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. I found two cases for P.B. §14-13, though they were not applying the rule but using it for analogy. In St. Germain v. Rockingham, LLC, 2018 WL 5733615 (Ct. Super. Ct. 2018), the plaintiff did not attend the non-bindin
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 the legislature meant to do the opposite, they're stuck with what they wrote. Great. But how do you know if the text is clear? A dictionary will give you the meaning of individual words; what book do you consult for t
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 and exhibits that another lawyer can pick up and read, but also off-the-record conversations between counsel and judge, telling reactions by judge or jury at key moments of testimony, and a wealth of memoranda and outlines