Civil lawyers love written notices of appeal. Have you ever heard a civil attorney say, “I wish I could orally notice an appeal”? Me neither. But the criminal trial bar overwhelmingly give oral notices of appeal in state...more
Big news out of the Court of Appeals for criminal practitioners. In State v. McLean, the Court of Appeals addressed a notice of appeal that was given orally the day after the trial ended and the defendant was sentenced. There...more
Thirty years ago, Justice Scalia famously described the Supreme Court’s Lemon test as “some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and...more
Most practitioners are likely happy to have limited familiarity with Rule 4(a)(6) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. The Rule allows the district court, in its discretion, to reopen for 14 days a party’s time to...more
There is no such thing as a sure thing. And in three unpublished opinions, the North Court of Appeals reminded lawyers that a notice of appeal does not guarantee appellate jurisdiction....more
For both civil and criminal appeals, the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure require an appealing party who is filing a written notice of appeal to identify “the judgment or order from which appeal is taken.”...more
This week, the Court of Appeals added some nuance to an issue that has plagued appellants for many years: the calculation of the appeal period when a judgment is not properly served but an appellant nonetheless has “actual...more
In State v. Jonas, [2021-NCCOA-660; No. COA20-712 filed 7 December 2021, the Court of Appeals discussed an appellate requirement that sometimes bedevils criminal defense attorneys: preserving the right to appeal the trial...more
A Ninth Circuit appeal is generally a long-term endeavor. The Court itself tells parties that the likely “time-to-argument”—i.e. the time between a filing a notice of appeal and the Court hearing oral argument—is between 12...more
In Dicesare v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, 2021 NCBC Order 10 (Apr. 6, 2021), the North Carolina Business Court determined that a trial court loses jurisdiction to rule on a pending Civil Rule 60(b)(6) motion...more
Those who have known me for any length of time know that for more than a decade I have really, really wanted the Supreme Court to give appellate practitioners clarification on how various transcript-related issues should work...more
This week, the Ninth Circuit creates a potential circuit split on personal jurisdiction in in rem proceedings, and clarifies whether a post-judgment motion for attorneys’ fees extends the time to appeal (spoiler alert: it...more
This week, the Ninth Circuit closely guarded its own jurisdiction while putting government litigants on the back foot. Read on to find out why county jailors’ qualified immunity appeal was dismissed, and how the Court handled...more
Most of us think of appeal filing deadlines as absolute. That certainly is the case under the Michigan Court Rules. But as demonstrated by a recent decision from the United States Supreme Court, Hamer v Neighborhood Housing...more