Injustice On Appeal The United States Courts of Appeals in Crisis

Author: William M. Richman; William L. Reynolds
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
ISBN: 9780195342079
Published In: January 2013
Format: Hardback , 256 pages
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Disclaimer:
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A capstone work chronicling the last forty years of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals history and development.
Provides unrivaled critical analysis of appellate and judicial procedures and their evolution in the U.S. Circuit Courts.
Provides a much-needed, clearly-written and well-reasoned approach to reform to alleviate the caseload crisis affecting the appellate courts.

The United States Circuit Courts of Appeals are among the most important governmental institutions in our society. However, because the Supreme Court can hear less than 150 cases per year, the Circuit Courts (with a combined caseload of over 60,000) are, for practical purposes, the courts of last resort for all but a tiny fraction of federal court litigation. Thus, their significance, both for ultimate dispute resolution and for the formation and application of federal law, cannot be overstated.

Yet, in the last forty years, a dramatic increase in caseload and a systemic resistance to an increased judgeship have led to a crisis. Signed published opinions form only a small percentage of dispositions; judges confer on fifty routine cases in an afternoon; and most litigants are denied oral argument completely.

In Injustice on Appeal: The United States Courts of Appeals in Crisis, William M. Richman and William L. Reynolds chronicle the transformation of the United States Circuit Courts; consider the merits and dangers of continued truncating procedures; catalogue and respond to the array of specious arguments against increasing the size of the judiciary; and consider several ways of reorganizing the circuit courts so that they can dispense traditional high quality appellate justice even as their caseloads and the number of appellate judgeships increase. The work serves as an analytical capstone to the authors' thirty years of research on the issue and will constitute a powerful piece of advocacy for a more responsible and egalitarian approach to caseload glut facing the circuit courts.

Readership: Legal scholars, judges, law students. Students of the history of the US judicial system.

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: A Brief History of the Circuit Courts
Chapter 2: The Publication Plans
Chapter 3: The Premises of the Argument for Limited Publication
Chapter 4: The Counter-Arguments
Chapter 5: The Life and Death of the No-Citation Rules
Chapter 6: The Constitution and Unpublished Opinions
Chapter 7: Restricting Oral Argument
Chapter 8: Additional Decision Makers: Deciding By Bureaucracy
Chapter 9: The Cumulative Effect of the Appellate Triage Regime
Chapter 10: Commissions, Studies, Reports, and Proposals
Chapter 11: The Obvious Solution and the Judicial Opposition
Chapter 12: The Need for a Small Federal Judiciary: Reasons, Arguments, and Refutations
Chapter 13: Jurisdictional Retrenchment: Of Babies and Bath Water
Chapter 14: Elitism and Diversity
Conclusion

William M. Richman, Distinguished University Professor, University of Toledo, School of Law, and William L. Reynolds, Jacob A. France Professor of Judicial Process, University of Maryland School of Law

WILLIAM M. RICHMAN is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Toledo College of Law. WILLIAM L. REYNOLDS is the Jacob A. France Professor of Judicial Process at the University of Maryland School of Law. For nearly 30 years, Professors Reynolds and Richman have investigated and commented on the changing internal operating procedures in the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals. The results of their work appear in a series of law review articles published in the Columbia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, University of Chicago Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, Cornell Law Review, Washington and Lee Law Review, and Judicature among others. Widely cited in the professional and academic literature on appellate court administration, caseload pressure, and procedural reform, they have effected at least some positive changes in several of the most controversial practices of the courts. Their previous joint publications inclu

The Full Faith and Credit Clause (2004); Jurisdiction in Civil Actions (3d ed. 1998); Cases and Materials on Conflict of Laws (2005); and Understanding Conflict of Laws (2002).