By Karen L. Dowd
- Aug 22, 2019
The Perils of Statutory Construction
This time each year, I review cases from the past year for possible inclusion in the West Annotation of the Superior Court Civil Rules.* There are often splits of authority amongst trial courts in the application or interpretation of the Practice Book rules. As I researched Chapter 14 (Dockets, Trial Lists, Pretrials and Assignment Lists), generally not the most exciting of my chapters, I found an excellent example of such a split, and the difficulty they pose to litigation
By Scott T. Garosshen
- Aug 20, 2019
A Shot Across the Bow: Appellate Court Takes Aim at Canons of Construction
Huge doctrinal shifts often have humble beginnings. And we see them only in hindsight. A recent opinion, Wilton Campus 1691, LLC v. Wilton, 191 Conn. App. 712 (2019), is likely just a blip on the radar. But it may signal the start of a deeper change in how our state appellate judges read the law. So first, how do you know what a law means? In Connecticut, you begin with the law's text. General Statutes 1-2z says if the text is clear, you stop there. It doesn't matter if
By Scott T. Garosshen
- Aug 5, 2019
"I've never understood why people hire appellate counsel."
I'm paraphrasing. But that was essentially what Judge Christopher Droney of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals told a room full of appellate litigators at our last meeting of the Connecticut Bar Association's Appellate Advocacy Section. Why? Because no one will ever know a case quite like the lawyer who spent a week of her life trying it and the better part of several years working the file up to that point. Judge Droney has a point. Trial entails not just transcripts an