Responding to a decades-long lack of court reporters, the Los Angeles Superior Court in September 2024 ordered that electronic recordings may be made. This arguably violates a statute prohibiting the use of electronic recordings. But Erin Smith, co-founder of the Family Violence Appellate Project, explains why the lack of meaningful access to an ap…

Erin Smith’s Family Violence Appellate Project has over 50 published cases under its belt—which is even more impressive considering how difficult it is to get a good record in these cases. In this first part of our conversation, we discuss the FVAP’s work, and the kind of mistakes trial judges make in domestic violence cases. Erin Smith’s biography…

Couldn’t make this year’s ClioCon? Don’t know why you would if you could? Jeff is on location in Austin, Texas, and reports in on the latest legal tech trends, like: The death of the billable hour? A review of attorney tasks suggests 70% could be done with AI. This could mean more shops switch to flat fees. It could mean they increase their hourly …

In a (non)definitive survey of writing instruments, big-law attorney turned solo employer counsel Michelle Strowhiro reveals her pick for the best pen for lawyers. Then we turn to the U.S. District Court of Texas ruling in Ryan LLC v. FTC, blocking an FTC rule that would ban non-competes. This rule would eliminate trade restraints already banned in…

The Supreme Court of California isn’t always interested in money disputes, but throw attorney misconduct into the mix and you get the City of LA v. Pricewaterhousecoopers reinstating a sanction for “egregious” city attorney’s office collusion totaling $2.5 million. Angling for contractual attorneys’ fees in your defense? The recent Am. Bldg. Innova…

Los Angeles Superior Court will now offer electronic recordings where a court reporter is not available. But not all courts have the equipment. And even if they do, by statute these recordings may not be used to create an appellate record. So what does it mean? Also, the Supreme Court in Meinhardt v. City of Sunnyvale has confirmed that orders gran…

After discussing SCOTUS voting blocs and public perception, in part two of our discussion Adam Feldman rounds up the 2023-2024 term. We cover: SEC v. Jarkesy, holding that 7th Amendment procedural rights apply in agency proceedings, and whether Adam is surprised at the voting alignment (conservatives pro, liberals con). Loper Bright v. Raimondo, ov…

Adam Feldman watches Supreme Court trends: voting blocs both usual and unusual, numbers of concurring and dissenting opinions, and other analytical ways of predicting outcomes. In our discussion, we cover: Recent polls disapprove of how the Supreme Court “is handling its job.” What does “handling its job” mean? Does it mean outcomes, or the decisio…

While the Supreme Court wrapped up its term, the Ninth Circuit had some interesting cases of its own. Carjacking is “nonviolent,” for-profit prisons are constitutional, and Covid vaccine religious exemptions are on the table. Practitioners might also look forward to focus letters and earlier panel notifications. All this and other recent cases and …

A ransomware attack hit the Los Angeles County Superior Court in July 2024, affecting e-filing services. Did you miss a filing deadline because of this? We discuss two Rules of Court that could help. We also cover: Are anti-SLAPP orders “judgments”? Court of Appeal to litigants: Your adverbs are unwelcome here. Ok to say “The order is erroneous.” B…

Previously in part one, criminal-defense attorney Don Hammond explained why, post-Bruen, states may no longer impose discretionary constraints in concealed-carry permitting regimes. But will that change after the Supreme Court’s recent 8-1 decision in Rahimi, holding that a restraining order prohibiting a particularly violent actor from possessing …

Justice Anita Earls of the North Carolina Supreme Court knows about some reforms that will improve our justice system. But she also knows about some that will provoke an unhappy response—including an investigation against her personally. In this second half of our interview, Justice Earls talks about how she found herself under investigation for ca…

Just because you’re law-abiding doesn’t mean you won’t need a criminal-defense attorney. There are more criminal laws in federal and California state law books than you could read in a decade. (I asked ChatGPT: if you printed them all out, they would be taller than the 24-story AT&T building in San Diego.) Enter Criminal Defense Hero Don Hammond. I…

Justice Anita Earls of the North Carolina Supreme Court knows about some reforms that will improve our justice system. But she also knows about some that will provoke an unhappy response—including an investigation against her personally. In this first part of our interview, we discuss Justice Earls’ path from a 30-year civil rights attorney to supr…

We have a few big cases to cover: The Supreme Court, 9-0, guaranteed continued access to abortion pills. A 9th Circuit split panel, meanwhile, allows a challenge to a Covid-19 vaccine mandate to proceed, challenging Buck v. Bell forced sterilization-era public health precedent. And a get-out-of-arbitration-free card case get reversed on FAA grounds…

John Sylvester was the counsel of record in the controversial Abdelqader v. Abraham published opinion. In the previous episode we discussed why it was controversial. (Short version: because the Court of Appeal, sub silentio, thumbed its nose at the Supreme Court and concluded that a missing finding required by statute gives you a an automatic get-a…

John Sylvester was the counsel of record in the controversial Abdelqader v. Abraham published opinion. Why was it controversial? Because the Court of Appeal thumbed its nose at the Supreme Court, which had held in F.P. v. Monier that just because the trial judge forgets to make a required written finding you don’t get an automatic get-a-new-trial-f…

Every attorney has felt the concern over a growing receivable, and the frustration of a nonpaying client. In the continuation of our discussion in the last episode, Carl Mueller shares his top 10 tips to avoid them and win them. The tips include: See a “red flag”? Trust your gut, and run. Check your retainer agreements for compliance with Business …

Every attorney has felt the concern over a growing receivable, and the frustration of a nonpaying client. Carl Mueller litigates these billing disputes and explains what attorneys should know to avoid them and to win them: All the billing disputes are basically the same, so… Spot the “red flags.” (You know what they are.) If you do get into a dispu…

Appellate justices’ research attorneys are the ones advising the justices about your arguments and writing the opinions. We discuss 10 tips offered at a recent Orange County Bar Association event. Here is a taste: 😮 Biggest surprise: The Court of Appeal wants hyperlinked briefs. They want to be able to click on your record cites to confirm your fac…

Last time, we set the table with special-education attorney Tim Adams to discuss the big 9th Circuit win for parents of kids with IEPs (individualized education protocols). Now we dig in to Irvine Unified School District v. Landers and Gagliano. After covering the fact that the school district, to get out of helping a dyslexic student get the help …

A big 9th Circuit win for parents of kids with IEPs (individualized education protocols) came down recently, and the prevailing attorney is podcast alum Tim Adams. In the first of this two-part discussion, we set the table to discuss Irvine Unified School District v. Landers and Gagliano. For example, to understand why parents trying to help their …

Are you expecting a lawsuit? And do you want to get that lawsuit into federal court? If your client is domiciled in California, you need to know about “snap removals.” If you get wind of the lawsuit before it is served, you might be able to defeat the removal-bar on home-state defendants. But don’t commit a “super snap” removal. That’s when you rem…

Racial minorities are sometimes removed from prospective juries—just like everybody else. But the Legislature is so concerned that this could happen on the (obviously improper) basis of race that the Racial Justice Act prohibits a challenge to a racial minority even on the basis of proper factors, such as lack of life experience. And if that happen…

Every day as an appeals lawyer brings new puzzles. But some puzzles repeat. So in this episode, we compile the top 10 tips dispensed regularly to trial attorneys working in family court. They include: 👉 Know your appealable issues—appeal now, or lose it forever! 👉 Request a statement of decision. Don’t need to, you say? Judge already gave a tentati…

The U.S. Supreme Court provides awaited guidance on public officials’ use of social media, and the California Supreme Court gives a cautionary tale about waiving the right to a jury trial. Jeff and I discuss: 📰Free Speech on Government Social Media: Lindke v. Freed (Mar. 15, 2024, No. 22-611), notable for being short and unanimous, holds that, when…

Raffi Melkonian has argued and won in the U.S. Supreme Court, and started the #AppellateTwitter community of appellate attorneys on Twitter/X, where he has over 65,000 followers, and speaks and writes on appeals across the country. And Raffi is here to tell you that building a business on an appellate practice—even a very successful one—is very har…

We discuss how to avoid appellate sanctions, and an unusually successful motion for reconsideration: $50k sanctions against appellant for blowing appellate procedure. Motion for reconsideration was untimely, but righteous. Trial judge did not take the Court of Appeal’s hint, so writ issued. (But the trial judge was right to let the writ issue.) Ant…

There are 30,000 law clerks in the U.S., and we have no good way to know to judge their experiences. So Judge Douglas Nazarian of the Appellate Court of Maryland—and board member of the Legal Accountability Project—asks judges everywhere to take the LAP Pledge. The Project hosts a growing database of survey responses from judicial clerks, but it ne…

You thought health and wellness was just for hippies, losers and weirdos. But you were wrong. Leslie Porter explains that if you are waiting for your health issues to become acute enough for a prescription, you are not at your best. Not only are you laying the groundwork for possible big problems down the road, you have lower energy, weakened drive…

Next time your opposing counsel takes issue with something you say, don’t be surprised to find a complaint in the next filing citing to rule 8.3 of the Rules of Professional Conduct—the new “snitch rule.” There are about a dozen terms of legal art in the snitch rule, so we asked Judge Meredith Jury (Ret.) and Certified Bankruptcy Specialist Stella …

Just a few years out of law school, Kyle O’Malley won a landmark case in the Supreme Court of California. The employer’s screening service in *Raines v. US Healthworks Medical Group*, 15 Cal.5th 268 (2023) used a generic questionnaire asking about menstrual cycles, hemorrhoids, hair loss, and all sorts of fool questions not tailored to the specific…

The 9th Circuit is taking up the ostensible narrow issue of appealability of anti-SLAPP orders. But it could be broader. Much broader. If the court decides anti-SLAPPs are procedural rather than substantive, says Cory Webster, that would mean no more anti-SLAPP motions in federal court. We also discuss that recent panel that departed from an earlie…

The Supreme Court has granted cert on whether prosecuting a homeless sidewalk-camper is cruel and unusual punishment. And the 9th Circuit has granted en banc review whether anti-SLAPP denials are appealable. Also: You are doing MSJ separate statements wrong (maybe). There are two schools of thought, and the Court of Appeal in a partially published …

California law now provides for initial discovery disclosures. Get a template handy for your upcoming cases. And watch out for the new minimum $1,000 sanction for discovery misconduct. And some recent cases: The definitive answer whether orders on motion to enforce settlements are appealable is: Nobody has any friggin’ idea. And the answer on how t…

Yisrael Gelb focuses his appellate practice on helping plaintiff lawyers beat summary judgment. We talk about some of his approaches to successfully opposing summary judgment motions, including: 🔧 Look for common defects in the moving party’s separate statement 🤜 Push back on the moving party’s showing. It is often not up to snuff. Drive that point…

Looking back on the year’s 50 episodes, we discuss some of our best guests, including our 9th Circuit correspondent, Cory Webster, our legal-writing correspondent, Ryan McCarl, our legal-movie correspondent, Gary Wax, and our inspirational public-interest appellate lawyers Chris Schandevel and Carl Cecere. There’s our legal-citation-parenthetical m…

Prof. Eugene Volokh joined us to discuss restraining orders, how many of them violate the First Amendment as unlawful prior restraints, and how you can spot the First Amendment problems. The purpose of a restraining orders is to get a person to stop harassing you, but “harassment” can be a pretty vague term—and the same goes for “bullying,” “cyberb…

Employment and class-action attorney Glenn Danas has argued 49 appeals in state and federal appellate courts throughout the country, including a current streak of eight consecutive reversals. Glenn talks with us about litigating the landmark Iskanian case, and how he turned the panel that initially issued a 148-page tentative against his client. Gl…

Turns out you CAN shout “fire” in a crowded theater, and lots of other lies besides—unless the government meets a heavy burden, that is. The author of four books and more than 20 academic articles, First Amendment scholar and Naval Academy associate professor Jeff Kosseff makes the case for the freedom to speak freely, and even to tell lies, free (…

In a recent opinion, the Court of Appeal reversed by noting that one of the grounds supporting the judgment was forfeited…by the respondent. Wait. By the respondent? An appellant must be careful not to forfeit argument, but not the respondent. We discuss, and express gratitude that this one was not published—and thus cannot be cited as precedent. W…

Trial resulted in a sizable judgment against your client. You know to stay judgment enforcement you have to post a bond, but what, exactly, does that mean? And how do you do it? Enter Dan Huckabay from Court Surety Bond Agency. We sit down with Dan and ask him how we attorneys can be a hero for our clients by knowing a few key things about appellat…

Ryan McCarl, author of the latest book on legal writing, Elegant Legal Writing, sits down with us to discuss why now, more than ever, attorneys need to elevate beyond ChatGPT and distractions to rise to our role as teachers of the law. Ryan offers these actionable tips: 🖋️ “Defer editing” and “second-guessing” until a later draft. Don’t be committe…

Appellate courts are in the affirming business. But be ready to take advantage of easy reversals, like in these examples: 😎 If the court refuses to hold an evidentiary hearing in a contested probate matter, that is (probably) structural error and reversible. 😎 If the court refuses to provide a statement of decision on key issues, that is a good ope…

Ninth Circuit correspondent Cory Webster joins us to discuss the court’s unusually busy en banc docket and its own species of “shadow docket.” We discuss how parties and judges are moving a few hot-button cases into procedural positions that may suggest what the merits decision will be—but without really touching the merits. We discuss: Gun Rights:…

Have you ever had trouble e-file something and had someone tell you to try a different web browser? When it comes to the CM/ECF system used by federal courts, that problem has to do with aging technology reliant on “java” plugins, which have security problems. Susan Gelmis, the Chief Deputy Clerk for Operations, explains why the 9th Circuit is leav…

The one sure thing your law-school loans purchased is instant recall of the fact that “federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction.” But not as limited today as when you signed your promissory note. We discuss Impossible Foods Inc. v. Impossible X LLC, the recent 9th Circuit decision holding that specific jurisdiction over a defendant may be …

Have an appellate oral argument coming up? We discuss tips shared by top appellate attorneys how to prepare for and give oral arguments. Some tips include: 🗣️ Anticipate the panel’s questions when you can, but… 🗣️ …be prepared to respond when you don’t know the answer. 🗣️ Be prepared to answer: “What is your rule” for answering the key statutory or…

Anti-SLAPP motions are sometimes called early summary judgment motions. But the fact that they are “early” is why they are so powerful: not only do they provide defendants a quick way to defend against claims that involve speech, they force the plaintiff to prove its case without any discovery. On this episode of the California Appellate Law Podcas…

Among the hundreds of great new legal tech available in recent years, Clearbrief stands near the top. Jackie Schafer, a former big-law and state attorney general who had a vision of attorneys and their staff working more effectively and efficiently, designed an app that lives right in your Microsoft Word. Clearbrief lets you upload your case file t…