For most of their history, the U.S. courts of appeals have toiled in obscurity, well out of the limelight of political controversy. But as the number of appeals has increased dramatically, while the number of cases heard by the Supreme Court has remained the same, the courts of appeals have become the court of last resort for the vast majority of litigants. This enhanced status has been recognized by important political actors, and as a result, appointments to the courts of appeals have become more and more contentious since the 1990s. This combination of increasing political salience and increasing political controversy has led to the rise of serious empirical studies of the role of the courts of appeals in our legal and political system. At once building on and contributing to this wave of scholarship, The View from the Bench and Chambers melds a series of quantitative analyses of judicial decisions with the perspectives gained from in-depth interviews with the judges and their law clerks. This multifaceted approach yields a level of insight beyond that provided by any previous work on appellate courts in the United States, making The View from the Bench and Chambers the most comprehensive and rich account of the operation of these courts to date.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

As a litigator, you spare no time or expense to ensure you are at peak readiness when the trial rolls around. You know you must do your homework to win cases -- thoroughly research the legal issues, draft pleadings, conduct pretrial discovery, prepare witnesses. So don't let all your hard work go to waste by forgetting the most important player in the courtroom -- the judge. That's where the Texas Bench Book Series comes in. The bench books are the only place you'll find the judge's courtroom preferences -- in his or her own words. Each judge provides insight into trial scheduling, motion practice, pretrial and trial procedures, decorum, pet peeves, staff names and numbers, and much more.

Tales of a judge's life on and off the bench

ThompsonCourierRakeRegister_2018-04-19_all.pdf

I stood inside the doorway leading from my chambers to the courtroom. I was just out of sight of the attorneys milling around the clerk's desk. The jurors were in the jury box anxious to deliver their verdict. The defendant was seated at counsel table dressed in a suit at least one size too big because of the weight he lost during the year he spent in jail awaiting trial. Representatives of the press were busily scribbling the story that was about to unfold. I had even allowed television cameras in the courtroom to record the taking of the verdict. This was one of the biggest news events in San Bernardino County in the past year. The story had aired on local and even national television. The defendant had brutally ended the lives of three small children and was now about to learn his fate. As I stood there adjusting my robe, I thought back to the day I first entered a courtroom as a judge. It was in my hometown of Yucaipa, California, on my thirtieth birthday, and I believe I was even more nervous then. That was nearly thirty years ago. As I was now nearing retirement, I could not help but think of all the people that brought their disputes to me; all the juries I had empaneled; all the objections and motions I had ruled on; and all the decisions I had to make in those thirty years. Now my time on the bench was winding down. I thought someday I should write about all this. Well, here it is.

An “accessible and engaging” biography of the U.S. Supreme Court Justice, weaving together her life and influential work (School Library Journal). The life and career of the fiercely principled Supreme Court Justice with dramatic accounts of her landmark cases that moved the needle on legal protection of human rights, illustrated with archival photographs. Dramatically narrated case histories from Justice Ginsburg’s stellar career are interwoven with an account of RBG’s life—childhood, family, beliefs, education, marriage, legal and judicial career, children, and achievements—and her many-faceted personality is captured. The cases described, many involving young people, demonstrate her passionate concern for gender equality, fairness, and our constitutional rights. A 2020 Sydney Taylor Honor Book

'Experience of all sorts at the Bar and on the Bench has led to the thought that a few timely words could avoid a lot of grief as well as perhaps bringing a smile or two from the pictures.' At the Bar Nick Chambers did a great variety of cases ranging from the miners' respiratory claims to the Kuwait Airways litigation. On the Bench his job was to manage and try cases as the Mercantile Judge for Wales and Chester and then for Wales as well as sitting in London in the Commercial Court and other jurisdictions. He was a member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee at the time of the introduction of the Woolf reforms. He now practices as an arbitrator and mediator from Brick Court Chambers. The Chambers family's involvement with watercolours goes back to 1779 with an ancestor's sketches during the Siege of Gibraltar. Since then each generation has made its own contribution including scenes from Mumbai in the V&A and the first illustrations of the rules of rugby football done at the school in 1845. Illustrations and texts from Nick's book Missed Moments in Legal History hang in the Rolls Building. The pictures in Case Handling pay a further happy tribute to his past. This book, with its pithy advice and attractive illustrations, makes taking the serious medicine of case handling a pleasure both for the recently qualified and anyone else with an interest in making dispute resolution work.