Tips for wearing that red robe
June 27, 2008
The Board of Public Works meeting was running late Wednesday, leaving many Maryland judges sweltering in the late June sun as they waited to attend the swearing in of Sally D. Adkins to the Court of Appeals in the Legislative Services Building in Annapolis.
The jovial jurists appeared not to mind the 30-minute delay of the scheduled noon proceeding, particularly Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, who brought his digital camera and took pictures of the attendees.
Asked whether the board, an executive-branch agency, was showing unconstitutional disdain for the co-equal judicial branch, Bell responded in the negative.
“They’ve got work to do,” Bell said. “I’m not going to fight about that.”
Other current and former members of the high court congratulated and offered advice to Adkins, including retired Judge Dale R. Cathell, whom she replaced on the bench.
“Sally, you made it. Now, relax,” Cathell said. “It’s a long haul from where you start out to get here.”
Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr., when asked what advice he would give Adkins, joked that when writing opinions “she should ask herself, ‘What would Judge Harrell do?’”
Judges Joseph F. Murphy Jr., Lynne A. Battaglia and Clayton Greene Jr. were longer on praise than advice, saying they expected Adkins would be “wonderful,” that she would “step right in” and “make the transition very quickly” from the Court of Special Appeals.
And Peter B. Krauser, chief judge of the Court of Special Appeals, jokingly offered self-serving advice to his former colleague upon her elevation to the higher court.
“Remember these words: To reverse is human, to affirm divine,” he said.
STEVE LASH, Legal Affairs Writer
Law blog round-up
June 2, 2008
Good afternoon! Here are a few law-related links for your Monday.
- A lawyer who handles automobile lemon claims blogs about the latest lemon-law decision (PDF) from the Court of Special Appeals.
- The governor has “moved at a snail’s pace” in appointing judges to the Court of Appeals, says The Maryland Lawyer Blog.
- Law prof Nancy Polikoff wonders why friends of Janice — of the same-sex custody case (PDF) Janice M. v. Margaret K. — didn’t tell her to stay out of court.
- The Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office has a therapy pooch. Cute, no?
- Carolyn Elefant at MyShingle posts about a study finding that 76 percent of law firms discount their fees.
- What do you think of this ad campaign by a female-owned firm that uses the lawyers’ gender as a selling point?
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentLaw profs rank the top courts
May 27, 2008
Three law professors have written a paper ranking the top courts of all 50 states based on how many opinions the judges put out, how often those opinions are cited by other states’ high courts, and how non-partisan they are. That last criterion is determined by how often judges vote with colleagues who belong to the opposite political party. It looks like these guys (and/or their students) did a whole mess of work on this.
Anyway, if you give equal weight to all three criteria, Maryland’s Court of Appeals is the 14th-best top court in the country. If you don’t give the criteria equal weight, then… well, maybe someone can tell me what happens then, because I’m not confident that I understand this part of the study. (There’s a reason I became a journalist instead of fulfilling that first-grade dream of being an astronomer: less math.)
When the authors ranked the high courts by citations per judge by out-of-state courts, Maryland placed sixth. The Court of Appeals fell pretty much in the middle on the other two measurements.
Bottom line: there is a “strong case” that California’s top court is the best, the researchers conclude.
Hat tip: How Appealing.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentA not-so-short list for Sharer’s seat
May 8, 2008
The Appellate Judicial Nominating Commission has drawn up a short list for Judge Frederick Sharer’s seat on the Court of Special Appeals, and it contains the names of all but one of the applicants.
There were six candidates for the judgeship — a seventh applied but withdrew his name early on — which must be filled by someone who lives in Western Maryland. All but Judge Gary Leasure, administrative judge of the Allegany County Circuit Court, made the commission’s list of qualified candidates.
The applicants who made the list are Karen Federman Henry, a division chief in the office of the Montgomery County attorney; Kathryn Grill Graeff, chief of criminal appeals in the Office of the Attorney General; Frederick County Circuit Judge Julie Stevenson Solt; Washington County Circuit Judge Donald Beachley and Howard County Administrative Judge Diane Leasure.
Beachley and Leasure were pool candidates, meaning that they applied for a judgeship sometime in the last two years and made the short list then.
As we reported in the paper this morning, the commission has also forwarded three names to the governor for Judge Irma Raker’s former Court of Appeals seat: Court of Special Appeals Judges Mary Ellen Barbera and Patrick L. Woodward and Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Michael D. Mason.
Of the candidates for the two seats, who do you think has the best reputation and is most qualified?
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentJudicial Nominating Commission meets today
May 7, 2008
For those of you who follow appellate appointments, by the end of today we should be one step closer to getting two new judges.
The Appellate Judicial Nominating Commission meets today to discuss the vacancies left by the retirements of Court of Appeals Judge Irma S. Raker and Court of Special Appeals Judge J. Frederick Sharer last month. There are six applicants for Sharer’s Western Maryland seat and five for Raker’s Montgomery County seat.
The commission has the task of reviewing the applications, interviewing candidates and talking to references, then sending the governor a short list of qualified candidates.
Meanwhile, no word yet on whom the governor will pick to fill retired Judge Dale R. Cathell’s former Court of Appeals seat. Stay tuned.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentUpgraded site names judges behaving badly
April 21, 2008
What a difference a month makes.
The last time I mentioned the Commission on Judicial Disabilities’ Web site, I was appalled at how obscure and uninformative it was. Back then — on March 13 — the site was a one-page fact-sheet buried in the Court of Appeals’ site, which (unlike the fact-filled Attorney Grievance Commission site) contained no information at all on miscreant judges.
Gary J. Kolb, the CJD’s executive secretary, assured me a new Web site was in the works — and Kolb was better than his word. While the site is still buried within the Court of Appeals’ Web site, now it’s worth the hunt.
As Kolb promised, the rules are there, the downloadable complaint form is there, and the last two annual reports are there. So, now you can see that there were 117 complaints filed in the year ending June 30, 2007; that’s up from 108 a year earlier but far lower than four and five years previous, when the totals were 138 and 140, respectively.
Better still, the site includes a feature Kolb thought would have to wait: electronic versions of public actions taken by the commission since August 2006. (Users can contact the commission for earlier information.) The electronic versions will stay up for two years, the site promises.
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
Sphere: Related ContentA woman’s right to say ‘stop’
April 18, 2008
As we’ve reported, the state’s highest court has decided (PDF) that women have a right to say ‘stop’ as well as a right to say ‘no.’ Morally, that seems right to me; philosophically, even linguistically, there’s no denying that sex is consensual only while both parties consent.
Practically, though, I worry about what will happen with these cases, which present all the hurdles of a rape case, plus the fact that the woman said yes initially, plus the problem of showing that the act continued after consent was revoked. (In the case before the Court of Appeals, the accuser said the defendant continued for five or 10 seconds after she told him to stop.)
What do you think: Is a “stop” rape case possible to prove? Will prosecutors even bring them?
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
Remembering Alexander Cummings
April 9, 2008
To the legions of Maryland lawyers sworn in over the last quarter century, his signature was the imprimatur that sanctioned their membership in the profession. To Bessie Decker, who succeeded him as clerk of the Court of Appeals just last week, Alexander L. Cummings was a “dear friend” and a “good teacher.”
“He gave us that room to do our jobs without having him look over us,” Decker said of Cummings, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 66.
What’s your favorite memory of the former clerk?
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
Sphere: Related ContentThe age of constitutional senility
April 8, 2008
Today marked Court of Appeals Judge Irma S. Raker’s last session of oral argument before turning 70, and Chief Judge Robert M. Bell used the occasion to take a not-so-subtle jibe at the Maryland Constitution’s requirement that jurists retire upon hitting that magic age.
Shortly after beginning Tuesday’s session at 10 a.m., Bell heaped praise on Raker, saying she has “served this court with distinction,” noting her “strong intellect” and thanking her for placing great importance on “civility” among the judges and the attorneys who appear before them.
Then the chief judge delivered the kicker: “The Constitution regards her as senile.”
Raker will join Judge Dale R. Cathell as Court of Appeals judges who have reached age 70 but remain on the top court until a successor is appointed.
Cathell, noting that they are similarly situated, said he welcomes the fact that Raker “joins me in senility.”
STEVE LASH, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentLaw blog round-up
March 3, 2008
Here are a few law links for your unseasonably warm Monday:
- Dan Rodricks did a radio show last week on the Baltimore EXILE anti-gun program (PDF). In case you missed it, here’s a link. It was Feb. 27 from noon to 1 p.m.
- The EvidenceProf Blog discusses the Court of Appeals’ decision last month in Bellamy v. State (PDF), which dealt with the hearsay rule’s exception for admissions by a party-opponent. (The court said statements of the prosecutor in a criminal case fall into that category.)
- The Washington Post had a story yesterday giving the latest developments in the church-driveway dispute in Calvert County, which I wrote about last month in a story about the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The lede (yes, that’s how it’s spelled in journalist-speak) is: “In a test of wills, church vs. state, the church wins the first round.”
- Top in-house lawyers are not doing too badly for themselves, a new Altman Weil survey says.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
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