Appellate Practice

Bernice Donald is Confirmed to the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals

A longtime federal judge in Memphis, Tenn., breezed through the U.S. Senate confirmation process today with bipartisan support for a seat on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. After 30 minutes of debate, U.S. District Judge Bernice Donald was approved by a 96-2 vote, reports the Commercial Appeal. She…

Sep 7, 2011 12:11 AM CDT

Top Calif. Court May Be Poised to OK Standing for Prop 8 Backers to Appeal Walker Ruling

If a ballot measure is approved by voters and then declared by a court to be unconstitutional, what happens if top state officials decline to appeal that ruling? This is a key question that must be decided in an ongoing appeal of a federal judge’s ruling last year that the…

Sep 6, 2011 9:54 PM CDT

Witness Who ID’d Gunmen in 1994 Murder Trial Charged with Perjury After Recanting Testimony

Wounded in a 1992 shooting in which two of his friends were killed, Willie Johnson identified the two alleged gunmen in a 1994 trial. They were convicted and sentenced to life prison terms. Now, in a highly unusual twist of fate, the 40-year-old Johnson is facing a related criminal case,…

Sep 2, 2011 8:31 PM CDT

Banned from Her Home for 3 Years for Feeding Bears, Ore. Woman Loses Appeal

Despite the help of an animal law attorney, Geordie Duckler, who handled her appeal pro bono, a former resident of an Oregon Coast town has lost a legal fight over her conviction for feeding local black bears. Karen Noyes, 63, lost an appeal and the Oregon Supreme Court recently declined…

Sep 1, 2011 6:00 PM CDT

Any Profit From Ex-Detroit Mayor’s Memoir Will Help Pay His $860K Restitution, Appeals Court Rules

A book written by the former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, apparently will have to be a best-seller before he sees any substantial profit from writing it. A Michigan appellate court today upheld an earlier Wayne County Circuit Court ruling that any money Kilpatrick makes will be put in an…

Aug 30, 2011 10:55 PM CDT

8th Circuit OKs Denial of Social Security Benefits to Daughter Born 2 Years After Dad’s Death

A federal appeals court has reversed a trial court ruling that a girl born, with the help of in vitro fertilization, two years after her dad’s death is entitled to social security benefits. Upholding an Iowa law, since amended, that was enacted before assisted reproductive techniques made such births possible,…

Aug 30, 2011 7:49 PM CDT

Law Firm Sues Harvard Law Grad Ex-Intern Over Article About Her Capital Murder Defense Work There

When a Harvard Law School student worked at Louisiana Capital Assistance Center as a summer intern in 2003, she presumably expected to practice law. But now she is pursuing a career as a writer instead, and has made one of the nonprofit law firm’s clients a focus of a “creative…

Aug 29, 2011 11:44 PM CDT

Iowa Supreme Court Streams Oral Arguments; US Court in Davenport to Tape Civil Trial for Broadcast

The Iowa Supreme Court began streaming its oral arguments live yesterday as part of a campaign to make courts there more accessible. The live broadcast is an Iowa first, report the Des Moines Register and KIMT.com. The sessions will also be recorded for those who want to view them later…

Aug 26, 2011 11:34 AM CDT

Inmate’s ‘Cop Out’ Jail Phone Message to Lawyer Wasn’t Privileged, 2nd Circuit Rules

A Spanish-speaking New York prison inmate found out the hard way that sending a message to his lawyer via his sister, on a recorded jailhouse phone, wasn’t a good idea. Joel Rodriguez had no reasonable expectation of confidentiality when he told her to tell his attorney that he wanted to…

Aug 25, 2011 8:17 PM CDT

DA Won’t Charge Justices in Wis. Supreme Court Fracas; One Reiterates Concern re ‘Workplace Safety’

Two justices who sit on the bench of Wisconsin’s top court won’t face criminal charges concerning an alleged violent encounter during in-chambers discussion of a collective-bargaining legislation case that resulted in a 4-3 ruling the following day. District Attorney Patricia Barrett of Sauk County was appointed by the chief judge…

Aug 25, 2011 7:30 PM CDT

Top NJ Court Changes Rules re Eyewitness ID, Calls for More Pretrial Scrutiny, New Jury Instructions

In a landmark ruling today, the New Jersey Supreme court changed procedural and evidentiary rules concerning eyewitness identification of suspects, saying that 30 years of scientific research had showed it to be less reliable than once thought. Depending on the circumstances of an arrest, suspects will be offered a greater…

Aug 25, 2011 12:17 AM CDT

Spouse of Plaintiff Can Collect Attorney Fees in Civil Rights Case, 9th Circuit Rules

Although the nation’s top court says lawyers can’t collect attorney fees for representing themselves in civil rights cases, that blanket prohibition doesn’t apply to an attorney who serves as a spouse’s legal counsel, a federal appeals court has ruled. Reversing the trial judge in the Central District of California case,…

Aug 23, 2011 9:10 PM CDT

3rd Circuit Nixes 55-Month Term for Former Pa. Lawmaker Fumo, Tells Sentencing Judge to Try Again

Nixing a 55-month fraud sentence for a powerful former Pennsylvania senator and attorney that sparked public outrage, an appeals court today found a federal district judge had abused his discretion and told him to resentence Vincent Fumo. However, Judge Ronald Buckwalter isn’t required by the decision of the Philadelphia-based 3rd…

Aug 23, 2011 8:15 PM CDT

Former Acting Solicitor General Katyal Jumps to Hogan Lovells

Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal will join the appellate group at Hogan Lovells. Neal Katyal did not comment on his new job, the National Law Journal reports. Hogan Lovells partner Robert Bennett confirmed Katyal will be joining the firm, telling the NLJ he is “one of the outstanding appellate…

Aug 23, 2011 3:29 PM CDT

Exonerated Marsh & McLennan Execs Sue Spitzer and Slate for Libel Over Ex-AG’s Column Comments

About a month after the felony antitrust convictions of two former Marsh & McLennan executives were thrown out last year, former New York attorney general and governor Eliot Spitzer wrote a column in Slate. It defended his work on a 2004 case that resulted in an $850 million settlement by…

Aug 22, 2011 11:40 PM CDT