NCJ Number
93006
Journal
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: (Spring 1983) Pages: 471-492
Date Published
1983
Length
22 pages
Annotation
An organizational solution is proposed to the appellate court dilemma resulting from the recent litigation explosion.
Abstract
If the number of appellate judges is not expanded to accommodate growing caseloads, court may rely too heavily on professional staff. But increasing the number of judges in proportion to the growth in appellate litigation will also increase the number of three-judge decisional units; thereby treatening predictability and uniformity in the law of the jurisdiction. The subject matter organization plan eliminates random case assignments to judges and allows the court to be enlarged to a size appropriate to the number of cases, thus avoiding undue delegation to staff while maintaining doctrinal coherence in the law. Relatively stable panels or divisions of from three to five judges as assigned specified portions of the court's docket. Each type of appeals case goes from the trial court to a specified panel or division. A properly designed subject matter plan of appellate organizaton will not force appellate judges to specialize in a single category of case of single type of legal issue. The danger of judges' developing overly narrow views or becoming bored by a lack of intellectual challenge can be reduced of the law by allocating cases among the various divisions and rotating the judge to an entirely different cluster of cases after 3 to 5 years. An appendix with 6 tables and 24 references are included.