Appellate Practice

Meeting Minutes: October 6, 2004

UTAH STATE BAR APPELLATE PRACTICE SECTION
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

MINUTES of October 6, 2004 meeting

In attendance: Scott M. Ellsworth (Chair), Ken Bronston (Chair Elect), Tawni Sherman (Secretary/Treasurer), Lori J. Seppi (Council Member), Mike Lee (Council Member)

I. Meeting with State Bar. Discussed meeting with the Bar and presenting the Section’s plans for 2005. Planned activities include: appellate court audio streaming (Ken will report later on progress); appellate practice primer (should be nearing completion); continued sponsoring of CLE programs (discussed further below).

II. Areas in which Section could assist other areas of the Bar: Ken discussed the recurring problems before the criminal bar and bench (including judge’s problems with instructions on reasonable doubt, jury colloquies, etc.). We discussed whether the Section might raise the issue with the AOC and point out how much time and money these issues waste, and also discussed whether the Section might be able to help the AOC with these issues.

Scott pointed out that there is a lack of clarity in the rules governing administrative proceedings, and suggested that we meet with the Civil and Appellate Procedure Rules committees to assist with clarifying these rules.

III. CLEs: We discussed the following potential CLE programs, all centered around the topic of oral advocacy:

• Oral argument, perhaps a half-day program given by a very well-regarded speaker. Possible date: sometime from July through September 2005
• Justice Wilkins speaking on oral advocacy. Possible date: February 2005
• Panel of judges to discuss oral argument (unsettled whether federal only, state only, or mixed); in the alternative, a presentation by Judge McConnell only. Possible date: February 2005.
• Panel of Utah judges to discuss oral advocacy. Possible date: early Fall 2005.
• NLCLE on the basics of appellate practice, presented by Kent and Chris once appellate primer is complete.

IV. And Justice For All: The Section agreed to donate $300 to And Justice For All in response to its recent request for contributions.

V. Next meeting: Scheduled for December 2, 2004 at 2:30.