Administration of Justice in a Large Appellate Court - The Ninth Circuit Innovations Project

• NCJ Number: 97198
• Author(s): J S Cecil
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 168 pages
• Corporate Author: Federal Judicial Ctr
• Sale Source: Federal Judicial Ctr; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The innovations implemented in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1982 enabled the court to eliminate its large backlog of cases awaiting submission, even though the filings of cases increased and visiting judges were used less.

Abstract

The judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had resolved to deal with court congestion and delay by reviewing processes and procedures to increase productivity without reducing the quality of justice. The increase in the number of active judges in the circuit from 1979 through 1980 was aided by increases in the productivity of judges resulting from their commitment to handle more cases. The core of the innovations project consisted of three procedures: the modification of calendaring practices for oral arguments, the Submission-Without-Argument Program, and the Prebriefing Conference Program. Other innovations focused on avoiding conflicting decisions by circuit panels. The median time from the filing of the complete case record to disposition dropped from 17.4 months in 1980 to 10.5 months in 1983. The greatest reductions occurred in the period from the filing of the last brief to submission of the case for argument. Other growing Federal circuit courts might benefit from these experiences. Footnotes, data tables, figures, and appendixes presenting rules, forms, and related materials are supplied.