The Role Of Victims In Court
Posted: January 30, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentAndrew Sullivan has an interesting post today on his blog, The Dish, linking to two articles exploring the role of victims in criminal proceedings.
One article, by Paul Cassell, discusses moving away from the traditional two-sided model, “State v. Defendant,” to a three-sided model in which victims enforce their own rights (for example, to restitution or compensation) alongside prosecutors acting on behalf of the state. Cassell argues that “[t]his change is long overdue, as crime victims have their own independent concerns in the process that ought to be recognized.”
Appealingly Brief! 2013 In Review
Posted: January 28, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentDear Readers: The year 2013 represented the first full year of posts on Appealingly Brief!. The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared an annual report for the blog. Thank you for your continued interest and readership in my mere mental musings!
Here’s an excerpt from the annual report:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 17,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Click here to see the complete report.
The Proud Father
Posted: January 24, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentI’m going to violate a cardinal rule and blog not about the law, but about my amazing son, Ari, who is a track star at Hall High School in West Hartford, CT. I assure you, the genes that are responsible for his athletic prowess come from his mom, not me. Here’s the headline and first two paragraphs of a great story in the Hartford Courant:
Hall’s Klau Gets More Than He Bargained For With Cabral
January 21, 2014|By MATTHEW CONYERS, mconyers@courant.com, The Hartford Courant
Hall High School junior Ari Klau got a chance to run this summer with his idol, Olympian and former Connecticut high school track standout Donn Cabral of Glastonbury.
Klau just didn’t get the run he had planned. Nearly halfway through their run at West Hartford Reservoir, they came to a fork in a trail and went the wrong way. Soon enough, a simple 50-minute run had become a 14-mile battle of wills with Cabral, one of the best distance runners in Connecticut history.
(Click here for the rest of the story.)
The Final Judgment Rule (Part One)
Posted: January 21, 2014 Filed under: Appellate Law, Practice and Procedure Leave a commentIn light of the recent post on attorneys’ fees and the final judgment rule, I thought I would repost this video-blog entry, one of my first on this blog. The guest appearances by my colleague, Jim Budinetz, and my son (the kid in the back seat of the car), are priceless, IMHO.
Click here for Part Two
Cert Improvidently Granted–An Analysis
Posted: January 16, 2014 Filed under: Appellate Law, Practice and Procedure 2 CommentsThe Connecticut Supreme Court recently released a decision dismissing an appeal on the ground that it had improvidently granted certification to appeal from the Appellate Court. Such a ruling means that the parties to the appeal in the Supreme Court expended a great deal of time and money for, well, nothing. It also means the justices spent a great deal of time reading the briefs, preparing for and holding oral argument, and perhaps even deliberating about the case for, well, nothing.
Final Judgments And Attorney’s Fees, Ctd.
Posted: January 15, 2014 Filed under: Appellate Law, Practice and Procedure | Tags: attorney's fees, final judgment Leave a commentLast December I wrote a post about a U.S. Supreme Court case that would consider whether a trial court judgment was final, for the purpose of seeking appellate review, if all issues in a case have been resolved except the issue of contractual attorney’s fees.
Discussing the Chris Christie “Bridge” Scandal With Colin McEnroe
Posted: January 13, 2014 Filed under: General Law | Tags: chris christie Leave a commentColin McEnroe invited me to join him on his WNPR show this afternoon to discuss the criminal implications, if any, of the growing George Washington Bridge closure scandal enveloping New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Check out our conversation here (beginning at 41:08 into the program).
Appealingly Brief! 