Maine Appeals

Practice Areas: Litigation

New rules

June 26, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

I have returned from a lovely Viking cruise around the Baltic Sea (gravlax galore!) and while I was gone, the Court issued the new appellate rules. We’ve blogged on them before (Hot off the press – the proposed changes to the Maine Rules of Appellate Procedure) – here are some highlights of the changes. First, […]

SLAPP happy?

May 31, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

The Maine and Massachusetts SJCs have both recently issued multiple SLAPP suit decisions, so let’s compare, contrast and ponder. This is a very long blog entry, so I’ll summarize what’s coming: Both SJCs have long wrestled with this area of the law; One reason why is because the SLAPP statutes are being applied in ways […]

RCV OK

May 24, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

As many know, the Maine SJC yesterday issued its unanimous advisory opinion concluding that ranked choice voting is unconstitutional under the Maine Constitution. Opinion of Justices, 2017 ME 100. It’s been the subject of various press stories, e.g.: Maine Supreme Judicial Court rules ranked-choice voting unconstitutional, bangordailynews.com; Maine’s highest court rules ranked-choice voting is unconstitutional, presshearld.com; […]

A comma and a question mark

March 20, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

A First Circuit decision interpreting Maine’s overtime law, 26 M.S.A. § 664, issued last week, has been much in the news, given the prominence in the opinion of grammatical rules, in particular, regarding commas. O’Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy, No. 16-1901. See e.g., Lack of Oxford Comma Could Cost Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute, N.Y. […]

Did they have to kill the cat?

March 9, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

Time for a tour around the Law Court to see what our SJC has been up to recently, opinion-wise. Two decisions came out yesterday of note: 1. Scamman v. Shaw’s Supermarkets, 2017 ME 41 This was on a certified question from the District Court of Maine pursuant to 4 M.R.S. § 57, asking whether Maine’s anti-age discrimination […]

The Master issues his report.

February 23, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

As many as aware, PA’s Ralph Lancaster, with the trusty aid of Joshua Dunlap, recently completed a special master process for the Supreme Court in a dispute between Florida and Georgia. The docket sheet and links, including to the final report, is found here. http://www.pierceatwood.com/floridavgeorgia142original In a nutshell, Florida said Georgia was taking too much […]

Wiki-citings

February 17, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

From time to time we have discussed some judge’s growing inclination to roam around the internet to investigate factual issues on their own. Judge Posner, in particular, thinks it’s fine to act as his own investigator in deciding matters on appeal. The following are links to some recent articles on this movement to keep you […]

The best amici brief ever.

February 1, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

The link below is to an amici brief in pending case before the Supreme Court in which the Patent and Trademark Office rejected trademarking the name of the rock band under a provision of the Lanham Act prohibiting registration of marks that contain “disparaging” language. The brief is by the Cato Institute, joined by various […]

Hot off the press – the proposed changes to the Maine Rules of Appellate Procedure

January 27, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

As we’ve mentioned, the Advisory Committee has worked with Justice Alexander on potential changes to the rules. The results are now out and ready for public comment – Notice; Proposed Amendments. The deadline is short – February 16 – so please move quickly. The notice asks in particular about three of the (relatively) bigger substantive […]

A rare sentencing victory

January 17, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl

We don’t often delve into the criminal law decisions, particularly sentencing, but I wanted to shout out to ex-Pierce Atwood-iste Tina Schneider, who landed a victory in U.S. v. Cotto-Negrón, No. 14-1670. Basically, the trial judge, (Judge Fusté) gave a two level enhancement when he didn’t give the same enhancement to the other defendants in […]