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Remedies for Appellate Overloads: The Ultimate Solution

NCJ Number
112521
Journal
Judicature Volume: 72 Issue: 2 Dated: (August-September 1988) Pages: 103-110
Author(s)
R L Stern
Date Published
1988
Length
8 pages
Annotation
After summarizing the methods most often used in U.S. State and Federal appellate courts to reduce overload, this article then considers less well-known proposals and a method used by many European countries.
Abstract
Most U.S. appellate courts have sought to reduce case overload by increasing the number of lawyers on the court staff, eliminating oral arguments in cases deemed by the court to be frivolous or insubstantial, restricting the time for argument and the length of briefs, and issuing summary orders. Less well-known proposals for relieving appellate courts of some burdens include delegating parts of the functions of screening cases for review, as Florida has recently done, and creating an additional court below a supreme court. A number of countries -- including France, West Germany, and Japan -- have created a number of divisions, panels, or courts within their supreme courts. The experience of these countries demonstrates the questionable basis of the prevailing American assumption that all or most of the judges of the highest court of a jurisdiction must decide all cases calling for an authoritative ruling. 50 footnotes.