Appellate Law

Appellate Discretion

By Matt Conigliaro

Two decisions released yesterday show that the appellate courts are taking a serious interest in not revealing the names of nonparties involved with, or accused of, questionable or perhaps just highly personal activities.

In this decision, the Third District did not give the names of a juror asserted to be intoxicated during trial or another juror who claimed his own severe hypertension led him to vote a particular way. In this separate decision, the Second District repeatedly referenced only the victim’s “girlfriend” when discussing a woman who had sex with three men in a hotel room shortly before two of the men ended up in a fight that resulted in aggravated battery charges.

Credit to the courts for recognizing the potential impact of including names in written opinions. Hopefully that same sensitivity will carry over to counsel once all Florida appellate briefs are readily available online and included within the major search engines’ databases. That day is coming soon…

Full post as published by Abstract Appeal on February 03, 2011 (boomark / email).