Byrne v. Wood, Herron & Evans, LLP

It is time we stop exercising jurisdiction over state law malpractice claims. I dissent from the court’s refusal to consider this matter en banc so that the case law through which we have expanded the scope of our jurisdiction to these purely state law matters can be reconsidered and revamped.

This court has justified expanding the reach of our jurisdiction to cover state law malpractice claims by reading Christian-son v. Colt Industries Operating Corp., 486 U.S. 800, 108 S.Ct. 2166, 100 L.Ed.2d 811 (1988), to authorize our doing so. Specifically, our case law concludes that, whenever a patent…