The Recent Proposed Maryland Appellate Rules On Electronic Filing, in Plain English
By Michael Wein,
There’s been a lot of discussion recently in Maryland about electronic filing, which began in Anne Arundel County in October 2014. There’s also been some confusion for those who practice in the state’s appellate courts, which are located in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, about whether and when appellate materials can be filed electronically. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has used electronic filing – including filing appellate briefs in .pdf format with electronic signatures – for a number of years through its own dedicated appellate ECF system. So has Maryland suddenly adopted a system comparable to the Fourth Circuit?
Three Things Congress Should Do in 2015 About Judges
By Steve Klepper (Twitter: @MDAppeal)
The first six months of 2015 will provide a short breather before the nation’s political machinery turns its attention to the 2016 presidential election. For all the talk of how the Republican takeover of the Senate will affect judicial nominations, the next six months provide a window of time when Congress can reform judicial policy for the next president — before we have much of an idea who the next president will be.
November 2014 Maryland Certiorari Grants
With Thanksgiving only a week away, the Maryland Court of Appeals has laid a rather meager spread of fresh certiorari grants on the table. Appellate enthusiasts licking their chops for new issues have relatively few matters to pick from this caseload cornucopia, but those with an interest in administrative rule-making, parenting problems, jury instructions in criminal cases, and procedural quirks have some morsels to feast upon. Details after the jump.
Judge Pamela Harris and the Fourth Circuit’s Collaborative Culture
On Friday, I had the pleasure of attending the MSBA/FBA panel discussion on recent impact decisions from the Fourth Circuit. Maryland’s Pamela Harris, the newest addition to the Fourth Circuit, headlined the event at the Greenbelt federal courthouse. Her introductory remarks were predictably gracious, uncontroversial, and eloquent, coming from someone still feeling the glare of the judicial confirmation process. But they were not empty platitudes; she offered some important practice points for the Fourth Circuit bar.
Are Attorneys Becoming Extinct?
Recently, I spent some time going through the accumulated legal journals on my desk. As I turned from the ABA Journal to the Maryland Bar Journal, it became more and more evident that many technology tools may have started to threaten the need for humans in the practice of law.
Maryland Law Review Endnotes: An Academic Outlet for Commentary on Pending Cases
By Steve Klepper (Twitter: @MDAppeal)
As regular readers of this blog know, I’m a fan of online companions to law reviews. Here in the state, Maryland Law Review Endnotes is a great outlet for publishing short-form academic-style articles – particularly those about cases drawing a great deal of attention in Maryland appellate courts.
Maryland Appellate Blog 