Articles

03.23.12

'Macomber' Highlights Danger In Appealing Fee, Cost Awards

Isn't appealing from the judgment sufficient to challenge a fee or cost award made pursuant to that judgment? Sometimes, but frequently not.Like other notice-of-appeal issues, there are plenty of traps for the unwary who appeal fee and cost awards. When and how to appeal depends on a number of ...


07.15.11

Finality & Remittitur: What Goes Up Must Come Down

Sir Isaac Newton and Sammy Davis Jr. (courtesy of Blood, Sweat and Tears) understood a universal law: What goes up, must come down. This applies as much to appellate litigation as gravity. Cases start and end in the trial court. The notice of appeal is the jurisdictional document (filed by a ...


06.02.11

Ninth Circuit Widens Split on Copyright Registration Issue

This article was originally published in the May 28, 2010 issue of the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal.The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finally has chosen sides in a slowly developing dispute over a technical but important issue—namely, whether a ...


06.22.08

Fighting Words

Some judicial opinions and orders are ensconced in legal lore. 


04.18.06

'Palmer' Clarifies Valid Written Notice of an Entry of Judgment

Properly calendaring judgment-notwithstanding-the-verdict and new-trial motions is especially important because timing traps for the unwary exist at both ends of the process.