2024 amendment: Unveiling unpublished opinions - The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s recent amendment to Rule 1.200 on February 26, 2024, continues the court’s shift towards judicial modernization and transparency, allowing...more
Wells v. Beville, Record No. 210469 - Yesterday, in an unpublished order, the Supreme Court of Virginia held that a covenant restricting the sale of property on Smith Mountain Lake was unenforceable due to changed...more
On June 30, 2021, pop star Kesha was reportedly handed a victory by a New York state court, which ruled that the state’s new anti-SLAPP legislation applied retroactively to music producer Dr. Luke’s lawsuit, in which he...more
Back in January I blogged about how frequently, and in what types of cases, the Fourth Circuit was issuing published opinions after submission on briefs–a new phenomenon in the Circuit made possible only by the...more
On April 21, 2021, the Second Appellate District of the Court of Appeal of the State of California filed an unpublished opinion rejecting Uber’s attempt to enforce an arbitration provision that waived an employee’s right to...more
Sometimes there is a case that seems to perfectly address the legal issue you are trying to make and the facts line up, but the case is unpublished. According to the California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115, unpublished cases...more
There is a school of thought in legal writing that you should never put anything too important in footnotes, as some readers might skip over them. Well, if you are one of those readers, then you would have missed a good...more
By Memorandum Order entered by The Honorable Richard G. Andrews in Ingevity Corp. et al. v. BASF Corp., Civil Action No. 18-1391-RGA (D.Del. October 21, 2020), the Court denied Plaintiff Ingevity’s motion to exclude all or...more
It doesn’t take long for those who read judicial opinions to come across an unsigned, “per curiam” decision. Many decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, federal circuit courts, and our state Supreme Court are short-ish...more
Are there circumstances in which forum non conveniens is a viable defense in the U.S. to a petition to confirm an arbitration award that is subject to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral...more
Known for the elegance of his Latin, French humanist Marc Antoine Muret observed "que Graece Latineque sciat, is, quocunque terrarum venerit, apud plerosque admirationi erit (and whoever knows Greek or Latin, wherever in the...more
It’s well-understood that unpublished decisions don’t have precedential value under the doctrine of stare decisis. The Michigan Court of Appeals has even cautioned against citing them, warning that “[c]onsideration of...more
In Hancock v. City of Monroe, an unpublished opinion decided on November 19, 2019, the Court of Appeals considered whether a commercial tenant’s right to appeal a zoning notice of violation – an “NOV” – had run, where the...more
The New Jersey Appellate Division recently affirmed a decision of the Civil Service Commission imposing a ten-day suspension on a Mercer County Correction Center (MCCC) Officer for failure to attend mandatory harassment...more
If asked to describe the essential functions of a given job, most employers would include actually showing up to work as a critical component. In recent years the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has taken the position...more
Since the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided Tincher v. Omega Flex, Inc., 104 A.3d 328 (Pa. 2014), parties proceeding in product liability cases in Pennsylvania often disagree about jury instructions. In Davis v....more
On June 4, 2019, the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District issued an unpublished opinion in Krista Townley v. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. holding that BJ’s Restaurants was not required to reimburse its employees for the cost...more
San Francisco's Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) was formed during California's Gold Rush. At the time, China was ruled by an emperor. After the abdication of the Emperor Pu Yi in 1912, China became the...more
Attorneys who appear in both state and federal courts must be familiar with the differences between the two systems. While some rules have harmonized over time, other procedures are entirely distinct. As a matter of...more
For writers of any legal briefs, there is hardly anything more frustrating than finally finding a case on point, in our jurisdiction, with a “correct” holding to support our argument, but unpublished. More than 85% of the...more
On January 30, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey granted Defendant Public Service Electric & Gas Co.’s motion to dismiss a New Jersey common law wrongful termination claim in a whistleblower...more
In a brief, unpublished opinion, the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of right of publicity and privacy claims against a host of self-publishing platforms and service providers for distributing an erotic (and purported...more
Chief Superior Court Judge James H. Pou Bailey informed lawyers - “Justice under the law is like buying a suit off the rack. It doesn’t fit anybody perfectly, but it fits a lot of people fairly well.” Sometimes, an...more
On February 3, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision affirming summary judgment in favor of the defendant on a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) claim in Baird v. Sabre, Inc.,...more
When the North Carolina Court of Appeals decides not to publish an opinion, the opinion is not controlling precedent and citations to it in briefs, and arguments are disfavored. Nevertheless, unpublished opinions can be...more