Fourth Circuit Pleads With North Carolina to Create Federal Certification...
We have blogged several times on the fact that North Carolina is one of only two states that does not allow a federal court to certify questions to its state courts for guidance on issues of state law....
View ArticleResisting the Urge To Give The Trial Court One Last Chance: Dangers of Using...
Most attorneys have had a least one unfavorable final judgment entered before trial. The attorney may feel that the trial court completely misunderstood her argument. Perhaps the trial court entered a...
View ArticleFourth Circuit May Conduct Initial En Banc Review of Revised Federal Travel Ban
Since December 2016, we have been monitoring the status of the North Carolina Court of Appeals’ new en banc authority. Several motions for en banc review have been filed, but to our knowledge, the...
View ArticleThe Curious Case(s) of the Published Denial of Rehearing
Twice this week the Fourth Circuit took the relatively unusual step of issuing published opinions on orders denying rehearing of a case. Ordinarily such orders are not published for the simple reason...
View ArticleWhen Is a Deadline or Other Requirement for Filing a Notice of Appeal...
In light of Matt’s post from yesterday, does anyone perceive an uptick in dismissals of appeals for notice of appeal problems? Are North Carolina lawyers unique in their propensity to screw up notices...
View ArticleUnpublished Fourth Circuit Per Curiam Opinion Involving Pro Se Litigant...
Note: much of the information below comes from The American Lawyer’s October 23 “Daily Dicta,” by Jenna Greene. He started as a pro se plaintiff alleging First Amendment (and other) violations by a...
View ArticleFourth Circuit Holds that Trial Court Cannot Prevent Appellate Review of...
In an opinion highlighting an interesting federal appellate jurisdictional issue, the Fourth Circuit on Monday vacated a “gag order” that had been entered by the district court. That gag order,...
View ArticleFourth Circuit Explains the Scope of “Collateral Order Doctrine”
The federal corollary to the oft-blogged about “substantial right doctrine” in the North Carolina appellate courts is the “collateral order doctrine.” As is the case under North Carolina law, the...
View ArticleInstitutional Disharmony in the Fourth Circuit? Or Merely Patriotic Dissent?
Is there institutional disharmony in the Fourth Circuit? That’s the question that one judge suggested, in a concurring opinion, that lawyers and judges might be asking after an en banc opinion released...
View ArticleNotices of Appeal: Wouldn’t It Be Nice?
I. You Can’t Have One Without the Other: Notice of Appeal Must Designate Both Final Judgment and Intermediate Order Approximately three years ago, I blogged on Majerske v. Majerske, an unpublished...
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