Section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code offers powerful protection for good-faith purchasers in bankruptcy sales because it limits appellate review of an approved sale, irrespective of the legal merits of the appeal....more
Is Texas at “war”? And, if so, may Texas take immigration enforcement into its own hands in “self-defense”? These are among the provocative questions raised by United States v. Texas . Texas may not like the answers it’s...more
Judges and jurists alike champion the notion that rehearings should be used sparingly and only when the conditions are just right. A lesser known concept is that sometimes a motion for rehearing is absolutely necessary to...more
One of the more well established appellate doctrines in Michigan is that a claim of error generally won’t be considered on appeal unless it is preserved in the trial court. That isn’t necessarily the case in criminal...more
It is crucial for an appellant drafting an initial brief to adequately identify and describe all claims and issues the appellant intends to raise for appellate review. Apart from the obvious advantage of providing as much...more
On August 10, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico’s decision declaring Law 41-2022 null and void ab initio....more
On June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court held that federal district courts must stay all proceedings pending appellate review of an order denying a motion to compel arbitration. Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, 599 U.S. ___, 2023 WL...more
Key Points: A recent Superior Court case found the filing of an unsuccessful motion in limine to preclude a prior conviction does not preserve the issue on appeal if the defendant strategically chooses to then introduce the...more
Although appellate courts are generally obligated to address the issues that are properly brought before them, that is not the case when it comes to issues that have been rendered moot by subsequent developments—either in the...more
Brief Summary - An intermediate appellate court in Illinois held that defendant forfeited appellate review of expert testimony admitted at trial because he failed to file a post-trial motion on the issue. However, the...more
When you hear about an appellate decision, what comes to mind? Typically, I think of a formal “opinion”—at least when the appeal has been briefed on the merits. And historically, I have thought of an “order” as a short...more
September 6, 2022 Every appellate attorney’s dream is a well-developed record on appeal without any unpreserved errors. But that is not always possible. The recent amendment to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.530(a), issued...more
The Ninth Circuit gets more requests to appeal class-certification decisions under Rule 23(f) than any other court. How do those requests fare? We take a look below, drawing from this invaluable nationwide study by...more
On February 18, 2022, in LaFace v. Ralphs Grocery Co., 2022 WL 498847 (Cal. Ct. App. Feb. 18, 2022), the California Court of Appeal (2nd District) ruled in a published decision that there is no right to a jury trial in claims...more
On February 11, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware granted a motion for interlocutory appeal in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. The National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trusts filed by...more
In Part I of this two-part series, we covered the basic procedure for attacking a negative net-worth affidavit filed to supersede a money judgment. This post offers a case study for successfully applying that procedure and...more
On May 17, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 7-1 decision in BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 2021 DJDAR 4717, that may give fossil fuel companies the upper hand in the slew of recent climate change cases filed...more
In a 7-1 ruling in BP PLC et al v Mayor and City Council of Baltimore (19-1189), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals did not fully analyze whether a climate change tort...more
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 7-1 opinion in BP PLC v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, Case No. 19-1189, ruling that the Fourth Circuit erred in failing to consider all jurisdictional arguments from defendants BP and...more
In a decision with important implications for climate change tort cases, the US Supreme Court held that federal courts of appeal can consider all potential grounds for federal jurisdiction in certain appeals of district court...more
The U.S. Supreme Court held that the Fourth Circuit erred in its review of a remand order that would have kept Baltimore's climate change suit in state court. On May 17, 2021, in Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. BP...more
On May 17, 2021, the Supreme Court held in BP P.L.C., et al. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore that when a remand order is appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d), the court of appeals may review the entire remand order,...more
In an issue of first impression, on April 8, 2021, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that an arbitration clause in an employment contract that waives appellate review is enforceable....more
While the Trump Administration’s transit ban was in force, many would-be asylum seekers had to turn to other forms of relief. In particular, many such individuals sought withholding of removal under the Convention Against...more
Many arbitration agreements address the finality of any resulting award, with differing and sometimes vague language. A number of readers might assume that regardless of the agreement language, federal courts still retain...more