Folks write and (e)file their own court papers in civil and criminal cases each day. Ordinary people—like Clarence Earl Gideon (handwritten in pencil) and Steven Alan Levin (formatted in Microsoft Word)—have successfully petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States on their own. The Michigan Supreme Court ordered oral argument on two handwritten applications filed…
Category: Procedural fairness
Reconsideration: We got it wrong. We’re saying so. Now, we’re making it right.
Losing parties regularly file motions for reconsideration. Courts routinely deny them. (The Michigan Supreme Court’s online form proactively warns: “Generally, a motion for reconsideration that merely repeats the same arguments made in prior pleadings will not be granted. The moving party must demonstrate a palpable error by which the Court and the parties have been…
Online court videos—why AI subtitles are not “good enough” and how they can be made better.
The public, litigants, media, and legal community have good reason (indeed, an obligation) to pay attention to what’s argued and decided in their state supreme courts. State courts are the only forum for enforcing a right under their own constitutions when the Supreme Court of the United States does not, reminds federal judge Jeffrey S….