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Court Appeals Cracks Down on "Skeleton" Motions

By Baker Associates

For years, attorneys handling criminal appeals have been filing motions known as "skeleton" motions in order to avoid the thirty-day limit for requesting a new trial established by the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure. These motions are generally motions that contain just enough information to actually be considered motions for a new trial but without any real information pertaining to the motion, the case, or the grounds for appeals. Attorneys were able to use these motions as a type of placeholder because courts would allow them to go back and "amend" their initial motion by filling in the requisite information at a later time. This allowed the attorney more time to gather his or her thoughts and analyze the evidence before putting the grounds for appeal in the motion itself.continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on February 21, 2011 (boomark / email).