Making your (Rantful) Voice Heard
October 13, 2015 § 1 Comment
Some of you posted your rants about the MRCP last week, and there was some real food for though there. Now the MSSC is following up with that examination of the rules that I posted about previously. This from the MS Bar Briefs e-newsletter for October 12, 2015:
Submissions for Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure Project
The Supreme Court’s Rules Committee on Civil Practice and Procedure is conducting a comprehensive review of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure. This is the first of its kind since the Rules were adopted almost 35 years ago. Members of the Bar are requested to submit proposed revisions to the Court’s Rules Committee on Civil Practice and Procedure by December 31, 2015. Proposed revisions may be substantive, grammatical or stylistic. All submissions will be scanned and posted on the Court’s website as they are received.
The court’s address is P. O. Box 117, Jackson, MS, 39205. The notice does not preclude email; the court’s email address is sctclerk@courts.ms.gov.
Here’s your opportunity to influence possible changes in our rules.
What’s Your Biggest Rant About …
October 9, 2015 § 13 Comments
The MRCP?
What changes would you make if you could? How would you improve them?
Comments by lawyers and judges are welcome and invited. You may post as anonymous or use a screen name, but you must include a valid email address so that I can verify that you are a member of the legal profession. Your email address will not appear.
No personal attacks. Please do not name particular lawyers or judges. Please be brief and to the point. All comments by persons who have not been approved before are moderated, so it may take a while for your comment to appear if it is approved.
Have at it.
Has Your Firm Made it into the 21st Century Yet?
October 7, 2015 § Leave a comment
Some law firms are trapped in 1995. Is yours?
MSSC Looks at the MRCP
October 5, 2015 § Leave a comment
The MSSC’s internal committee on rules of civil procedure has sent out a letter soliciting comments and suggestions for changes to the MRCP. Deadline for comments is in December.
The letter, which was addressed to various constituent groups, appellate judges,the chairs of the trial court conferences, and others, said that the committee, consisting of Justices Dickinson, Randolph, and Coleman, intends to do a thorough study of the rules, review suggested changes, and re-draft the rules as the committee deems appropriate. Changes would then be sent to the court’s rules advisory committee for study and further work.
An upcoming article in the Mississippi Lawyer will provide further details.
“Quote Unquote”
October 2, 2015 § Leave a comment
“Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can.” — Thomas Merton
“When death, the great Reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.” — George Eliot
“I Just Can’t Find the Time …”
September 29, 2015 § 2 Comments
Seven reasons you feel like you never have enough time from Business Insider.
Reprise: Checklists
September 23, 2015 § 1 Comment
Reprise replays posts from the past that you might find useful today.
Checklists, Checklists, Checklists
August 12, 2014 § 9 Comments
You can skip over this post if you’ve been paying attention to this blog for any appreciable length of time.
For you newcomers and oblivious long-timers, you need to know and appreciate that proving many kinds of cases in chancery court is a matter of proving certain factors mandated from on high by our appellate courts. I’ve referred to it as “trial by checklist.”
If you don’t put on proof to support findings of fact by the chancellor, your case will fail, and you will have wasted your time, the court’s time, your client’s money. You will have lost your client’s case and embarrassed yourself personally, professionally, and, perhaps, financially.
I suggest you copy these checklists and have them handy at trial. Build your outline of the case around them. In your trial preparation design your discovery to make sure that you will have proof at trial to support findings on the factors applicable in your case. Subpoena the witnesses who will provide the proof you need. Present the evidence at trial that will support the judge’s findings.
If the judge fails to address the applicable factors in his or her findings of fact, file a timely R59 motion asking the judge to do that. But remember — and this is critically important — if you did not put the proof in the record at trial to support those findings, all the R59 motions in the world will not cure that defect.
Here is an updated list of links to the checklists I’ve posted:
Income tax dependency exemption.
Modification of child support.
Periodic and rehabilitative alimony.
And here are two checklists that will help you in probate matters:
“Quote Unquote”
September 4, 2015 § 1 Comment
“There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” — Thomas Merton
“Honor is the presence of God in man.” — Pat Conroy
“In his errors a man is true to type. Observe the errors and you will know the man.” — Confucius
The Better Chancery Practice Blog 