Howard J Bashman

March 09, 2020 | The Legal Intelligencer

Every now and then, an appellate judge will write a concurring or dissenting opinion in which he not only laments the current state of the law but also takes the additional step of imploring the legislature to implement changes to provide for a more just result in the future.

By Howard J. Bashman

6 minute read

February 03, 2020 | The Legal Intelligencer

The plaintiff's attorney, who had contacted me for assistance, had filed a timely motion for post-trial relief in the trial court, which in Pennsylvania state court is a prerequisite for preserving issues for appellate review even following a nonjury trial.

By Howard J. Bashman

7 minute read

December 09, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

Did you know that there's a growing and thriving community of lawyers, judges, law professors, and journalists on Twitter who are interested in and who cover news relating to appellate practice and the most recent noteworthy appellate court rulings?

By Howard J. Bashman

6 minute read

November 11, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

One proposed amendment—governing the contents and effect of a notice of appeal—is particularly worthy of attention, because it is intended to remove a trap for the unwary that currently exists in federal appellate practice.

By Howard J. Bashman

6 minute read

October 14, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

The court decided by a vote of 6-1 that the defendant had waived his ability to obtain a ruling in his favor by failing to adequately preserve the question presented before either the trial court or the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

By Howard J. Bashman

6 minute read

September 16, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

My concern was that such petitions for review, which are rarely successful, represented a waste of client resources and an unfortunate diversion of judicial attention away from the more important work of correctly deciding cases that are properly before the appellate court on the merits.

By Howard J. Bashman

7 minute read

August 12, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

Notwithstanding the Third Circuit’s newfound Republican majority, it may be difficult to perceive any changes in the court’s rulings between now and before.

By Howard J. Bashman

5 minute read

July 15, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

The U.S. Supreme Court's 2018-2019 term will be remembered as Brett M. Kavanaugh's first one as a justice, and he wrote the majority opinion in the only case that the Supreme Court affirmed on direct review from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit this past term.

By Howard J. Bashman

8 minute read

June 17, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

To the extent that we learn rules of civil procedure in law school—the rules that the litigants and the courts follow when presenting and processing civil cases for resolution—the focus is exclusively on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which apply only in federal court.

By Howard J. Bashman

7 minute read

May 13, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

This month's column addresses a fundamental principle of appellate practice—the difference between a precedential and a nonprecedential appellate court ruling.

By Howard J. Bashman

5 minute read