Rule 5A:8(c)’s written statement of facts is one of the absolute nightmares of Virginia appellate practice.
The underlying notion seems simple enough: If an important hearing or trial took place but there’s no transcript, the appellate court needs something to review; otherwise, it’s just going to affirm, because the trial court’s judgment is presumptively correct.
The Washington Post has a piece about Judge Luttig, opening with a lovely anecdote involving Justice Scalia. (But are we sure that Judge Luttig “clerked for [Scalia] at the federal district court in Washington?”) [Update: He did not! The Post has corrected this in its story. Also, autocorrect got me the first time around
Let’s start with the punchline from Hawkins v. Town of South Hill: Merely stating an objection above your endorsement to an order is not enough to preserve the objection for appeal. You must object with reasonable certainty, giving the court a chance to rule intelligently on your issue, and the court must in fact
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Good afternoon.
Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of January 23, 2023. It was a very busy week.
Continue ReadingThe Court in Rabin v. 2490918 Ontario Inc. considered an appeal
Here is Kyle McNew on Colas v. Tyree.
On January 26th, the Supreme Court of Virginia issued its decision in Colas v. Tyree. This was a tragic case where a police officer shot and killed Mr. Tyree, who was in the midst of a severe mental health emergency. The shot followed a
The Fourth Circuit just handed down a new regulatory-takings opinion, Blackburn v. Dare County. Judge Richardson wrote for a unanimous panel that also included Judges Agee and Rushing. Here is the opening paragraph:
Joseph Blackburn, Jr. and Linda Blackburn own a beach house in Dare County, North Carolina. In the early days of the
For a few years now, I’ve taught a spring class at UVA on something called “Federal Litigation Practice,” which I interpret to mean critical motions and appeals. (UVA offers other, much better, classes about trial practice.)
Every year, we start the class by going over “How to Write: A Memorandum from a Curmudgeon” by the
The highlight of the VBA’s annual meeting this year was its Saturday panel on What We’ve Learned from the Expansion of the Court of Appeals of Virginia. Judge Ortiz and Jason Konvicka were the panelists, with Henry Willett moderating.
Here are a few takeaways:
Jump To: Table of Contents | Civil Decisions | Short Civil Decisions
Good afternoon.
Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of January 16, 2023.
Continue ReadingIn Moran v. Fabrizi, the appellant, TM, was injured in a car accident as the passenger
We’ve been reviewing the data for the average length of majority opinions during the 1990s and comparing it for correlations to the unanimity rate. In this post, we’re looking at the criminal docket. It turns out that the 1990s were a difficult time for this metric, given that the average length of majority opinions didn’t