For Bridging the Gap participants (and other interested persons)
26 October 2006
This afternoon I am giving a one-hour presentation to newly sworn-in lawyers as part of the Louisiana Bar Association's Bridging the Gap seminar. For those participants — and anyone else who may be interested — here are some materials to supplement the presentation:
- Outline of Louisiana appellate procedure. These are the same materials that the participants received from the LSBA. Included are:
- Outlines for practice in Louisiana Courts of Appeal and the Louisiana Supreme Court
- Act No. 644 of the 2006 Regular Session (the latest development for appellate courts in Louisiana)
- A redacted copy of Boudreaux v. State, DOTD, 815 So.2d 7 (La. 2002), required reading for anyone who would apply to the Louisiana Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari or review.
- PDF copy of PowerPoint presentation.
- Amendments to Uniform Rules of La. Cts. of Appeal, effective Nov. 1, 2006.
- How to Write an Appellate Brief. This is a chapter I contributed to A Young Lawyer's Guide to Defense Practice, published this year by DRI.
- A Writ in Time. This is an article I wrote for the Louisiana Bar Journal on calculating the time to apply for supervisory review of a trial court's interlocutory judgment.
- In Praise of Moot Court — Not! by Judge Alex Kozinski (9th Cir.). Required reading for anyone who thinks that law-school moot-court programs prepare you for real-world appellate advocacy.
Forms. I generally recommend against reliance on forms, for two reasons. First, there's never a guarantee that a form you get from another lawyer (not even one from me!) complies with the rules. Second, even a form that was good when created will inevitably fail to keep up with changes in the rules. With those warnings in mind, here are some samples of appellate papers that I've written within the last few years. If you use these, please please consult the rules to verify compliance. If anything in any of these samples conflicts with the current version of a rule, follow the rule; don't follow the sample.
- Motion for suspensive appeal. (Probably more verbose than it needed to be.)
- Suspensive-appeal bond. (From same case as motion for suspensive appeal.)
- Brief of appellant filed in Court of Appeal.
- Application to La. Supreme Court for writ of certiorari or review. (From same case as appellate brief.)