Appellate Practice for the Rest of Us

In our adversarial system, about half of us will disagree with the judge’s ruling. Yet statistically speaking, only a couple of bankruptcy-related cases reach the Supreme Court in any given term. This panel focuses on the first level of appeals to district courts or bankruptcy appellate panels, including whether the party has standing, whether the appeal is ripe and/or interlocutory, and the hot-button issue of mootness. The panelists take a practical approach to addressing the many traps for the unwary so that all of us will feel more confident in filing — or receiving a notice of — an appeal in one of our cases.