At the VBA’s summer meeting last month, Judges Ortiz and Martin presented their annual review of civil decisions from the Supreme Court of Virginia. Judge Ortiz shared a few eye-opening statistics:
Good Ideas That I Stole From Smart People: Law and the Moral Worth of a Society
Here’s the last paragraph from Grant Gilmore’s The Ages of American Law:
Law reflects but in no sense determines the moral worth of a society. The values of a reasonably just society will reflect themselves in a reasonably just law. The better the society, the less law there will be. In Heaven there will
Ross Guberman and Robert Scavone on How Lawyers Can Use ChatGPT
Here’s 33 minutes of video of Ross Guberman and Robert Scavone playing around with ChatGPT in a lawyerly way. This will give you a good sense of where the software stands as a legal-writing tool at the moment–which is not where it was 3 months ago, and not where it will be 3 months from
CA3 Forcibly Improves Lawyer Work-Life Balance Over Lawyer Protests
Reuters reports that the Third Circuit changed its local rules to require most briefs and court documents to be filed by 5:00 pm on the day they are due. The story explains that the proposal “comes after the court’s chief judge Michael Chagares pushed for years for the whole judiciary to rollback deadlines to improve
CA4: ADA “Tester” Has Standing
Today’s Fourth Circuit opinion in Laufer v. Naranda Hotels, LLC, is worth a look. The Court held the plaintiff’s allegation of an informational injury was enough to confer Article III standing. Here is the intro:
Maryland, is a self-professed “tester”
What Happens if the Clerk’s Office Doesn’t Notify You that the Record Has Been Filed?
Here’s a question that has come up often enough that I suppose it merits its own post: What happens if the Clerk of the Court of Appeals does not properly notify the appellant of the filing of the transcript?
(Disclaimer: The Clerk’s office does a wonderful job! They are great to deal with! They probably
WaPo Article About Judge Luttig
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
Hawkins v. Town of South Hill–Objections in Final Order
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
Colas v. Tyree
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
New CA4 Opinion on Regulatory Takings
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