I just finished preparing my written materials for a continuing legal education course on appellate advocacy. Successfully Navigating the Appeals Process will be presented on June 19, 2009 in Little Rock. I think it is going to be a good program. That's not just because I'm going to be on the panel. Actually, there will be a lot of talent there, and I'm probably the least of the attractions.

This is a repeat of a seminar that was presented last year. Last year's presentation was very well-received, according to reports from those who attended.

The star attraction will be Judge Wendell Griffen. Judge Griffen will be speaking on the topic of "Tips from the Appellate Judge." He was a member of the Court of Appeals from 1996 until 2008, and was Chair of the Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission before that. He's currently CEO of Griffen Stgrategic Consulting, PLLC, offering a variety of legal consulting services. www.griffenstrategicconsulting.com.

Christopher Lawson from Friday Eldredge and Clark will be speaking on pre-appeal considerations and oral arguments. He has a lot of experience and is a good speaker on these issues. He did this presentation last year and did a very good job.

John Talbot of the Bridges Law Firm will speak on "Making an Ethical Appeal."

I will cover appellate procedure and legal writing. Legal writing is one of my favorite subjects. It allows me to apply what I learned in years of studying the science of linguistics.

We fail to recognize that legal language is nothing more than a separate dialect of English. It has its own peculiar rules. The grammar is identical to that of Standard English, but the vocabulary is different in some important ways. The style is also different.

There is a misguided notion that we should abolish "legalese." Legal language can certainly be abused, but it does have its proper place. The ultimate goal is efficient communication.

There are three chief kinds of legal writing: functional, informative, and persuasive. Functional writing is rare outside the legal arena. By functional writing I mean writing that actually does something. Legal documents, when properly signed, filed, sealed, or certified, actually change people's legal rights and responsibilities. It is rare that a writing can actually do something without the power of the law behind it. Informative writing should convey information. The identity of the target of the information is all-important. Finally, most difficult and most important, is persuasive writing.

We will cover all three kinds of legal writing in the seminar. I recommend the program for anyone interested in exploring the appellate process in Arkansas or Federal courts.

You can register by going to: http://www.nbi-sems.com/ and searching for Successfully Navigating the Appeals Process. Or try this http://tinyurl.com/cy5ryd. This is my first try with "Tiny URL. Let's see if it works.

Gerry

I have a couple of Blogger blogs but I can't get to them now.

I have a gerrysch.blogspot.com I have gerryschulze.blogspot.com. I abandoned both of them. I don't know how to get to them now. It gets increasingly complicated. It's now going to have to be this one.

I really hate losing gerrysch. I have that name all over the Internet. But it's gone. It's probably gone for good. That's what I get for not keeping up with things.

I put things all over the Internet, but I don't keep up with them. Recently, I've been using Facebook a lot. I've gone through phases of using AOL, Google Groups, various bulletin boards, and the like. I've posted in my own name and in aliases. I've written a lot and I've read a lot. I really enjoy it. But now there's no way to keep up with it.

I want to do a couple of blogs. I have wanted to do a personal blog for a while. I also want to do a legal blog. That one really needs a different title, and it probably needs to be kept separate from my bizarre private life.

Let's see how long this one lasts.

Gerry