Ten years is a long time, even in non-blogging years. But in blog years, it’s darn near an eternity. Law blogs aren’t too hard to start, but they take a lot of time and effort to maintain: Finding materials of interest to your reader. Digesting and understanding those materials. Posting analysis that you can live with being attributed to you, forever.  All at the speed of the internet, day-in, day-out. And the monetary rewards? Positively … nada. (But there are other rewards that make it worthwhile.)

Today, our colleague Tred Eyerly enters the rarefied group of law bloggers who have kept it up for a decade, and is marking a well-earned birthday for his blog, Insurance Law Hawaii. Where we go for all of our questions on insurance coverage, nationwide. He posts frequently, on the latest issues in that area of law.

Congratulations, Tred. Keep it up.Continue Reading Ten Years Of Law Blogging With Tred Eyerly

POTUS 1, George Washington, like a lot of other things, said it about our national day of thanksgiving pretty well:

“Our fincere and humble Thanks … for the peaceable and rational Manner in which we have been enabled to eftablish Conftitutions of Government for our Safety and Happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately infituted.”

If they could only have added a “s” key to their version of MS Word, it truly would be a more perfect Union.  Continue Reading Happy Thankfgiving To You

The HSBA Bar Convention is being held on Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at the Hawaii Convention Center.

The Appellate Section has a wonderful line-up for the morning (9:00 am – Noon), and our wonderful line-up of speakers:

• Robert Thomas, of Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert, will provide tips and solutions on the top 10 appellate traps; 

• Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin and Deputy Attorney General Deirdre Marie-Iha will provide an update on the travel ban litigation (only a few days after their upcoming United States Supreme Court oral argument), and tips and advice based on unique appellate procedure that has arisen during the litigation; and

• Our popular Appellate Panel with guests HAWSCT Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald, ICA Chief Judge Craig Nakamura, and Hawaii Solicitor General Clyde Wadsworth.

Here is a link to register on-line, and by Wed. 9/27, there is an early bird discount: 

 http://hsba.org/HSBA/HSBA_CLE/2017_HSBA_Bar_Convention/HSBA/HSBA_CLE/HSBA_Bar_Convention/HSBA_Bar_Convention.aspx?hkey=aa3b38fd-1670-478f-8ab2-384cec22804cContinue Reading HSBA Annual Meeting: Ten Appellate Traps, And How To Avoid Them

Yeah, its Sunday, but it is also Constitution Day (or should we say Khaaaaan-stitution Day?), so you know what that means: the annual reading of the Preamble by One Named Kirk. 

He might be from Iowa, but that guy who plays him is from north of the border, so our kudos to a Canadian for the best dramatic rendition of our founding document.Continue Reading “This Was Not Written For Chiefs!”

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Continue Reading Cases

Later this week, if all goes as planned, I will become the Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law. Several of my colleagues have asked why I participate in that organization since they don’t see the value in doing so. At the risk of repeating myself, I’m going to repost something I wrote a couple of years ago when asked the same question. 

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This is the ABA we’re talking about — an organization with a mixed reputation among members of our profession — and some of you have asked me why it is I am involved in the Association when many of our peers don’t see the value of joining or participating. So I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you about my reasons, and encourage those of you who are not currently with us to overcome…

Continue Reading ABA – Why?

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Watch oral arguments here. Continue Reading Georgia Supreme Court Considering Whether Landowner’s Bill Of Rights Are Merely “Guidelines”

Here are the Questions Presented in Bay Point Properties, Inc. v. Mississippi Transportation Commission, No. 16-1077 (cert. petition filed Mar. 3, 2017), a case which seeks Supreme Court review of a decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court. We represent the Petitioner. 

The full set of party and amici briefs are posted below. 

An inverse condemnation jury determined the Mississippi Transportation Commission (MTC) ceased using a highway-purpose easement granted to it in 1952 by Petitioner’s predecessor-in-title for a specific bridge, “Toll Project No. 1,” the U.S. Highway 90 crossing of Bay St. Louis. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the bridge. MTC removed Toll Project No. 1 and built an entirely new bridge in a different location, and converted the majority of Petitioner’s land into a public recreational park. This discontinued the specific use authorized by the easement, and Petitioner should have immediately recovered unencumbered possession. The jury determined MTC’s…

Continue Reading Bay Point Properties v. Mississippi Transportation Comm’n, No. 16-1077