Every Tuesday, the Court of Appeals hands down its published and unpublished opinions. And every Tuesday, those unpublished opinions seem to include a least a case or two where the court summarily affirms because the appellant has failed to ensure
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Checking in with the CAV
At the VBA’s summer meeting last month, Judges Ortiz and Martin presented their annual review of civil decisions from the Supreme Court of Virginia. Judge Ortiz shared a few eye-opening statistics:
- In 2022, the CAV heard 553 civil appeals
- Through
…
Good Ideas That I Stole From Smart People: Law and the Moral Worth of a Society
Here’s the last paragraph from Grant Gilmore’s The Ages of American Law:
Law reflects but in no sense determines the moral worth of a society. The values of a reasonably just society will reflect themselves in a reasonably just law.…
Ross Guberman and Robert Scavone on How Lawyers Can Use ChatGPT
Here’s 33 minutes of video of Ross Guberman and Robert Scavone playing around with ChatGPT in a lawyerly way. This will give you a good sense of where the software stands as a legal-writing tool at the moment–which is not…
CA3 Forcibly Improves Lawyer Work-Life Balance Over Lawyer Protests
Reuters reports that the Third Circuit changed its local rules to require most briefs and court documents to be filed by 5:00 pm on the day they are due. The story explains that the proposal “comes after the court’s chief…
CA4: ADA “Tester” Has Standing
Today’s Fourth Circuit opinion in Laufer v. Naranda Hotels, LLC, is worth a look. The Court held the plaintiff’s allegation of an informational injury was enough to confer Article III standing. Here is the intro:
Deborah Laufer, the plaintiff…
Theologis v. Weiler–CAV on Defamation and Business Conspiracy
The Court of Appeals handed down Theologis v. Weiler today, a fun opinion in a defamation and business-conspiracy case. The whole opinion is highly recommended. Summary below, but here are the points of greatest interest to appellate practitioners:
- Right Result/Different
…
What Happens if the Clerk’s Office Doesn’t Notify You that the Record Has Been Filed?
Here’s a question that has come up often enough that I suppose it merits its own post: What happens if the Clerk of the Court of Appeals does not properly notify the appellant of the filing of the transcript?
(Disclaimer:…
SCOTUS Fact of the Day
Adam Liptak reports on a new study showing that an undergraduate degree from Harvard, Princeton, or Yale significantly boosts an applicant’s chances of landing a SCOTUS clerkship.
Per Liptak, the study found that during the 40 years leading up to…
What Happens When the Judge Won’t Sign Your Written Statement of Facts?
Rule 5A:8(c)’s written statement of facts is one of the absolute nightmares of Virginia appellate practice.
The underlying notion seems simple enough: If an important hearing or trial took place but there’s no transcript, the appellate court needs something to…