If you have had a case tentatively calendared for oral argument in the Fourth Circuit recently, then you likely received a notice to submit a specific form indicating whether you are aware of any cases currently pending in...more
Most practitioners are likely happy to have limited familiarity with Rule 4(a)(6) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. The Rule allows the district court, in its discretion, to reopen for 14 days a party’s time to...more
Judge Roger Gregory has completed his seven-year term as Chief Judge for the Fourth Circuit. Taking over as Chief is Judge Albert Diaz, who was on the North Carolina Business Court bench prior to being nominated and...more
President Biden yesterday announced the nomination of current South Carolina state court Judge DeAndrea Benjamin to fill the Fourth Circuit vacancy...more
If you’ve regularly read my blog posts here over the past few years (in other words, if you are my mom), you will know that I find Fourth Circuit published denials of petitions for rehearing to be of particular interest. ...more
The North Carolina Business Court has implemented a new subscriber-based email alert system to keep readers up to date on the Court’s recent decisions. The alert will hit subscribers’ inboxes every other Wednesday and contain...more
The world of Fourth Circuit en banc review has provided much fodder for my postings on this blog (See, e.g., here, here, here, here). On Monday, the Court released another blog-worthy en banc opinion when it affirmed per...more
Two significant announcements came out of the Fourth Circuit this week. The first was that the Court announced that in-person oral arguments will resume for the Court’s December argument calendar (December 7-10). This, of...more
In North Carolina appellate practice, it is often generally said that an interlocutory order affecting a substantial right is immediately appealable. But as the Court of Appeals reiterated in an opinion issued this week,...more
Two weeks ago I blogged on the unique situation facing the Fourth Circuit in the high-profile Dylann Roof case after all of the judges of the Court recused themselves from hearing his appeal. Since that post, there have been...more
An interesting recusal issue recently faced the Supreme Court of North Carolina, requiring the Court to invoke the “Rule of Necessity” in order to hear a high-profile case on North Carolina teachers’ retirement plans. As...more
The Fourth Circuit had intended to resume in person oral arguments at the Lewis F. Powell Jr. Courthouse in Richmond, VA for its September argument calendar. That return was short-lived...more
In March, the concept of nominal damages (often just a single dollar awarded to a plaintiff to represent a defendant’s liability in the absence of actual damages) took center stage at the highest courts of both the country...more
Back in January I blogged about how frequently, and in what types of cases, the Fourth Circuit was issuing published opinions after submission on briefs–a new phenomenon in the Circuit made possible only by the...more
Last month I blogged about a Fourth Circuit case that saw an eleventh-hour judge recusal. The Supreme Court of North Carolina is now facing a similar issue, times five.
The case involves a class action challenging a law...more
At the NCBA’s annual Antitrust and Complex Business Disputes Section CLE last week, there was a panel segment of the North Carolina Business Court Judges. Fox Rothschild was there, and here is our recap of what we heard and...more
A Fourth Circuit published opinion from earlier this week revealed an interesting panel composition issue, as the panel that heard the oral argument in the appeal was slightly different from the panel that ultimately issued...more
Last week I blogged about the Fourth Circuit’s recent published opinions that, due to the pandemic-prompted suspension of Local Rule 36(a), did not have the usual oral argument. The research for that post revealed that...more
The Fourth Circuit announced that its March session of oral arguments would remain remote...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many changes in the legal profession over the last 10 months. Those receiving the most focus have been, for obvious reasons, things like remote proceedings such as telephonic hearings and...more
In response to recent cybersecurity concerns with government networks, the Fourth Circuit announced today that it would soon be making available procedures for the filing of highly sensitive documents...more
There is a school of thought in legal writing that you should never put anything too important in footnotes, as some readers might skip over them. Well, if you are one of those readers, then you would have missed a good...more
Back at the start of the pandemic, this Blog took a brief look at how the anticipated flood of business interruption insurance claims might play out under North Carolina Law:
These cases are now winding their way through...more
If you follow the Fourth Circuit, you know that there has been a noticeable increase in the number of en banc cases that the Court has taken, and in those cases there has been some sharp disagreement between the Judges...more
The Fourth Circuit announced today that its suspension of in-person arguments will continue through the December 7-11 argument session...more