Appellate Practice
Cutting Edge Victories on Appeal
Carmen D. Caruso accepts appellate work in cases that other lawyers handled in the trial court in addition to handling his own appeals when necessary.
Appellate practice is not merely an extension of trial court litigation. Success on appeal requires an appreciation for the growth and direction of the law, and the ability to place the client’s case squarely in the flow – or to explain why the result in a particular case should be against the grain.
Caruso is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the United States Court of Military Appeals. Caruso is also admitted to the Illinois Supreme Court and the Illinois Appellate Courts.
Caruso’s successes on appeal include:
- Interim Health Care of Northern Illinois Inc. v. Interim Health Care, Inc., 225 F.3d 876 (7th Cir. 2000). Victory in the questions of whether a franchisor had breached the implied covenant of good faith & fair dealing by withholding referrals of “national account” patients to the franchisee, and by deliberately encroaching the franchisee’s trade area.
- Bellaver v. Quanex Corporation, 200 F.3d 485 (7th Cir. 2000) was a precedent setting Title VII victory involving gender stereotyping, glass ceilings, and a phony reduction in force (RIF). The Court of Appeals accepted Caruso’s argument that where an alleged RIF is directed at a single employee, who has a unique job category, the employer is not entitled to the degree of deference to its business judgment that would ordinarily be due. Reversing a summary judgment for the defense, the Court held that the terminated female manager was entitled to jury trial based on evidence that her male supervisor routinely criticized her for allegedly abrasive relations with her co-workers while tolerating far more abusive behavior by the male managers.
- Corgain v. Miller, 708 F.2d 1241 (7th Cir. 1982), winning relief on a constitutional law issue, in a prisoner’s rights case while still in law school.