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In In re Attorney Fees of Mitchell T. Foster (Docket No. 327707), the Court of Appeals reversed a trial court decision denying reasonable attorney fees to an appointed criminal defense appellate attorney because his application for leave to appeal was denied “for lack of merit in the grounds presented.” Mitchell Foster was appointed by the Iosco Circuit Court to serve as the defendant’s appellate attorney.

The Michigan Supreme Court heard oral arguments in McLain v City of Lansing Fire Department on October 6, 2016 to decide whether to grant leave to appeal. Tracy McLain sought emergency treatment as a result of a respiratory attack. Emergency personnel inserted a breathing tube due to her low blood oxygen levels and transported her to the hospital. She alleges that the emergency personnel placed the tube in her esophagus rather than her trachea and that they acted with gross negligence where they did not check her blood oxygen levels with a pulse oximeter during the entire transport to the hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital, the emergency department notes indicate that the tube was placed in the esophagus.

Michigan Board of Law Examiners has posted

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. U.S. Const., art 1, sec.10, cl.1

Once your bar exam appeal is submitted, it generally takes several weeks to receive your results.

A key factor in determining whether you should appeal is knowing how many additional points you need to pass the exam. If you have failed by only a few points, you should consider having your essay exam evaluated by an attorney. You will also want to review the scoring of your essay answers to make sure that there are no human scoring errors (such as your essay clearly warranted a score of “10", but was only scored a “1").

Bar exam appeals are fast-paced and procedurally inflexible.

The Supreme Court (SCt.), after granting leave and taking full briefing and arguments in Black v Shafer, (149516), reversed the Michigan Court of Appeals (312379) and reinstated Wayne County Circuit Order granting Summary Disposition in favor of the defendant Anthony Shafer. The SCt decided the case on proximate cause, which was not an issue it asked the parties to address.