Every six months, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts publishes the dreaded Six Month List. The Six Month List describes itself as a “semiannual report showing, by U.S. district judge and U.S. magistrate judge, all motions pending more than…
Category: Court Trends
Decoding The Calls and Different Court Calendars in Rhode Island Superior Court
When I was more of a spring chicken than I am now, a senior associate invited me to tag along at a Superior Court motion calendar hearing. “It’s time you learn what formal, ready, and ready subject mean,” she said. …
The Power of Art in Learning and Understanding the Law
Jim Murphy, the Chair Emeritus of the federal District of Rhode Island’s litigation academy (I just made that title up, but it seems appropriate), is renowned for his stirring lectures during academy programs. Like all faculty of the litigation academy,…
R.I. Supreme Court ’17-’18 Term in Review: Who Wrote What, and How Criminal Defendants and Pro Se Litigants Fared
It’s the end of July and the Rhode Island Supreme Court has not published an opinion since July 3. The hiatus likely means the Court is done for term 2017-2018 and will not issue another published opinion until the 2018-2019…
The Map Room of Janus: Thoughts on the Thinking of the U.S. Supreme Court and What Comes Next
The map room scene is one of the best moments in the original Raiders of the Lost Ark movie. Indiana Jones drops into the ancient map room of Tanis to locate the Lost Ark. Someone has already been there but…
What is the Practice of Law, Anyway? The Rhode Island Supreme Court Will Soon Tell Us.
Under long-standing rules, only lawyers can practice law by representing other people in legal matters. The only general exception to this rule is that non-lawyer natural persons can represent themselves. Representing yourself in a legal matter is called acting “pro…
Highlights from the Last Federal Bench/Bar Committee Meeting of the Year
One of the most interesting and effective committees of the Rhode Island Bar Association is the Federal Bench/Bar Committee, which meets at the federal courthouse three or four times a year. Chaired by the always prepared Pat Rocha, the meeting is…
More Women Than Men Passed the Rhode Island Bar Exam Last Year. Is Change Finally Afoot?
Every year, the popular legal website Law360 publishes the gender breakdown of attorneys in private practice. The numbers are usually depressing. Law360’s annual 2018 Glass Ceiling Report surveyed more than 300 national law firms on the gender demographics of their…
Only 36 People Passed the Rhode Island Bar Exam in February. Is Rhody the New California?
The bar exam is a perennial discussion topic between licensed attorneys and law students. Most law students dread not passing the bar exam, and California strikes extra fear in the tender hearts of aspiring lawyers. The list of people who…
The Score is 167,504 to 759. So yeah, the State Courts Handle a Few More Cases Than the Federal Court
167,504 to 759. It sounds like a lopsided cricket score (those matches go on forever!), but it’s really the number of proceedings filed in Rhode Island state courts versus the Rhode Island federal court in 2016, the most recent year…