CALIFORNIA APPEAL

New Appellate Judicial Council Forms - Effective 1/1/2009

Time to Update your Form Library!

Effective January 1, 2009, a slew of new and updated California Judicial Council court forms go into effect.  Among the new and updated court forms are a batch of forms relevant to the appellate practitioner.  Most of the appellate form changes effect appeals from limited civil cases.  If you will be representing someone on a appeal from a limited civil case, be sure to check out the new forms for filing the notice of appeal, designating the record, and for filing the Proposed Statement on Appeal.  

Another new form which may be helpful to the attorney who does not regularly assist clients with appeals from limited civil cases is a new 13-page information packet regarding appellate procedures for appeals from limited civil cases.  

A complete list of new, revised, and renamed Judicial Council forms, including conversion information (from old form names to new form names, where applicable) is available on the "Latest Changes" page at the Judicial Council website.

CA Rule Changes

The "Rules" have changed.  The California Judicial Council recently reorganized and renumbered the  California Rules of Court.  Ideally, the changes will make the rules easier to use and understand.  However, the reorganization created a headache for many practitioners who must now amend pleadings, briefs, and motions to reflect the recent changes.  In an effort to make the transition to the new Rules of Court a bit easier the Judicial Council published two easy to use conversion charts to match the old rules to the new rules.    One CHART matches the new rule numbers to the old rule numbers.  The other CHART matches the old rule numbers to the new rule numbers. 

The Gift of Writing

Neet a last minute holiday gift?  Look no further - give your appellate practitioner a copy of the book "Writing Tools" by Roy Peter Clark.  (Available here at Amazon.com)   The Boston Golbe counts "Writing Tools" as among their list of books to buy this year. 

Clark stated publicly on his web site that he would be happy to inscribe copies of the book. If you buy the book as a gift, send him an E-mail message at rclark@poynter.org, and he will write a message in return to the recipient.

Calling All Trial Lawyers - Hire Your Appellate Attorney Now

Leane Capps Medford of Rose•Walker, LLP wrote an excellent article for the ABA Council Of Appellate Lawyers monthly E-zine, Appellate Issues on when trial counsel should hire an appellate attorney. 

In her article, Preventive Medicine for Your Case: See Your Appellate Lawyer Long Before Trial, Ms. Capps argues that all too often, trial lawyers bring their cases to appellate lawyers late in the litigation process.  Unfortunately, by then, it may be too late for appellate counsel to "save" the case.  After the litigation process is over, pleadings and positions have been set in stone and legal issues may have been waived.  For those reasons, getting appellate attorneys involved from the beginning of the case can help trial counsel preserve issues, frame better arguments, and help trial counsel better develop the case.  So, how does a trial lawyer effectively use an appellate attorney during the litigation process. In, her article, Ms. Medford suggests the following:

• Use an appellate lawyer to analyze your claims and damages.
• Use an appellate lawyer to identify legal trends that could impact the case.
• Use an appellate lawyer to help focus your discovery efforts.
• Use an appellate lawyer to create better trial motions and briefs.
• Bring an appellate lawyer to critical hearings before trial to build credibility and assist the court.

Gifts For Appellate Practitioners

Looking for a useful gift for the budding appellate practitioner, look no more.  Here is a book that will help your protege (or you) on the path to great appellate advocacy.  Winning on Appeal, by Hon. Ruggero J. Aldisert, is one of the best texts available on the practical aspects of presenting an appeal.

Throughout Winning on Appeal, nineteen current chief justices of state courts, nine chief judges of U.S. Courts of Appeals, more than twenty U.S. Circuit judges, and state appellate judges contribute their thoughts on how to write a brief and how to argue a case-information that is not available in any other publication or resource. There is even a 3-page list of the common errors made in briefs that should be torn out and mounted to your computer as you are writing.

Finding References To Define Legal Phrases

An often pivital point in an appellate arguement is the knoweldge of how a specific term, like "due diligence", has been previously interpreted.  Unfortunately, because phrases are so frequently used and so rarely defined, finding quality references that define a term can be a time consuming and frustrating task.  Recently, the folks at LexisNexis offered a great tip on how to make this search much easier.  "When you search for references that define a term, include words that often surround definitions. These are some of the more common terms that surround definitions:

• construe, construes, construing
• define, defined, definition
• deem, deemed
• explain, explanation, explaining
• interpret, interpretation, interpreted, interpreting
• mean, meaning, meant 

For example, to find definitions of due diligence construct a boolean search like this:  "defin! or interpret! or constru*** or mean! or expla! or deem! or consider*** or requir! or includ! w/10 due diligence and atleast5 (due diligence)".   This tip should work in any search engine that utilizes boolean search terms.  Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Calulating Dates

Dates, Dates, Dates. . . . it seems as if we are always calculating dates.  From determining due dates for briefs & motions to determining release dates for our incarcerated clients.  Fortunately there are some good on-line resources for calculating dates.

Raymond Ward at the (new) legal writer provides a link to CalendarHome.com which provides several date calulating tools.  The Central California Appellate Project web site also offers some great date calculators.

Border Searches - You and Your Clients

Grant Griffiths runs a great blog called The Home Office Lawyer.  This week, in response to a discussion about laptop searches at airports, he invited Bonnie Stern Wasser (an immigration and lawyer in Seattle) to provide a guest post about airport searches.  The post went beyond airport searches and provides a complete look at the subject of border searches.  It's a good read for appellate pratitioners facing 4th Amendment issues at our borders. 

Home Office Lawyer: Travelers Beware: Border Searches of Laptops and Other Electronic Gear.

Prison Resources

Ken Strutin (JD, MLS), the author of The Insider's Guide: Criminal Justice Resources on the Internet, posted an incredible listing of resources about prisons, the people who occupy them, legal and social services for inmates and their families, issues related to incarceration and reentry, and human rights behind bars. The focus of his listing is on selected web resources and online publications.

LLRX.com - Criminal Justice Resources: Prisoners' Rights and Resources on the Web