January 2025 Maryland Certiorari Grants
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Maryland granted review in five cases. (We’ve updated this post now that “Questions Presented” are publicly available for all five cases.)
Read More…Visuals in the Art of Legal Writing
The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” can take on a whole new meaning, when you’re subject to a word limit. Including the pertinent visual from the trial court record (such as a photograph, plat, map or other drawing) in an appellate brief is simple[1] and can be more effective that a written description of the image. A visual reproduction allows the writer to magnify, highlight or “call out” an area or detail germane to the appeal, as well as grab the reader’s attention, as images are out of the briefing ordinary. Retired Judge Richard A. Posner wrote in support of this cause:
Read More…December 2024 Maryland Certiorari Grants
The Supreme Court of Maryland yesterday granted certiorari in four appeals.
Read More…Fourth Circuit announces three preferred fonts
Devoted followers of the Blog know this is the place for searing hot takes on developments in appellate typography. So of course we leapt into action upon Monday’s news that the Fourth Circuit has expressly approved three fonts (Times New Roman, Century Schoolbook, and Georgia) and expressly disapproved another (Garamond).
Granted, these choices are not exactly earth-shattering. Times New Roman, though always good fodder for typographical debate, remains ubiquitous and is not falling off any court-approved list anytime soon. Century Schoolbook is the most popular of the Century fonts, anointed by the U.S. Supreme Court as the chosen typeface family there. The third, Georgia—my go-to since Book Antiqua became inexplicably disfavored—has been steadily gaining acceptance as the most practical and versatile alternative to Times New Roman hegemony.
Read More…ACM Panel Divides on “Irregularity” Under Rule 2-535
When more than 30 days have passed since the entry of a judgment, it’s tough to challenge. To revisit the judgment that late, there needs to be one of three things set forth in Md. Rule 2-535: “fraud, mistake, or irregularity.” The vaguest of those terms, “irregularity,” covers failures by the court and its employees and agents (but not attorneys) to follow proper practices and procedures.
The grounds for an “irregularity” are more clear when it is a judge or the clerk’s office making a mistake (say, by not sending a required notice), but for other personnel involved in the judicial system it can be murky — as was evident earlier this year in the split Appellate Court decision in Howes v. Howes. The case demonstrates that, while new policies and methods for dispute resolution evolve to become part of the “regular” court system, they may create pitfalls for unwary litigations that are impermissibly “irregular.”
Read More…Pro Se Petitions and the Upcoming Coyle v. State Argument
By Steve Klepper (Bluesky @mdappeal)
Last week saw an unusual order from the Supreme Court of Maryland’s petition docket. In Feng v. Chen, the Court entered a GVR (grant, vacate, and remand) order on a pro se petition challenging the Appellate Court’s dismissal of an appeal when the appellant failed to order all circuit court transcripts.
Through the GVR order, the Court drew attention to a new program to aid pro se appellants:
Read More…SCM debuts SCOTUS-style orders list
By Steve Klepper (Bluesky @mdappeal)
We rarely cover certiorari denials, but today’s monthly list of denials featured a twist:
Clicking on the link brings you to an order with a familiar look for those who read the U.S. Supreme Court‘s certiorari orders:
Read More…November 2024 Maryland Certiorari Grants
The Supreme Court of Maryland today granted review in four civil appeals and one criminal appeal.
Read More…October 2024 Maryland Certiorari Grants
On Friday, the Supreme Court of Maryland granted review in two civil cases and one criminal case.
Read More…The AI Apocalypse has Likely Already Hit Maryland’s Appellate Courts—What Mischief Can Be Expected, And What if Any Rules Should Apply?
Claude Monet, was considered the Father of the Impressionist movement, beginning in the latter half of the 1800s.[i] Impressionism went against “classic” principles of painting in many renaissance and baroque style works, usually by painters with academy training. Artists of the caliber of Michelangelo or Peter Paul Rubens, would begin art projects, taking years if necessary to painstakingly captured them with full details. Impressionism was on some level, the opposite. The best impressionists like Monet, could do a painting quickly onto a canvas, and without the level of detail that, at least through the end of the 19th Century, was necessary to be considered a masterpiece.
Well, good or bad, (mostly bad), impressionism, to use a metaphor, has come to appellate litigation, in the form of “Generative” AI. And with that sea-change on the horizon, at least without time-sensitive concerns of specific applicable Rules, Maryland appellate courts should expect a rapid increase in the number of appeals, potentially rising to a level reminiscent of the increase in appeals from the 1960s, and overall decrease in quality of appellate briefing. (It was this increase on expanded application of Federal Constitutional rights, that lead to the intermediate appellate courts in the United States, including the Appellate Court of Maryland being formed, to address the upsurge in criminal and post-conviction appeals.)
Read More…
Maryland Appellate Blog 