Hard as it may be to believe, I was actually writing stuff during the downtime between posts. People who ought to know better were kind enough to publish two of my articles:
I Wrote a Thing
SCV Updates List of Acceptable Fonts!
How could I have missed this?! On December 15, the Supreme Court of Virginia revised Rule 5:6 to update its list of acceptable fonts. (H/t Steve Emmert.)
Until now, SCV briefs had to be printed in 14-point Arial, Courier, or Verdana. I’m on record as expressing mild disapprobation for that list. The new
A Key Document is Missing from the Record–Now What?!
It’s not an unusual situation: The appellate lawyer realizes late in the game that a key document–a crucial exhibit, maybe, or a necessary transcript–is missing from the record. The document is supposed to be in the record. Everyone assumed that it was in the record. But when the lawyer double-checked the table of contents to
Yes, You Can Start a Sentence with “And” or “But”
As longtime readers have no doubt picked up, I’ve got sort of a distinctive writing style for legal writing. If I had to characterize it, I’d say that it falls somewhere between “prickly” and “shrill.” Short sentences are crucial to this style, such as it is, both because they keep the pace moving and because
Good Advice from a Bad Man . . .
. . . or at least, the author of the “bad-man theory” of the law. I was delighted to learn that Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., has his own wikiquote page. Here are some of his inspirational musings, which are sure to brighten your day:
- One has to try to strike for the jugular and
Slightly off topic, but . . .
The scariest moment in my life happened a few years ago. I’d taken Caroline and Jack down to the greenway, Roanoke’s riverside mixed-use path. It was a bright, cold day. Caroline was rambling along on her ridiculous Dora
How Not to Write an Appellate Brief, by George R. R. Martin
Today’s post considers the writing process of one of the most successful authors alive.
But first, a confession: Big nerd here. I could not be more excited for the new season of Game of Thrones that starts on Sunday. To get ready,
Supreme Court Thoughts and Muses from the VTLA’s Annual Meeting
Just about everyone who’s argued before the Supreme Court of Virginia has tortured him- or her-self with the same mind game at one point or another. It usually starts with a chain of thought that goes something like this:
Wow, that was an
New Paper: Appellate Experience is Correlated with Success on Appeal (at least for Appellees’ Counsel)
I just finished reading a thought-provoking law review article summarizing a multiple regression analysis of a sample set of 200 Ninth Circuit opinions handed down between 2010 and 2013.
No, really, it’s true. The study is Sisk, Gregory C. and Heise, Michael, ‘Too Many Notes’? An Empirical Study of Advocacy in Federal Appeals (February 17
Lessons from Baca v. Adams: Video Breakdown of a Ninth Circuit Beatdown
Ever want to see the appellate equivalent of torture porn? Here’s a video that’s making the rounds of an oral argument from the Ninth Circuit in a case called Baca v. Adams:
httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sCUrhgXjH4
Skip ahead to 16:03, and be sure to watch all the way to the end. Otherwise, you’ll miss the part where