efore Justice J. Clinton Peterson retired, arguing before the First District Court of Appeal's Division Five was often a harrowing and humbling experience.
And as attorney Geoffrey Margolis learned one recent morning, it still can be.
As soon as Margolis and his opponent approached the bench, the division's new presiding justice, Barbara Jones, ominously asked the government lawyer to explain "the absence of citation to the record and legal authority" in his brief. "Let me give you another example of the difficulty we're having with your brief," she said a moment later, pointing to another page in his brief.
"When you don't cite authority for bold, conclusory propositions of law," Jones told him, "it creates a real problem."
For the next two minutes, the only noise in the courtroom was the sound of Margolis flipping through a thick sheaf of papers in search of a response. Then Jones broke the silence. "I'll give you another example while you're looking," she said pleasantly.
In short, Jones knows how to dish out a dressing-down. But unlike Peterson, who could be dour and intimidating, Jones usually comes across as more amused than abused by the foibles of counsel.
"I thoroughly enjoy oral argument," says Jones, when asked about that morning's calendar. But she says she gets annoyed when lawyers don't do their best to guide the court on its trips into uncharted waters. "We want all the help we can get from the lawyers. When there are problems, we get frustrated."
Jones, the first female to preside over a First District division is a former business and plaintiff-side personal injury litigator who estimates she took 15 to 20 cases to verdict. The 56-year-old Republican spent four years as a San Francisco Superior Court judge before her promotion to the appellate bench in December of 1996.
Since taking over as PJ last September, Jones has maintained two Division Five traditions near and dear to appellate attorneys.
Like Peterson, Jones presides over an active bench. And she tells counsel at the outset which issues the court wants to hear about -- and which ones it doesn't.
"They're pretty darn directive and can sink your heart like a stone in the first sentence," says appellate attorney Paige Wickland. But the Fancher & Wickland partner says it beats getting no guidance at all. "You realize what hill you have to get up."
And Wickland, for one, welcomes the lightened tone Jones brings to the job. "The old Division Five was terrifying," she says.
Attentive lawyers will find that arguing to Jones' court is not like arguing to Mount Rushmore. If she gets the gist, she nods. If that doesn't work, she might inform counsel, as she did twice one recent morning, "you're repeating yourself."
Jones has also kept the division current, another big plus with attorneys (and their clients.) Division Five sets is cases for argument as soon as briefing is completed.
A few of Jones' opinions have been taken up by the California Supreme Court, but the verdict is in on only one of them. In March, the justices found, as Jones had, that the medical malpractice cap doesn't apply to Elder Abuse Act suits against nursing homes. But the court took a different path to reach that result in Delaney v. Baker, 20 Cal.4th 23 (1999).
Jones remains matter-of-fact about her place in the food chain. "Our role is to tee up the issues that merit attention," she says.
