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Ray
New Orleans, Louisiana, Earth
Civil appellate lawyer
Interests: Blues
Recent Activity
For “Bridging the Gap” participants
This morning, I gave my semi-annual presentation on appellate practice for the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Bridging the Gap seminar for new lawyers. For them and anyone else who may be interested, here are the bonus materials that I promised: A PDF copy of my slide presentation U.S. 7th Circuit’s... Continue reading
Posted Oct 17, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Can you appeal a denial of summary judgment?
Can you appeal a trial court’s denial of summary judgment? Normally the answer is “no.” The reason is that a denial of summary judgment is an interlocutory judgment, not a final judgment, and is therefore not appealable. See La. Code Civ. P. art. 2083. But under a line of Louisiana... Continue reading
Posted Oct 12, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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The Song Remains the Same—Or Doesn’t
Did Led Zeppelin plagiarize another song in writing “Stairway to Heaven”? A while back, a federal jury in California jury found that they didn’t. Last Friday, the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded for a new trial. Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, No. 16-56057 (9th Cir. Sept. 28, 2018). The dispute arose... Continue reading
Posted Oct 1, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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New office decoration: the Notorious RBG
Posted Sep 28, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Rehearing from a writ denial?
Under Uniform Rule 2-18.7, a Louisiana court of appeal will not consider an application for rehearing when the court has denied an application for a supervisory writ. The rule states that the court will consider rehearing when the court has done one of the following things: Granted a writ application... Continue reading
Posted Sep 27, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Jurisdictional statements in applications for a supervisory writ
In my last post, I talked about the jurisdictional statement in an appellant’s brief. Today, the topic is the jurisdictional statement in an application for a supervisory writ. Jurisdictional statements in writ applications are governed by Uniform Rule 4-5(C)(2). This rule is not as detailed as Rule 2-12.4(A)(3), which governs... Continue reading
Posted Jul 23, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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How to write a jurisdictional statement
In Louisiana appellate practice, the appellant’s brief and the relator’s writ application must include a jurisdictional statement. To get this simple part of a brief or writ application right, you need to know the governing rules and—equally important—the purpose of the jurisdictional statement. In both a brief and a writ... Continue reading
Posted Jul 20, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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How to cite Notorious B.I.G. (and other recordings)
Let’s say you want to quote Bob Dylan’s lyrics in a brief. (You wouldn’t be the first.) If you do, you’ll want to get the citation form right. You could look it up in the Bluebook (19th ed., Rule 18.7.1) or your ALWD Guide to Legal Citation (5th ed., Rules... Continue reading
Posted Jul 13, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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No reasons for judgment? Here’s what you do.
Q. Let’s say that a trial court renders an appealable judgment against your client. You want to appeal, and you want the record to include the trial court’s written findings and reasons for judgment. So you file a timely request for written findings and reasons under La. Code Civ. P.... Continue reading
Posted Jun 29, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Free CLE stuff for “Bridging the Gap” participants
This morning, I gave my semi-annual presentation on appellate practice for the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Bridging the Gap seminar for new lawyers. For them and anyone else who may be interested, here are the bonus materials that I promised: A PDF cop of my slide presentation U.S. 7th Circuit’s... Continue reading
Posted May 9, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Louisiana appellate CLE at Loyola
Posted May 5, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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One space or two? Too much ado.
After my recent post about putting only one space (not two) between sentences, a friend pointed out a recent article in Attention, Perception & Psychophysics. According to the article, the authors (Rebecca L. Johnson, Becky Bui, and Lindsay L. Schmitt) did a study about this subject. Here’s the abstract: The... Continue reading
Posted May 5, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Only one space after sentences. Not two—not ever.
While on the subject of typography, here is an absolute rule, not subject to serious debate: Unless you’re banging out your briefs on an Underwood manual typewriter, put only one space—not two—between the end of one sentence and the first letter of the next sentence. On this point, the authorities... Continue reading
Posted Apr 27, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Why I left-justify rather than full-justify
Many brief-writers use fully justified text, so that the text lines up with both the left and right margins. I don’t. When I make the typography decisions, I use left-justified or left-aligned text, with a “ragged-right” margin. This is not a matter of personal preference. It’s a matter of readability.... Continue reading
Posted Apr 26, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Sanctions for frivolous appeal under FRAP 38
Under Fed. R. App. P. 38, a federal appellate court may award damages for a frivolous appeal. How bad does an appeal have to be to incur Rule 38 sanctions? The U.S. Fifth Circuit answered that question in depth in Coghlan v. Starkey, 852 F.2d 806 (5th Cir. 1988). In... Continue reading
Posted Apr 20, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Be a writer
Twice a year, I speak about appellate practice at a CLE seminar for newly sworn-in lawyers. One thing I continually warn them against is using someone else’s brief or writ application as a model. There are two reasons for this advice: (1) The model may not follow current court rules.... Continue reading
Posted Apr 9, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Appealing consolidated cases in federal court
Let’s say two civil actions in federal court are consolidated according to Fed. R. Civ. P. 42(a). A final judgment is entered in one of the consolidated cases but not the other. Is that judgment appealable? Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court answered “yes.” See Hall v. Hall, No. 16-1150 (Mar.... Continue reading
Posted Mar 28, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Dismissal of amended petition not a final judgment
Let’s say a trial court renders judgment on exceptions that dismisses the plaintiff’s amended petition “in its entirety with prejudice at [plaintiff’s] cost.” Is the judgment final and appealable? In a recent decision, the La. First Circuit said, “Nope.” State v. Teva Pharmaceuticals Indus., Ltd., 2017-0448 (La. App. 1 Cir.... Continue reading
Posted Mar 7, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Brief-writing tips from Judge Kethledge
Here’s a great article on brief-writing by Judge Raymond M. Kethledge of the U.S. Sixth Circuit. Continue reading
Posted Feb 26, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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It’s never too late to plead prescription.
Here’s an unusual sequence of events. Plaintiffs filed a petition to nullify a judgment. The defendant pleaded a peremptory exception of prescription. The trial court sustained the exception and dismissed the suit. The court of appeal reversed and remanded for further proceedings. On remand, at the conclusion of trial testimony,... Continue reading
Posted Feb 2, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Aguillard was before the effective date of the most recent amendment of La. C.C.P. art. 2083 (effective January 1, 2006). Under the prior version of art. 2083, an interlocutory judgment that caused irreparable injury was immediately appealable. But Aguillard is still useful, as irreparable injury is an argument for the court of appeal to exercise its supervisory jurisdiction to decide the merits of a writ application.
Commented Jan 31, 2018 on Can you appeal denial of arbitration by a La. state court? at Louisiana Civil Appeals
Can you appeal denial of arbitration by a La. state court?
Here’s an interesting issue that I came across today. The Federal Arbitration Act includes a provision allowing an immediate appeal of an order refusing to enforce an arbitration clause. See 9 U.S.C. § 16(a)(1). But suppose that a case governed by the FAA is in a Louisiana state court. Under La....
600 Camp added to the blog roll
It’s been a while since I’ve updated the appellate blogroll on this page. So everyone, say hello to 600 Camp, an excellent blog covering civil litigation in the U.S. Fifth Circuit. Continue reading
Posted Jan 29, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Can you appeal denial of arbitration by a La. state court?
Here’s an interesting issue that I came across today. The Federal Arbitration Act includes a provision allowing an immediate appeal of an order refusing to enforce an arbitration clause. See 9 U.S.C. § 16(a)(1). But suppose that a case governed by the FAA is in a Louisiana state court. Under... Continue reading
Posted Jan 29, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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Write like a president.
Posted Jan 27, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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DRI Appellate Advocacy Seminar
If you want or need high-quality appellate CLE, DRI has what you need—in Las Vegas. The DRI Appellate Advocacy Seminar will be held on March 14–15 at the Planet Hollywood Resort. It’s being held in conjunction with the DRI Trial Tactics Seminar, with a joint session being held on the... Continue reading
Posted Jan 24, 2018 at Louisiana Civil Appeals
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