I'm going to do something I have never done but I hope it will be heard: judges of #appellatetwitter - I have a story for you.
I am currently representing a nurse who was fired from her job after she reported some safety issues. Hospital says it's because she was 1/
I am currently representing a nurse who was fired from her job after she reported some safety issues. Hospital says it's because she was 1/
and angry, abrasive person.
I didn't represent her at the trial court or CoA, but the record is pretty clear about one thing - the record ain't clear. There's nothing that objectively proves one side's case or the other.
All we really know, for sure, is that my person 2/
I didn't represent her at the trial court or CoA, but the record is pretty clear about one thing - the record ain't clear. There's nothing that objectively proves one side's case or the other.
All we really know, for sure, is that my person 2/
was canned about a month after she reported. SJ was granted, improvidently in my opinion.
So another person briefed this case at the COA pointing out the issues of material fact and whatnot. The opinion dropped and it was a doozy.
Basically, the opinion didn't 3/
So another person briefed this case at the COA pointing out the issues of material fact and whatnot. The opinion dropped and it was a doozy.
Basically, the opinion didn't 3/
just adopt the hospital's theory of the case. It editorialized. A lot. About my real life client. It was clearly written by a law clerk and it made my client sound like a stark raving mad lunatic.
I am now trying to get that case flipped at the SC level. But in 4/
I am now trying to get that case flipped at the SC level. But in 4/
the meantime? She has become completely unemployable. She got an email today confirming that the reason she would not be hired for a job that she was actually recruited for was that CoA opinion.
She has never been unemployed for more than a few weeks before. 5/
She has never been unemployed for more than a few weeks before. 5/
She has now been without work for months.
So judges - please forgive me if this twitter thread in anyway comes off as presumptuous or disrespectful, but I feel compelled to say something.
At the appellate level things aren't quite as visceral or real most of the time. 6/
So judges - please forgive me if this twitter thread in anyway comes off as presumptuous or disrespectful, but I feel compelled to say something.
At the appellate level things aren't quite as visceral or real most of the time. 6/
It's not like trial where you're looking the litigants right in the face. But please do not ever forget, and make sure your clerks understand, that there can be very real consequences for an opinion that, while clever, makes a party look like a dunce or a clown. I don't 7/
know that my client will ever have faith in this system again, even if I get this result overturned and win a trial for her.
You wield awesome power. Please be careful. 8/8
You wield awesome power. Please be careful. 8/8
