Thursday, June 18, 2009

In Re Warren (9th Cir. - June 18, 2009)

Unless you've got an abnormally high interest in the automatic disclosure and dismissal rules in bankruptcy cases, you can largely skip this one from the Ninth Circuit today.

Except for footnote 1. Judge T.G. Nelson discusses therein the use of nunc pro tunc orders, and where and when they're appropriate. Both in bankruptcy cases as well as elsewhere. My gestalt sense is that he's right that those orders are overused, and should properly be limited to those in which the record doesn't reflect what the court actually intended to do at the earlier date (but that wasn't sufficiently expressed). It's often okay to change your mind or grant leave or whatever, but doing it nunc pro tunc often improperly uses this doctrine.

Latin -- at least the language -- is surely not my thing, but a little knowlege about the actual doctrines is definitely helpfu.