This post is the second in a series on monitoring case developments in Louisiana appellate courts. Last Tuesday, we looked at the Louisiana Supreme Court. Today we look at the Louisiana First Circuit.
The First Circuit offers lawyers practicing before it the option of receiving e-mail notices from the court in lieu of notice by mail. You can register by visiting this web page, filling in the boxes, and checking the box indicating agreement to receive e-mail notice in lieu of traditional notice by mail. Other pages allow you to change your e-mail address and cancel your registration. To learn more about the program, visit the court’s FAQ page.
Once you register, you no longer receive notices by mail. Instead, you receive them as PDF attachments to an e-mail.
I have been using the court e-notify system since it was originally introduced, and it has worked well for me. Frankly, I don’t know why any lawyer practicing in the First Circuit would not register for this service. If your opponent registers and you don’t, your opponent will learn of the decision at least a day before you do. And if you are on the losing end of the decision, that’s at least one less day to work on your rehearing application or your writ application to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
The First Circuit’s e-mail notification works only for cases in which you are a counsel of record. As far as I can tell, the court does not yet provide electronic notification of when opinions in general are issued. But the court (like all Louisiana appellate courts) publishes all its opinions on its web site. And the court also publishes its schedule of decision days, with publication date based on the month of oral argument. So once a case you’re interested in has been orally argued or submitted without oral argument, you can check the schedule to see when the opinion should be released and calendar the date. If you’re interested in generally monitoring all of the court’s decisions, just calendar all the scheduled opinion days and, when an appointed day arrives, check the opinions page.