Tis’ nobler in the mind to suffer, The slings and arrows of legal misfortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To object, or not to object—to the magistrate judge? That is the…
Category: Civil Procedure
The Ways of Legal Citation for Court Documents in the D.R.I.
The “First Circuit,” “1st Cir.”, “CA1,” “the Circuit,” or “the Court” — these are all ways to refer to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, depending on the type of citation system. The most common guide…
Reconsidering the Non-Reconsideration of Motions to Reconsider in State Court
The mulligan is one of the great unwritten rules in golf. Smack a duck hook in the water? No problemo, tee up a new ball. Completely whiff with a massive John Daly-esque swing, but the wind pushes the ball one…
SCOTUS follows SCOTUS, the Circuit follows the Circuit, but D.J.s don’t follow D.J.s. What gives?
One interesting facet of the federal court system is its hierarchical structure. The thirteen Circuit Courts of Appeals that sit directly below the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) must follow the Supreme Court’s binding precedent. The District Courts…
Feds say POTato, State says PotATO, Let’s Call The Whole Pleading Thing Off
Federal and state courts each have their own separate rules of civil procedure, but it’s a long-standing tenet of Rhode Island law that state and federal rules with similar language are generally interpreted the same. Heal v. Heal, 762 A.2d…
The Legal Memo is Dead in the D.R.I. Long Live the Memo.
Effective December 1, 2017, the United States District Court in Rhode Island amended its local rules. One of the more significant changes is to Local Civil Rule 7 (or LR Cv 7, as it’s known in the biz) to eliminate…
A Handy Guide to Superior Court Civil Standing Orders by County
Back in the day, you had to know a guy, who knew a guy, who might have heard from some other guy, if there were any standing orders floating around that remained in effect as the judges rotated through the…