Maxine Waters’ SLAPP, 5pm Filing Deadline, “Snitch Rule” & More Recent Legal News

Our regular roundup of noteworthy appellate decisions and legal news includes these stories:

⚠Did a Covid-era jury cut short its deliberations (to just one hour) because it wanted to get out of the cramped jury room? Plaintiff thought so, but did not make a record of having raised a timely objection. Held: Objection forfeited.

⚠Did the failure to raise an affirmative defense in a joint pretrial order forfeit that defense? The 9th Circuit held it did, but Judge Bumatay thought it was raised indirectly and the lack of a more explicit assertion did not prejudice the plaintiff.

🤚Suit against Maxine Waters for falsely saying her opponent was “dishonorably discharged” may go forward: evidence that Waters was shown a military document refuting her charge, and Waters’ failure to conduct any other investigation, supported plaintiff’s showing of actual malice for purposes of defeating the anti-SLAPP motion.

📃Record defect resulted in California Court of Appeal resulted in affirmative via a rare “memorandum decision.”

✉60-day deadline to appeal is not triggered by file-stamped order unless it attaches a proof of service.

🗣New snitch rule would impose a mandatory duty to report violations of other lawyers.

👩‍⚖️Oral arguments at U.S. Supreme Court run long by average of 30 minutes.

💼Supreme Court makes it easier to preserve issues raised in summary judgment motions in Dupree v. Younger.

🛑Federal courts to wind down remote access as US COVID emergency ends.

🕔3d. Circuit to impose 5:00 p.m. filing deadline.

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

The California Appellate Law Podcast thanks Casetext for sponsoring the podcast. Listeners receive a discount on Casetext Basic Research at casetext.com/CALP. The co-hosts, Jeff and Tim, were also invited to try Casetext’s newest technology, CoCounsel, the world’s first AI legal assistant. You can discover CoCounsel for yourself with a demo and free trial at casetext.com/CoCounsel.

Other items discussed in the episode:

Perry v. Kia Motors
Defense not asserted in a pretrial order deemed forfeited in split 9th Cir. decision ( Ivie v. Astrazenica Pharmaceuticals LP)
What is actual malice? Maxine Waters SLAPP case
Lack of record leads affirmance by memorandum decision
Order was file-stamped, but did not attach the POS, so it did not trigger the 60-day deadline to appeal
New snitch rule proposal as the state bar. Cal Bar. LA Times. Cal Bar agenda item.
cheesy case.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and a bipartisan group of senators reintroduced legislation Thursday to allow live television coverage of U.S. Supreme Court proceedings. Via Ben Shatz.
Eighty percent of Supreme Court arguments went over their allotted time this term, for an average of nearly 30 additional minutes. Via Ben Shatz.
Fed Stats indicates the median time for civil appeals in the 9th Circuit is 12.6 months. Via Ben Shatz.
Bar Exam pass rate = 32.5%. Via Ben Shatz.
Federal courts to wind down remote access as US COVID emergency ends. (Reuters.)
Third Circuit’s rule requiring filings be submitted by 5 pm on the due date. Via Appellate Advocacy blog.
“Hot mess.”
Videos from this episode will be posted at Tim Kowal’s YouTube channel.

Tim Kowal is an appellate specialist certified by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization. Tim helps trial attorneys and clients win their cases and avoid error on appeal. He co-hosts the Cal. Appellate Law Podcast at www.CALPodcast.com, and publishes summaries of cases and appellate tips for trial attorneys at www.tvalaw.com/articles. Contact Tim at tkowal@tvalaw.com or (714) 641-1232.

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