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The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles appellate cases
from Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, relocated to Houston for
three months, and then will move to Baton Rouge. It extended to Oct.
3 all filing deadlines from Aug. 24 to Sept. 30.
More information on specific federal courts can be found at:
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5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
www.ca5.uscourts.gov
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U.S. District Court, E.D. Louisiana,
www.laed.uscourts.gov;
Emergency filings can be sent to Baton Rouge or Lafayette.
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U.S. Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Louisiana,
www.lamb.uscourts.gov
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U.S. District Court, S.D. Mississippi,
www.mssd.uscourts.gov;
The court is now open.
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U.S. Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Mississippi,
www.mssb.uscourts.gov
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U.S. District Court, S.D. Alabama,
www.alsd.uscourts.gov;
The court is open for business.
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U.S. Courts news,
www.uscourts.gov/news.html
State Courts
As of September 16th, the Louisiana Supreme Court and the state's
Fourth and Fifth Circuit
Courts of Appeal remain closed. Local courts in New Orleans are
closed until at least Oct.
1. The governor ordered the suspension of all legal deadlines until
at least Sept. 25.
In Mississippi, the Supreme Court ordered all filing deadlines
between Aug. 29 and Oct. 31
extended by 90 days.
In Texas, the state Supreme Court issued an order authorizing
displaced lawyers to
practice law there without fear of engaging in unauthorized
practice. The order can be
found at:
www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/advisories/katrina_advisory.htm.
Additional information on state courts can be found at:
Associations – National
National bar associations are coordinating relief efforts within the
legal community. Key
sites include:
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American Bar Association, Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief,
www.abanet.org/katrina.
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American Bar Association, Section of Real Property, Probate and
Trust Law,
www.abanet.org/rppt/section_info/hurricane.html;
Focus on real-property emergency resources.
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Association of Legal Administrators,
www.alanet.org/hometext.html
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Association of Trial Lawyers of America,
www.atla.org
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Defense Research Institute,
www.dri.org
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NALS, www.nals.org
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National Bar Association, Hurricane Aid Resource Center,
www.nationalbar.org/news/hurricane/hurricaneaid.shtml
Associations – State
The Web site of the Louisiana State Bar Association,
www.lsba.org, quickly became a
leading portal for information on Katrina's impact on lawyers, law
firms and clients. It
includes messages boards, court orders, disaster training manuals
and comprehensive links
to legal, government and private resources.
State bars throughout the country devoted sections of their sites to
Katrina information
and relief. For first-hand information from affected states, useful
state bar sites
include:
Associations – Local
Local bars across the country reacted to Katrina through their Web
sites. Among those with
useful information and resources are:
Technology
Several sites provide information and resources related to law
office technology, practice
management and disaster/data recovery:
Blogs and Message Boards
Several sites serve as virtual bulletin boards for posting
announcements, requests for
assistance and offers of help. They include:
Disaster Training
The Louisiana State Bar Association compiled training materials to
help lawyers provide
legal assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina. These are:
Law Schools
Law schools throughout the country responded with offers of help for
students and faculty
displaced by Katrina. Key sites for information on law schools
affected by Katrina are:
Insurance
The insurance industry has created the Hurricane Insurance
Information Center, www.disasterinformation.org, to provide information for consumers
affected by Hurricane
Katrina.
© 2005 IMS ExpertServices all rights reserved.
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