Tips for Persuasive Legal Writing | Luther Munford | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Legal Writing for the New Generation | Chad Baruch | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Why Lawyers Should Care About Typography | Matthew Butterick | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Leveraging Technology to Improve Legal Writing | Ross Guberman | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Psycholinguistics and Legal Writing | Judge Robert Bacharach | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Using AI to Improve the Briefing Process | Jacqueline Schafer | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Helping the Court Decide Your Case | Justice April Farris | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
In civil litigation, the trial court’s judgment is often not the last word. If you lose at that the trial court, you may still have a chance to prevail if you can convince the appellate court that the trial court judge...more
Trial lawyers often think of appellate issues as something to deal with after the verdict. But by the time a case gets to appeal, much of the damage—or success—has already been baked into the record....more
Whether you're the appellant or the appellee, knowing when an argument is properly preserved goes a long way. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit publishes very few opinions, so finding a roadmap for...more
I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in early March as appellate counsel at a hotly contested wrongful death trial. Seated next to lead trial counsel, I had a ringside seat where I could observe the jury minute by minute,...more
Trying to win cases is hard enough, but one thing to think about is that a case may not end at trial. There may be an appeal. And when there is an appeal, what happened at trial will be critical....more
It’s not every day that the Court of Appeals spends almost 12 pages talking about the appellate rules, including why rules compliance is so important. But that’s exactly what the Court of Appeals did in Harney v. Harney. ...more
You might think 50 pages or 12,300 words, in the Virginia Court of Appeals, or 30 pages or 13,000 words, in the federal courts of appeals, would be more than enough space for a lawyer to get out an argument. If you do, you’re...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
We previously posted on Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(i), which is the rule governing the adoption of part or all of another’s brief. We initially looked at decisions addressing the burden on a party to...more
It is basic, but critical, to persuade the court that the result you seek is the right result. The court has to feel good about ruling in favor of your client. As Judge Gurfein of the Second Circuit aptly stated, “It is still...more
We previously wrote about the requirements for joining in a co-party’s brief or motion to avoid waiver issues. Since our original post, federal appellate courts have continued to hold that a party who seeks to adopt the...more
Whether a court order is appealable is often the first issue analyzed by appellate attorneys. An interlocutory order is an order issued by a court while a case is pending. These orders are not a final disposition of the case,...more
On September 17, 2021, a panel of the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District issued a significant decision on the question of which statute of limitations apply to claims under the Illinois Biometric Information...more
If the COVID-19 pandemic taught attorneys anything, it’s that technology can change the practice of law and maximize efficiency in ways we never thought possible. But, even before the pandemic, lawyers and innovators were...more
Transitioning from private practice to the bench is an adjustment even in the best of times. But First Court of Appeals Justice April Farris made the switch in the middle of a pandemic when court operations and proceedings...more
Appellate advocacy is about persuasion – and the most important avenue for persuading appellate judges is a brief that is clear, concise, and readable. So what does an appellate attorney do when confronted by the need to...more
Last week I blogged about the Fourth Circuit’s recent published opinions that, due to the pandemic-prompted suspension of Local Rule 36(a), did not have the usual oral argument. The research for that post revealed that...more
Crisp, cogent legal writing is the hallmark of an excellent lawyer. What do judges look for when they read briefs? What do they like and dislike? How can you make your writing more persuasive? Join us to learn answers to...more
We are two weeks out from arguments in the Federal Circuit’s August sitting, so it is time for our monthly oral argument recap. As it has done for the past several years, the Court heard arguments on only three days in...more
The Federal Circuit’s decision in Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew excited and disrupted the patent world... Inter partes review (IPR) reshaped patent law and patent litigation this decade after the America Invents Act took effect....more
Last week, the defendant filed its answer brief in Bratton v. Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, Inc., an appeal now pending before the Montana Supreme Court involving a challenge to the defendant’s use of...more
In what has quickly turned into a controversial decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held the appointment of administrative patent judges (APJs) at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)...more
On a previous post on the blog, we discussed the increased judicial focus on “corpus linguistics,” the use of searchable databases to find specific examples of how a word is used at a given time. The idea got additional...more
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit found that it had jurisdiction despite an arguably improper notice of appeal, and that the trademark owner waived its right to submit new evidence and failed to prove that the...more
On May 1, 2019, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed an initial brief (the “Brief”) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the “Fifth Circuit”) on behalf of the United States, in favor of upholding the lower...more