esqappellate
President, MSI
- Feb 12, 2012
- 7,408
esqappellate,
Thanks for the quick response and more importantly thank you for the inside look at how the court system works.
Most of us are mystified on the inner working of the legal system.
For example I did not know that the court does not sit every day or even every week. Now it makes a little more sense why things take so long.
One more question on that: When you say that they do not sit every day (or week) does that mean they are not sitting hearing orals? Or does that mean they are not at work at all?
I would be surprised to learn that they have a short 20 hour work week.
I would imagine that when they are not sitting hearing orals or voting on a case they are reading briefs, researching precedent, and writing opinions. Meaning that hopefully they are busy all the time and there are just a lot of case to get through and that is why cases take a long time. So I would hope the reason cases take so long is NOT just because they take their sweet time with them.
By sitting, I mean to hear argument. Appellate judges work extremely hard. As you can tell from the description, they must work hard just to get ready for an argument. Most federal appellate courts hear between 4-7 cases a day in argument and will sit for argument for a week at a time, all the while writing opinions in cases already heard from prior weeks in which they were sitting. Some cases are hard, with large records and difficult legal questions, some are easier. Some involve life and death matters or billions of dollars. Or your freedom.