, discovered I had an oral argument that morning, and I was licked out of my computer. The legal asst would not print a copy of the briefs because of austerity measures. And it went downhill from there.
#Appellate #Law #Nightmares

Judge Pryor, the staunch textualist chief judge of the Eleventh Circuit, consulting dictionaries and very little else, concluded that "suicide by cop" is the same as suicide and found that an insurer could deny coverage on a life insurance policy on that basis. I disagree, based on the contra proferentem doctrine. #law #suicide #appellate #caselaw #contracts #insurance https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/contractsprof_blog/2022/12/is-death-by-cop-a-suicide-for-the-purposes-of-insurance-coverage.html

Judge Pryor, the staunch textualist chief judge of the Eleventh Circuit, consulting dictionaries and very little else, concluded that "suicide by cop" is the same as suicide and found that an insurer could deny coverage on a life insurance policy on that basis. I disagree, based on the contra proferentem doctrine. #law #suicide #appellate #caselaw #contracts #insurance https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/contractsprof_blog/2022/12/is-death-by-cop-a-suicide-for-the-purposes-of-insurance-coverage.html

It is that strange time of year, when phone calls with my clients who are in prison end with “Merry Christmas“ or “Happy Holidays“ because it would be weird not to say. But we both know that they are going to be spending the day in prison, which makes it kind of weird to say.

#Law #LawFedi #Appellate #AppellateMastodon #PublicDefender

#Appellate Nibs No. 4: Oral argument is a listening exercise.

You’re writing a brief. How amazing would it be to magically peek inside your judges’ minds and learn what they really think of your arguments? To know which issues they see as problematic? To learn where they’re already persuaded, so you can focus on what matters?

You can! …at the podium. That’s why, at argument, it's so important to listen. To inquire. To treat it as a conversation. And to never say, “I’ll get there, but first…”

@rbphillipsjr I've settled in here. It takes a little time. Mastodon was already a fully inhabited and functioning social network—with lots of communities—before #AppellateTwitter started to arrive. The folks living here worked on the messy details for years. The complexity of what they built (post visibility levels, the federation system, letting hashtags control which words are searchable) is designed to foster those communities.

Oh, and there's an "edit" button. #Appellate #AppellateMastodon

@csedwards That’s easier to spell than #AppellateMastodon. Seeing how hashtags work here, we could also try using #Appellate.

If your Windows calculator does not default to the "calculate time between dates" mode, are you even a lawyer?

#appellatemastodon #lawfedi #law #appellate

Talking with my hands again... Great CLE with attorneys Sarah Tuthill-Kveton and Jonathan Henderson to discuss a recent Oregon #appellate decision about what "recklessness" means in tort #law. (Who'd have thought we're still figuring that one out?!)

Talking with my hands again... Great CLE with attorneys Sarah Tuthill-Kveton and Jonathan Henderson to discuss a recent Oregon #appellate decision about what "recklessness" means in tort #law. (Who'd have thought we're still figuring that one out?!) I love my job.

#Appellate Nibs No. 3: Avoid “that’s not this case.”

Of course your focus is your client’s case. But an appellate court is as concerned with the law’s broader development—say, how your proposed test could apply under different facts or affect other doctrines. Your client might not care about those things, but the court does—and winning will mean resolving their concerns. So, even in strict service to your client, keep a wider view than their case alone. What does that mean practically? (1/2)

#Appellate Nibs No. 2: Map out every outcome.

A client once asked me: “If we win issues 1-3 on appeal but lose No. 4, how would the re-trial change?” It was such an unlikely result that I’d barely considered it—but the answer was "not much." We can get so wrapped up in finding reversible error that we forget to ask: “What happens if…?” Even for a “win,” the answer can seem deflating. The lesson, for me: Identify every possible outcome and its consequences so you can focus on what matters most.

@BreannaNeedham

One way. Go to #law and also to the profiles of lawyers you know who are mastodon.

See who they are themselves following. Likely other law related folks.

A database of lawyers on masterdon is being compiled. Today boosted a post by the person doing this. Scroll threw posts I boosted today.. Thursday.. to find it.

#law #lawyers #appellate #lawprof