Maine Appeals
Maine Appeals

About

In this blog, we seek to discuss issues relating to appeals and appellate law in Maine, including the activities and decisions of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, the First Circuit Court of Appeals relevant to Maine, and other participants in the Maine appellate community.

July 21, 2016

What’s certifiable?
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It may be the height of summer vacation time, but the Law Court and First Circuit continue to issue decisions, some of note.  Here’s one of interest, in which Judge Lynch parted ways with the reasoning of the majority (Judge Lipez, joined by CJ Howard):  Ms. S. v. Regional School Unit 72, No. 15-1487 (1st […]

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July 07, 2016

Hipster justice
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The attached Findlaw blog rates US Supreme Court Justices’ hipster quotients: http://blogs.findlaw.com/supreme_court/2016/07/who-is-the-biggest-hipster-on-the-supreme-court.html?DCMP=NWL-pro_scotus Any thoughts on how our own Supreme Judicial Court Justices rank?

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June 28, 2016

SJC appellate seminar (III)
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As you can see, we have a new format/platform. Let’s hope it’s easier to use that the last one.  As always, all comments welcome, cconnors@pierceatwood.com.  Now let’s finish discussing the SJC’s appellate seminar. We had just finished up with Justices Alexander and Humphrey on jurisdictional issues. Next, Justice Mead spoke about Rules 5-7 on the […]

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June 15, 2016

SJC appellate seminar (II)
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So onward to the next set of presentations at the Law Court’s appellate seminar.

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June 08, 2016

Peter DeTroy, appellate lawyer
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I shall return to my download of the Law Court’s appellate seminar, but first I wanted to weigh in on the recent passing of Peter DeTroy.  Many people have justly noted that he was the consummate trial lawyer.  Let’s take a moment to talk about his appellate talents, too.

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May 27, 2016

SJC appellate seminar (I)
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As we alerted was coming in previous blogs, the Maine SJC held its seminar on appellate issues last Friday.  There were 100 registrants and the conference, with all 7 Justices participating, was chock-a-block with useful material.  Here’s a start on summarizing.

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May 19, 2016

Alan DuBois on briefing
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Following up on my last entry, here is the download from Alan DuBois, the First Assistant Public Defender of the District of North Carolina (so he spoke from the criminal defense perspective and how to draft the appellant brief).  His presentation was excellent and thought provoking, in part because he spoke against conventional wisdom.  Here are some nuggets I found useful:

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May 17, 2016

Appellate news
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Things are hopping on the appellate front in Maine.

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April 28, 2016

Oral argument – the fundamentals
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There has been much publicity about the clubbiness of the US Supreme Court, including how, if you want your cert petition granted, you’d better have the signature of one of the handful of folks they like to hear argue on the petition.  These are the Lucky Few who (1) went to Harvard or Yale; (2) clerked for a Supreme Court Justice; and (3) then typically went to the Solicitor General’s office for a few years before hitting the Supreme Court boutiques.  See http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/scotus/

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April 26, 2016

If you do the wrong thing for the right reasons v. the right thing for the wrong reasons ….
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So we had a little hiatus from blogging because I was teaching a class at the U. of Maine Law School.  That teaching exercise was, using technical lingo, a Giant Time Suck.  My hats off to anyone and everyone in education who do this year after year.  Phew!

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