A new Supreme Court decision joins the case law recognizing that appellate lawyers are different from other litigators.  In In re Morgan, the Court yesterday fashioned a procedure for deferring its rulings on certain state habeas corpus petitions to preserve the rights of death-penalty inmates to seek federal habeas corpus relief.  The procedure addresses a [...]

As we mentioned in our inaugural post, the California Supreme Court is worthy of special attention—not to mention a practice blog devoted to it—because it is a particularly important court in so many respects.  One concrete measure of the Court’s importance is how often its decisions are followed by the highest courts of other states.  [...]

Maura Dolan’s profile of California Supreme Court Clerk Fritz Ohlrich in the Los Angeles Times today is worth a read for anyone litigating a case before the high court.   Fleshing out our own nod to the clerk in a recent post, the profile aptly illustrates Ohlrich’s caring and earnest approach to his job.  Unlike some court functionaries [...]

Law.com’s legalpad has an account of a fitting proposal to honor our retiring Chief Justice by renaming the historic San Francisco civic center complex that houses the California Supreme Court; it would henceforth be called the Ronald M. George Justice Center.  At last week’s Judicial Council meeting where this effort was announced, the Chief was also [...]

A few weeks ago, on August 11, 2010, the California Supreme Court granted review 7-0 in a case involving a rather obscure issue of appellate procedure.  The court granted review in Rossa v. D. L. Falk Co. (No. S183523) to decide:  ““Does California Rules of Court, rule 8.278(d)(1)(F), which permits a successful appellant to recover [...]

Thanks to Nate Scott at Southern California Appellate News and Kim Kralowec at the UCL Practitioner for mentioning us recently on their blogs.  Nate and Kim are two of the top bloggers on California appellate matters, and we highly recommend their blogs to anyone who hasn’t read them yet.  We’re especially flattered that Kim compared [...]

The Supreme Court’s weekly case conference for this week was canceled and rescheduled for September 1, 2010.  Accordingly, no action was taken this week on petitions for review and no opinions were ordered published or depublished.

As reported here and here, the three-member Commission on Judicial Appointments today unanimously confirmed Third District Court of Appeal Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye as the new Chief Justice of California.  If approved by the voters this November, the 50-year-old Filipina-American from Sacramento will be the first Asian-American and the second woman to occupy the post.

The Los Angeles Times, the Daily Journal, The Recorder and The Metropolitan News-Enterprise all report today that the State Bar’s Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (the “JNE Commission”) has issued a report on California Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee Tani Cantil-Sakauye that rates her “exceptionally well qualified” to serve as Chief Justice. The rating is the JNE [...]

An occasional tactic by an appellant’s attorney is to reserve all his or her time for the rebuttal argument, making no opening argument at all.  The supposed intent is to prevent the respondent’s counsel from knowing exactly what to focus on, and then having all one’s time to get in the last word. A savvy [...]

The following is our summary of the Supreme Court’s actions on petitions for review in civil cases from the Court’s conference on Wednesday, August 18, 2010. The summary includes those civil cases in which (1) review has been granted (not including grant-and-transfers), (2) review has been denied but one or more justices has voted for [...]

If you spend a fair amount of time reviewing the Supreme Court’s on-line dockets, chances are you’ve seen an entry like this:  “Received Court of Appeal record – #B211932 – one doghouse.”  But what’s a doghouse?  We know the courts are not in the business of transporting canine domiciles.  Well, it turns out a “doghouse” [...]

Our weekly conference reports help attorneys stay right on top of the issues pending before the California Supreme Court.  This isn’t a subject of interest just to folks handling Supreme Court cases.  At numerous points in the life of litigation, an attorney may be interested to know what issues are in play.  When drafting a [...]

The following is our summary of the Supreme Court’s actions on petitions for review in civil cases from the Court’s conference on Wednesday, August 11, 2010. The summary includes those civil cases in which (1) review has been granted (not including grant-and-transfers), (2) review has been denied but one or more justices has voted for [...]

The City of Dana Point’s recent efforts to discover the identities of members of marijuana cooperatives in the city by issuing legislative subpoenas has created an unusual procedural situation in the Supreme Court.  Specifically, the Court has granted review in five consolidated cases in which the Court of Appeal has issued no opinion. As explained [...]

When presenting an appellate argument, it is always a good idea to plan to arrive early.  If presenting argument in a strange court for the first time, it may even be worthwhile to scout the terrain a day in advance or, if you have an afternoon argument, attend the morning calendar and watch the court [...]

Presumptive future Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Tani Cantil-Sakauye issued an opinion Monday on one of the most important issues pending before that court.  How can she be deciding the court’s most important issues before she has even been confirmed?  Because she’s still a sitting justice on the California Court of Appeal.  In that capacity, she issued an opinion in [...]

The Court held no conference on August 4, 2010.  Accordingly, no action was taken on petitions for review and no opinions were ordered published or depublished.

Today the California Supreme Court made life a little easier for lawyers handling summary judgment motions.  And the Court had to overrule its own prior decisions to do it. In Reid  v. Google, Inc. (Aug. 5, 2010, S158965), the Court decided by unanimous opinion that evidentiary objections made at a summary judgment hearing but never [...]

The California Supreme Court gives each side 30 minutes to present oral argument regardless of the number of parties on that side, allows the parties to request to divide oral argument among multiple counsel, and generally forbids argument segments of less than ten minutes per advocate.  (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.524(e) and (f).)  This [...]