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October 26, 2021
"Success Is Perception": Lee Goldberg on Effective Representation

Clients want success. But: What is success? Outside general counsel Lee Goldberg tells Jeff Lewis and me what this means for the businesses he represents. Success is perception, and effective counsel manages the client's perceptions. Lee concludes by observing that the successful attorney is successful through communication, not by being the hero who swoops in and solves everything. Watch...

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October 25, 2021
Courts Allow You to Appear on Zoom Without Jacket and Tie: But Should You?

The Los Angeles Superior Court has relaxed its dress code for attorneys making virtual court appearances, and need not wear jacket or tie. Orange County Deputy District Attorney Kelly Ernby discusses the new rule with Jeff Lewis and me, and we all agree: Just because the rule has changed does not mean the judges' expectations have changed. Watch the...

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October 22, 2021
Order Denying Motion to Vacate Held Appealable "Under the Circumstances"

Appealability is a jurisdictional question. A jurisdictional question is one that the law answers either one way or the other, and there is nothing the court can do about it. So when a court answers a jurisdictional question with, "under the circumstances," that is a clue that something strange is going on. That is how...

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October 21, 2021
The First Virtual Argument in the California Supreme Court

What was it like to give the first virtual oral argument in the California Supreme Court? Orange County Deputy District Attorney Kelly Ernby tells appellate attorneys Jeff Lewis and Tim Kowal what that experience was like. Watch the clip here.  This clip is from the California Appellate Law Podcast episode 16, available here. Related Posts: Why Don't Appellate Judges Ask More Questions?...

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October 19, 2021
Move-Out Order Held Automatically Stayed on Appeal, But Sale Order Required a Bond, And Stipulation Mooted Appeal

When a court orders a party to move out of a residence, that is a mandatory injunction, which is automatically stayed upon appeal. But if the court also orders the sale of the property, the order is stayed on appeal only if a bond is given. And if the parties later stipulate to a different...

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October 15, 2021
List the Wrong Order in Your Notice of Appeal? No Problem, Appellate Court Says

Filing an appeal is not hard. There is no particular form required. All that is needed is to identify the order you are appealing, and to file it before the deadline. But as a recent case illustrates, you might not even have to identify the right order. As long as it is filed on time,...

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October 14, 2021
How Does a Client Measure Success? Our Conversation with Outside General Counsel Lee Goldberg

Lee Goldberg joins us for a discussion about his perspective as in house counsel. Lee shares decades of experience using litigators to solve business problems and offers advice for trial attorneys serving corporate clients. We talk about Lee’s recent video series on LinkedIn and his website CalLawyers.com, and what a general counsel looks for when...

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October 13, 2021
Checking the Wrong Box on Notice of Appeal Is Not Fatal (But Why Risk It?)

I have written before that checking the wrong box on the Judicial Council form notice of appeal likely will not doom your appeal. But I have also written that, if you continue using the Judicial Council form, you are likely to continue giving your adversary — and the courts — cause to question the sufficiency of your...

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October 13, 2021
Would a Defendant Rather Be Sued by One DA, or 58 of Them?

Would a defendant rather be sued by one District Attorney, or 58 of them? Orange County Deputy District Attorney Kelly Ernby sued pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories for improperly delaying the release of the generic version of a drug. Surprisingly, the defendant argued the claim could not be brought by a single DA. (The Supreme Court disagreed.) Kelly...

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October 12, 2021
False Declaration Signed Under Pressure Does Not Create a Triable Issue

It is rare that the Court of Appeal will issue a writ instructing the trial court to grant summary judgment. But that is what happened in the published opinion in Forest Lawn Memorial-Park Association v. Superior Court (D4d2 Oct. 7, 2021) ___ Cal.Rptr.3d ___ 2021 WL 4618080 (no. E076549)(https://lnkd.in/gmx5GNmi). After the defendant filed a motion for summary...

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October 7, 2021
Court Suggests, Surprisingly, That Summary Adjudication Order Could Be Appealable As Collateral Order (But Just Not in This Case)

Devastating trial court orders should be appealable. That is a natural assumption. And that it why it can be disconcerting to learn about appeals dismissed on grounds of nonappealability. (That is why I write about them.) But actually, the opposite may be true: When more orders are made independently appealable, it means there is more...

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October 7, 2021
Should You Use ("Cleaned Up") to Clean Up Messy Quotations in Your Legal Brief? No, Answers an Appellate Court Research Attorney

Attorneys, you might have heard about "cleaning up" case quotations in your briefs. When you have a quote with a lot of internal quotations marks and ellipses and unsightly square brackets, several appellate courts — including the US Supreme Court — have used the parenthetical ("cleaned up") following a citation to signal the removal of...

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October 6, 2021
Sale of Property Rendered Appeal Moot; Bond and Stay Were Required to Preserve the Appeal

It is not enough to appeal your case. You have to keep your case alive until the Court of Appeal has a chance to get to it. That is the lesson of Badea-Mic v. Detres (D3 Nov. 23, 2020) **no. C085459 (nonpub. opn.). The appellant appealed an order authorizing the sale of the property, but the property...

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October 5, 2021
How a Motion to Strike Changed California Law

Orange County Deputy District Attorney Kelly Ernby won a landmark California Supreme Court decision in Abbott Laboratories v. Superior Court. She tells Jeff Lewis and me that it came about when, surprisingly, the pharmaceutical company defendant — not the DA — suggested the possibility of statewide enforcement by individual county district attorneys. After a loss in the Court of...

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October 5, 2021
Flout Court Orders, Get Your Appeal Dismissed — But Appellate Court Offers a Second Chance

There are two reasons I am surprised the Court of Appeal published the opinion in Findleton v. Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians (D1d2 Sep. 29, 2021) 2021 WL 4452323 nos. A156459 etc., ---- Cal.Rptr.3d ----. The first is that it holds, more forthrightly than I have seen before, that a final collateral order is treated as...

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October 1, 2021
"Notice of Ruling"​ ≠ "Notice of Entry"​ When Calculating the Extension of Time to File Attorney Fee Motion or Appeal After Denial of New Trial Motion

Pop quiz: How much time do you get to file a motion for attorneys' fees (or a notice of appeal) after an order denying a new trial motion? a. 30 days b. 60 days after notice of entry of judgment c. 180 days after entry of judgment d. It depends on how order denying the...

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September 30, 2021
The Risks of Serving Too Many Interrogatories

CEB has republished my article Excessive Interrogatories Violate the Rules of Civility, Appellate Court Says at their website as, "The Risks of Serving Too Many Interrogatories". The article is about two important but subtle rules of civil discovery in Estate of Huang (D2d4 Aug. 17, 2021) no. B307671 (nonpub. opn.). The first is that you cannot submit...

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September 29, 2021
Why are CA Appellate Opinions Unpublished Anyway?

"I found the perfect case! The facts are on point, the law is on point...but goddammit it's UNPUBLISHED!" If you are a litigation attorney this undoubtedly has happened to you. But why this confounded Rule of Court 8.1115 against citing unpublished opinions? Jeff  Calkins, recently-retired senior research attorney with the Fourth District Court of Appeal...

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September 29, 2021
Need More Discovery to Oppose Summary Judgment? Use These Magic Words...

When opposing a motion for summary judgment, seeking a continuance to conduct additional discovery should always be considered. A single piece of evidence may be enough to successfully oppose summary judgment, both in the trial court and on appeal, so even if you don't have that piece of evidence yet, making a record that it...

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September 28, 2021
Oral Argument in the California Supreme Court During Covid: Our Interview With Kelly Ernby

What was it like to give the first virtual oral argument in the California Supreme Court? And how did the Orange County District Attorney's office create a new legal precedent in California that effectively allows local district attorneys to pursue statewide enforcement actions? Kelly Ernby of the Orange County District Attorney's office tells Jeff Lewis...

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September 24, 2021
$1 Billion LA Homelessness Injunction Reversed by 9th Circuit: Judge's Independent Factual Investigation Was Improper

Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California made national news when he ordered Los Angeles to put up $1 billion to address its homelessness crisis. But that order was based on claims the plaintiffs did not allege, relief the plaintiffs did not request, and evidence the plaintiffs did not adduce. While trial...

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September 23, 2021
Ruling Excluding Expert Testimony on MSJ Reversed on Appeal

There are two noteworthy things about the published opinion in Strobel v. Johnson & Johnson (D1d4 Sept. 21, 2021) 2021 WL 4272711 no. A159609. First, it suggests how litigants might avoided the dreaded Sanchez rule that prevents experts from offering "case-specific hearsay" in their opinions. Second, it suggests some evidentiary rulings may be reviewed under the appellant-friendly de novo...

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September 22, 2021
Economic Protectionism Is Not a Legally Cognizable Interest

Rarely does it give such satisfaction to report the dismissal of an appeal. A group of businesses who had benefited from local protectionism — which had prevented newer businesses from competing with the incumbents — were dismayed when the trial court struck down the protectionist scheme as unconstitutional. Though the incumbents were not parties to...

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September 21, 2021
Collateral Orders Denying Fees Are Not Now, Not Ever, Never Appealable (But Some Courts Disagree)

Orders entered prior to a judgment typically are not appealable unless they are separately listed in Code of Civil Procedure section 904.1, the statute defining what orders are appealable. One exception is for collateral orders. A collateral order an order that has nothing to do with the merits of the lawsuit. So when a collateral...

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September 16, 2021
Do Appellate Justices Ever Unpublish Opinions Strategically?

Have you ever read an unpublished opinion and thought the reasoning a little mischievous, a little outcome-driven? Long-time court-watcher Howard Bashman has reported appellate justices have admitted this may be the case sometimes. (See here: https://lnkd.in/gdB-arbK.) But Jeff Calkins, recently-retired senior research attorney with the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Santa Ana), tells Jeff Lewis and...

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September 15, 2021
MSJ Affirmed on New Ground on Appeal; Request for Continuance Denied Because Not Supported by Declaration

There are two important reminders about motions for summary judgment in Steger v. CSJ Providence St. Joseph Medical Center (D2d5 Aug. 16, 2021) 2021 WL 3615548 no. B304043 (nonpub. opn.). The first reminder is that the appellate court may affirm on any ground, even if the trial court never reached that ground. The second reminder is that,...

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September 14, 2021
Award of Fees Summarily Reversed on Appeal

You probably have heard of appeals being dismissed on procedural grounds, or as frivolous. But you could practice law rather a long time and never hear of an order being summarily reversed on appeal. But that is what happened in the improbably titled case IAHLDHFAPIMP_PAP, LLC v. Noll (D4d1 Aug. 11, 2021) no. D077727 (nonpub. opn.) But don't get...

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September 13, 2021
Why Do California Appellate Judges Go Easier on Trial Courts?

Did you know that California appellate justices are elevated from the trial courts more often than are federal appellate judges? Jeff Calkins, recently-retired senior research attorney with the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Santa Ana), tells Jeff Lewis and me on the California Appellate Law Podcast that this may be why our state appellate courts tend to...

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September 10, 2021
A Discussion on Why Trial Attorneys Should Know a Good Appellate Attorney, and Legal Marketing: Tim Kowal on the Lawyer Business Advantage Podcast

Attorney business coach Alay Yajnik was kind enough to invite me onto his podcast, the Lawyer Business Advantage, to discuss how an appellate attorney can help trial attorneys win and add value to the services they provide clients, telling clients appreciate hearing why the attorney cares about the case rather than just how much the...

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September 10, 2021
Renewed Restraining Order Affirmed on Appeal; Appellant Forfeited Challenge by Failing to Describe All Evidence Supporting the Order

In appeals from mixed discretionary and factual findings, it can be tempting to fault the trial court for failing to consider all the great evidence in the appellant's favor. But be careful not to ignore the "heavy burden" required to get review of factual questions. Failing to comprehensively evaluate the evidence against the appellant resulted in a...

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