By Kirsten E. Small
Because I am an appellate lawyer, error preservation is the bane of my existence. I don’t care if the trial judge excluded your evidence, kicked a puppy, or made the jury deliberate through the Clemson-Carolina game.
Latest from On the Docket
The Appellate Code: The Many Meanings of "Per Curiam"
By Kirsten E. Small
We all know that “per curiam” means “by the court.” But, to echo a 1960s hippie-type, what does “per curiam” really mean, man? What message, if any, is an appellate court conveying by issuing an opinion
New Fourth Circuit Nominee Stephanie Thacker
By Kirsten E. Small
Just in time for “On the Docket” to return from its summer hiatus (“hiatus” sounds so much more deliberate than “holy cow, I’ve been busy lately,” doesn’t it?), President Obama has officially announced a new pick
Blame the Machines
By Kirsten E. Small
Civil Procedure was my favorite class of my first year in law school, primarily because my professor found the cases in the textbook far less interesting than the many stories he had accumulated over the years.
The Importance of Spell-Checking Your Brief
By Kirsten E. Small
The interwebs have been abuzz this week with gleeful snarking about Sanches v. Carollton-Farmers Branch I.S.D., particularly the Fifth Circuit’s dressing down of Sanches’ attorney for “grammatical errors … so egregious and obvious that an
Is that a Statement of Facts, or a "Fact Dump"?
by Kirsten E. Small
A friend of mine practices Social Security disability, and hence files quite a few appellate briefs in the U.S. District Court. A while back, Leeds came up with the heretical idea of completely omitting the statement of facts
Effective Appellate Advocacy: Issue Framing
by Kirsten E. Small
In my inbox this morning was a great blog post by Kendall Gray, writing about the Supreme Court’s decision this week in J. McIntyre Machinery v. Nicastro. He pointed out two wonderful examples of
Jedi Mind Tricks in the Fourth Circuit
By Kirsten E. Small
Remember Obi-Wan Kenobi waving his hand at some baddie in the first Star Wars movie saying, “There is no droid”? Of course, there still was a droid, but the important thing was that the bad guy
Briggs v. Elliot and the Best CLE I Have Ever Attended
by Andrew Mathias
The South Carolina Supreme Court Historical Society conducted a Colloquium entitled “J. Waites Waring and the Dissent that Changed America” in Charleston on Thursday, May 19 and Friday, May 20, 2011. The Colloquium marked the 60th anniversary
SCOTUS Justices on legal writing–A few tips, and proof that you can't please everyone.
By Kirsten E. Small
Courtesy of The Blog of Legal Times comes news that legal writing guru Bryan Garner has release the full transcripts of his 2008 interviews with various Supreme Court Justices. The BLT’s article is here, and the