Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Federal Criminal Appellate Practice Writing Seminar

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the members of the court's CJA Education Committee will be holding a court-sponsored one-day writing seminar for both experienced brief writers and less seasoned criminal appellate practitioners on Friday, November 9, at the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, PR, from 8:45 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.  Here is the program, and the registration form. The registration deadline is Friday, October 26.

Registration & Program for March 10th Advanced Federal Criminal Appellate Practice Seminar

Here are the Registration and Program for the First Circuit's Advanced Federal Criminal Appellate Practice Seminar (see our post here) to be held at the Condado Plaza Hotel & Casino on March 10, 2006. You must register no later than Friday, February 24, 2006.

The list of speakers looks good. To all attorneys in Puerto Rico I would recommend that if you do any federal criminal appellate work, you should register for this seminar.

Advanced Federal Criminal Appellate Practice Seminar

Advanced Federal Criminal Appellate Practice Seminar

• The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is sponsoring a one-day seminar, Advanced Federal Criminal Appellate Practice, at the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Friday, March 10, 2006.  Though similar in format to the basic program that was offered in 2003-2004, this program will be at an advanced level.  It is geared towards experienced attorneys and those who attended the basic program. 

• In November 2005 this seminar was held in Boston and will be held in Portland, Maine in May 2006.  The registration form and seminar program will be posted on the First Circuit web site at the end of January.

Rules Amendments Effective December 1, 2005

Effective December 1, 2005, there are a number of amendments that go into effect regarding the Federal Rules of Appellate, Bankruptcy, Civil, and Criminal Procedure. In particular, the following amendments to the rules will take effect on December 1, 2005:

• Appellate Rules 4, 26, 27, 28, 32, 34, 35, 45, and new Rule 28.1;
• Bankruptcy Rules 1007, 2002, 3004, 3005, 7004, 9001, 9006, and 9036;
• Civil Rules 6, 27, 45, and Supplemental Rules B and C; and
• Criminal Rules 12.2, 29, 32.1, 33, 34, 45, and new Rule 59.

See generally this November 30, 2005 memorandum. The strikeout version of the Criminal Rules is here, and of the Appellate Rules here (in a memo from Judge Alito).

Wilkerson from the First: the Complete Story

In my previous post on United States v. Wilkerson, No. 02-1729 (1st Cir. June 9, 2005) -- yes, the case where it appeared that the First Circuit might be endorsing a district court's consideration of disparities in sentences for the same conduct as between federal and state cases -- I mentioned that the docket revealed that the petition for panel rehearing filed by the government to have the Court express itself on this issue had been denied.

However, my look at the docket was on the cheap, only looking at the last entry so as to avoid paying for the full docket, and this caused me to overlook the errata entered by the Court, described in a previous docket entry. The key part of the errata was that the Court added a footnote that stated that "*We express no opinion at this time about whether federal state sentencing disparities may be considered under the post-Booker advisory guidelines." You can access the Wilkerson errata here.

This is pretty much in keeping with my initial view that the Court would find the Government's posture that such comparisons could never be considered post-Booker a bit of a stretch, and one the Court did not need to decide in a vacuum.

From the First: Panel Rehearing Denied in Wilkerson

Upon checking the docket for United States v. Wilkerson, No. 02-1729 (1st Cir. June 9, 2005) it appears that the First Circuit has denied the petitions for panel rehearing. As we indicated in our previous post here, Wilkerson "appeared to endorse the idea that a district court may take into account the disparity between federal and state sentences for the same conduct in arriving at a correct sentence in the post-Booker world."

We also gave our reason as to why the First Circuit would probably not grant rehearing. The docket does not reflect any reason why rehearing was denied, but only that it was.

First Circuit Accepting Applications for CJA Panel

The First Circuit Court of Appeals is currently accepting applications to serve on the court's Criminal Justice Act ("CJA") panel. Application packages must be received no later than June 13, 2005 at 5:00 p.m. For your convenience, here is the Announcement and the Application Form taken from the First Circuit's site.

Help for your Next Appeal

So you now have to face that appeal, and you would like some pointers on writing briefs as well as arguing your case. The folks at Appellate Law & Practice have come up with a number of excellent links, and I will add a few more to assist anyone writing a brief and arguing a case on appeal.

• Ten Pointers for an Appeal (First Circuit)
• Checklist for Briefs (First Circuit)
• Requirements for Compliant Briefs and Appendices (First Circuit)
• How to Write a Good Appellate Brief by Andrew L. Frey and Roy T. Englert, Jr. (Appellate.Net) - an excellent article which we were referred to by Appellate Law & Practice
• Painting with print: Incorporating concepts of typographic and layout design into the text of legal writing documents by Ruth Anne Robbins (posted in the website of the Seventh Circuit, and found thanks to Appellate Law & Practice)
• Arguing for Changes in the Law by James C. Schroeder and Robert M. Dow, Jr. (Litigation, Winter 1999, Volume 25 Number 2)
• Preparing and Delivering Oral Argument by Andrew L. Frey (Appellate.Net) - excellent
• Questions, Answers, and Prepared Remarks by Stephen M. Shapiro (Appellate.Net)

And it does not hurt to regularly read a few good briefs of cases before the Supreme Court, as well as reading the transcripts of some oral arguments.  And please do not tell me you have briefed and argued cases on appeal before and therefore you don't need to look at any of this stuff. If you think that way, you have chosen to stop learning and that, my friend, will be noticed somewhere, sometime.