As the great and the good work on revising the rules for the expanded Court of Appeals of Virginia, I have a question: Should the Court of Appeals have binding assignments of error?
The current rules, of course, require assignments
Latest from De Novo
How to Pick Issues for Appeal
Mayer Brown’s Federal Appellate Practice has a useful checklist of questions to ask when evaluating potential issues for appeal:
What I’m Reading
- Making Money Talk: How to Mediate Insured Claims and Other Monetary Disputes by Anderson J. Little. Basically a mediator’s playbook, so helpful in that regard. I hadn’t realized that giving opinions was so controversial in mediator world; I ask for
Lucas v. Riverhill Poultry, Inc.: SCOVA Announces Brutal New Waiver Rule
I’m still trying to wrap my head around SCOVA’s recent opinion in Lucas v. Riverhill Poultry, Inc.
Lucas seems to say that a plaintiff who fails to move the trial court to reconsider an interlocutory ruling has waived the issue
Bonanno v. Quinn: SCOVA on Non-Party Appeals, Standing, Jurisdiction, & Appellate Attorney’s Fees
What better way to celebrate Memorial Day than 1000 or so words about some recent SCOVA appellate arcana?
(You can probably tell by now if this post is for you.)
Last week, SCOVA handed down Bonanno v. Quinn, an opinion
Writing Advice from John Swartzwelder
Courtesy of Farnam Street, here is some writing advice from John Swartzwelder, the funniest writer from the Golden Age of The Simpsons (and the guy who wrote the lyrics to Spider Pig):
Since writing is very hard and
Kosko v. Ramser and Post-Nonsuit Finality Hijinks
SCOVA handed down a new Rule 1:1 opinion this week, Kosko v. Ramser. The basic setup is straightforward: A med-mal plaintiff took a nonsuit on the second day of trial, September 11, 2019. Because the nonsuit was within seven
New “The Standard of Review Decides Cases” Case from CA4
Longtime readers know that my favorite appellate genre is probable the “The Standard of Review Decides Cases” opinion. The Fourth Circuit just handed down a solid example in Burgess v. Goldstein.
Writing for the panel, Judge Quattlebaum leads off
What I’m Reading
- King Lear by William Shakespeare (No Fear Shakespeare edition). Bear with me here. For school, Jack was assigned to read the No Fear Shakespeare edition of Julius Caesar. Have you seen these books? Each page has the text of
Justice Kelsey’s Dictionaries
Join me for a moment in considering Myers v. Commonwealth. Myers is a recent SCOVA opinion reversing a conviction for carrying a concealed weapon in a zippered backpack on the floor of the passenger seat of his car. The relevant statute,