The Importance of the New Maryland Daily Record Database of Unreported Court of Special Appeals Opinions
By Michael Wein
Last week, Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera delivered the State of the Judiciary address to the Maryland General Assembly, concluding, “The Judiciary is doing well and it is making strides in becoming smarter, more efficient and increasingly accessible to the public. The future presents challenges and opportunities alike, and the time is ripe for reasoned and thoughtful reforms.” (Both the written transcript and webcast links are available on the Judiciary website.) Along those lines, recent changes involving the statewide introduction of electronic filing are taking hold, and may help make Maryland’s intermediate appellate court, the Court of Special Appeals, more accessible and transparent. This corresponds with the recent launch by the Maryland Daily Record, as a benefit for its subscribers, of an online searchable catalog of the Court of Special Appeals’ unreported opinions from Jan. 1, 2014, on.
January 2015 Link Round-Up
By Chris Mincher,
We here at the Maryland Appellate Blog know this isn’t the only place on the Web practitioners in the state are talking about appellate cases and issues. In addition to other sites of like-minded commentators, many law firms maintain blogs where appellate matters make frequent appearance. To bring these voices and topics into the larger discussion, we’ve begun a monthly roundup of posts by Maryland bar members that are relevant to appellate practice in the state.
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.
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.
August 2014 Maryland Certiorari Grants
What better way to welcome back the Court of Appeals from its summer recess than with a new slate of cert grants? This assortment should especially draw the attention of employment lawyers (questions about the viability of the reasonable-expectations doctrine and the relationship between retirement and workers’ comp benefits), criminal attorneys (matters on merging sentences and the conducting of voir dire), and practitioners with a niche interest in underinsured-motorist benefits (a double-dose of UIM cases this month). Without further ado, the latest appellate admissions after the jump… drum roll, please …
Dan Friedman Appointed to the Court of Special Appeals
By Steve Klepper (Twitter: @MDAppeal)
This press release just appeared on the Governor’s website:
Governor O’Malley made one appointment to an at-large seat on the Court of Special Appeals.
Dan Friedman has served as an Assistant Attorney General and Counsel to the General Assembly since 2008. In that role, Mr. Friedman provides legal advice to members and committees of the General Assembly about the constitutionality of legislation and proposed bills, and he also defends enacted legislation if it is challenged in court.
Prior to serving in the Attorney General’s office, Mr. Friedman served as special counsel at Saul Ewing LLP, as an Associate City Solicitor and Chief of Litigation at the Baltimore City Law Department, and as an associate at Miles & Stockbridge, P.C. For over a decade, he has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law teaching courses in state and federal constitutional law. In addition, Mr. Friedman has served in numerous community organizations and coaches lacrosse.
Mr. Friedman earned a law degree from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. After law school, he clerked for Judge John Carroll Byrnes on the Circuit Court for Baltimore City and Judge Robert L. Karwacki on the Court of Appeals. Mr. Friedman fills a vacancy created by Judge Albert J. Matricciani, who resigned earlier this year after serving in an at-large seat on the Court of Special Appeals since 2008.
Friedman had been one of the finalists for the three since-filled vacancies that opened last year. Congratulations!
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