As of October 1, Judge Smith has succeeded Judge McKee as Chief Judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.  Judge McKee has been Chief Judge since 2010, succeeding Judge Scirica in that role.  Judge McKee is thus, to date, the only Third Circuit Chief Judge that this blog has ever known.

The new Chief Judge, Judge Smith, is very familiar to readers of this blog as a prolific author of opinions, especially in the area of class actions.  A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and Dickinson School of Law, the predecessor to Penn State Law, Judge Smith began his legal caree

Chassen v. Fidelity Nat’l Financial, Inc., 836 F.3d 291 (3d Cir. 2016).  [Disclosure:  I was an expert witness for plaintiffs in this case, but my Declaration and deposition testimony was not the subject of, or referred to in, this opinion].  This was a putative class action involving allegedly improper charges, ranging from $70 to $350, stemming from the recording of deeds and mortgages.  Though there were arbitration clauses in defendants’

Roberts v. Ferman, 826 F.3d 117 (3d Cir. 2016).  Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(c)  deals with the circumstance in which a transcript of a District Court hearing or trial is unavailable.  In such a case, the appellant “may prepare a statement of the evidence or proceedings from the best available means, including the appellant’s recollection,” submit it to the appellee for objections or amendments, and then to the District Court “for settlement and approval.&