You may have noticed a lull in new posts here over the holidays. There’s good reason: we’ve been renovating the site, like a hotel adding an omelet station to its continental breakfast. We had to break a few eggs in the process, but it was well worth it.
The key changes:
Wouldn’t it be great if an automatic notification was sent out whenever court rules were updated? Wait . . . I hear you! “What self-respecting lawyer doesn’t subscribe to the NCAPB.com blog, which provides updates and summaries of all Appellate Rules amendments?!?” Alas, not everyone understands the thrill of an appellate practice blog. Plus, our focus is the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure–not Supreme Court rules on court-ordered arbitration.… Continue Reading
“How long will I have to wait for an appellate opinion?” “Why is the Court taking so long?” These are two of the most frequent questions I get from clients. The accurate (and unhelpful) answers are “Until the appellate court issues a decision,” “You will get an opinion when you get an opinion,” and “I don’t know.”
The Court of Appeals’ internal goal is to issue decisions within 90 days of either oral argument or the Rule 30(f) conference if oral argument is not scheduled. … Continue Reading
Our goal in creating this blog was to be a “one-stop shop” for news, information, tips, and resources involving North Carolina appellate practice and procedure. Over a five-year period, NCAPB.com’s content has grown significantly. One area of law that has contributed to that expansion has been North Carolina Business Court appeals. In particular, the NCAPB team has blogged extensively over the past two years on at least seven different appellate traps that have emerged in Business Court cases. … Continue Reading
This week the Fourth Circuit joined a growing trend in acknowledging that its judges can, and sometimes do, look outside of the joint appendix/appellate record and Westlaw/Lexis for support for their appellate opinions. The Court adopted Internal Operating Procedure 36.4, which states
… Continue ReadingInternet resources cited in the Court’s opinions that can be saved in PDF format will be preserved by the opinion’s author at the time of viewing and placed on the Court’s docket as opinion attachments when the opinion is filed.
[box] ♪♪ If there is something strange,
In your neighborhood,
Who you gonna call?
. . .
If there’s something weird
And it don’t look good,
Who you gonna call? [/box]
For children of the eighties, the catchphrases “Ghostbusters!” and “I ain’t afraid of no ghost” are now likely floating in your head. Outside the supernatural world, when “there’s something weird” in the “appellate neighborhood,” one name likely comes to mind when asked, “Who You Gonna Call?”: … Continue Reading
“Brevity is appreciated.” “A short brief can be very effective.” How many times have you heard appellate judges make statements like this about appellate briefs? While I can most certainly understand an appellate judge’s desire for shorter briefs, a soon-to-be-published article in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies examines whether more concise briefs are correlated with success on appeal. The full paper is accessible here, but the abstract notes surprisingly that for civil appellants in the Ninth Circuit, “briefs of greater length are strongly correlated with success on appeal.… Continue Reading
The Supreme Court of North Carolina long ago observed that “the ‘substantial right’ test for appealability of interlocutory orders is more easily stated than applied.” Waters v. Qualified Pers., Inc., 294 N.C. 200, 208, 240 S.E.2d 338, 343 (1978). As “[n]o hard and fast rules exist” for determining whether an interlocutory order affects a substantial right, North Carolina appellate courts have long analyzed whether an interlocutory order affects a substantial right “on a case by case basis.”… Continue Reading
I am often asked, “how will this appeal be decided?” A recent employment vacancy posting for the Fourth Circuit’s Executive Director & Chief of the Office of Staff Counsel contains a fairly detailed description of which types of cases are usually handled by the office of staff counsel (as opposed to the judges’ “elbow” law clerks, who work directly with the Fourth Circuit judges in their chambers). … Continue Reading
With the recent amendments to the appellate rules in April 2013, the Smith Moore Leatherwood Appellate Practice Group has updated its “North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure Checklist.” We publish the checklist as a guide for experienced and beginning appellate practitioners alike. The checklist provides a concise summary of deadlines and reminders for all aspects of appellate practice in the North Carolina courts.… Continue Reading