Dear friends: I just discovered that, for some reason, I have been missing the e-mails that I am supposed to get from TypePad alerting me that a comment awaits approval. This morning I discovered several legitimate comments here and on my other blog that I had been unaware of. I’ve since published the serious ones and deleted the spam. So if you left a comment that sat in limbo for weeks, please accept my apology.
Over at LawProse, Bryan Garner provides a useful outline for structuring an argument involving statutory interpretation.
The Louisiana First Circuit announced today that e-filing there will be available starting this Monday, June 16. To learn how the system will work, read newly adopted Local Rule 8 and the court’s FAQ sheet.
One requirement the First Circuit will have that I have not yet seen elsewhere is an electronic signature. Most of us are accustomed to “signing” a document by typing “/s/ [name]” above the signature line when creating the document in Word or WordPerfect. That may not do for the First Circuit. Local Rule 8 defines electronic signature as “an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a document and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the document.” If you don’t know how to sign a document electronically, do not fear; just visit this Adobe web page and watch the little instructional video.
That last post about the DRI Appellate Advocacy Seminar was my 100th on this little blog. The first post was on October 22, 2012, so it took 522 days to get here—a little over one post per week. Thanks to everyone who has visited and everyone who has subscribed to the e-mail updates or the RSS feed.
As a long-time member of the DRI Appellate Advocacy Committee, I invite you to join us at the upcoming DRI Appellate Advocacy Seminar, scheduled for June 17–18 in Chicago. The seminar will include a live oral argument on a class-action fact pattern before a panel of federal judges, an in-house counsel discussion of their use of appellate lawyers, a federal judge discussing diversity in appellate practice, and discussions of the role of appellate counsel during trial, recent appellate court decisions of importance to litigators, building an appellate practice, and effective motions practice.
If you like hearing from judges at your CLE seminars, then you’ll love the lineup for this one. Among the judges on the faculty are Hon. Duane Benton (U.S. 8th Cir.), Hon. Bernice Bouie Donald (U.S. 6th Cir.), Hon. Sara L. Ellis (N.D. Ill.), Hon. Eva Guzman (Tex. Supreme Ct.), Hon. Theodore A. McKee (U.S. 3d Cir.), Hon. Costa M. Pleicones (S.C. Supreme Ct.), Hon. Richard A. Posner (U.S. 7th Cir.), Hon. Margret G. Robb (Ind. Ct. App.), Hon. Michael J. Talbot (Mich. Ct. App.), and Hon. James A. Wynn, Jr. (U.S. 4th Cir.). Then there are two former chief justices of state supreme courts: Wallace B. Jefferson (Tex.) and Eric J. Magnuson (Minn.).
You can find more information about the seminar (including registration info) by clicking here, and you can download the PDF brochure by clicking here.
(My prior plug for this seminar is here. I hope you don’t mind my replugging.)
The Louisiana Second Circuit has adopted a new schedule of filing fees to take effect July 1. It also lists the numbers of copies for motions, briefs, writ applications, and rehearing applications. It’s not posted on the court’s web site yet, but you can get a preview by clicking here.