1984 STATE APPELLATE COURT JURISDICTION GUIDE Summary
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---- --------c---- , } ) 1984 STATE APPELLATE COURT JURISDICTION GUIDE FOR STATISTICAL REPORTING , J Summary Tables L. Robert T. Roper with Mary E. Elsner and Victor E. Flango A joint effort of the Conference of State Court Administrators and the ,I , Court Statistics and Information Management Project of the National Center for State Courts If ~ t' .. V 1 984 .-.~ STATE APPELLATE COURT JURISDICTION GUIDE FOR STATISTICAL REPORTING Summary Tables C Robert T. Roper, Ph.D. with Mary E. Elsner, M.S. and Victor E. Flango, Ph.D. A joint effort of the Conference of State Court Administrators and the Court Statistics and Information Management Project of the National Center for State Courts Williamsburg, Virginia 23187-8798 October, 1985 U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice This document has been reproduced exactly as received from the person or organization originating it. Points of view or opinions stated in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or pOlicies of the Nalional Institule of Justice. Permission to reproduce this c~ted material has been granted by. t . Public Domaln!Bureau of Jus lce . statistlCS/US Department of JUStl to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). Further reproduction outside of the NCJRS system requires permis sion of the CDp¥I'igRt owner. Role of the Conference of State Court Administrators The support and guidance of the COSCA Court Statistics and Information Systems Committee, whose names appear below, exemplifies the vital role COSCA plays in making available nation-w'ide state court caseload statistics. COSCA Court Statistics and Information Systems Committee Mr. Walter J. Kane, .Chairman Honorable Roy o. Gulley State Court Administrator, Director, Administrative Office Rhode Island of the Courts, III i no; s Mr. William G. Bohn Mr. J. Denis Moran State Court Administrator, Director of State Courts, North Dakota Wisconsin Dr. Hugh M. Collins Mr. Larry P. Polansky, Vice Chairman Deputy Judicial Administrator, Executive Officer of the Louisiana District of Columbia Courts Ms. Sue K. Dosal Professor Richard J. Richardson State Court Administrator, University of North Carolina Minnesota Mr. Stanley R. Collis Mr. Francis J. Taillefer Executive Officer and Jury Director of Information Services, Commissioner North Carolina Alameda Superior Court, California Court Statistics and Information Management Project Staff Mary E. Elsner Victor E. Flango Project Co-Director Senior Staff Associate Robert T. Roper Brenda W. Jones Project Co-Director Administrative Secretary National Center for State Courts Staff Patricia H. Maddox Word Processing Supervisor Stacey A. Healy Catherine J. Meek Word Processing Secretary Word Procesing Secretary iii Pr~©eding page blank National Center for State Courts Board of. Directors President Harriet P. Henry, Edward F. Hennessey, Judge at Large, Maine District Chief Justice, Supreme Judicial Court Court of Massachusetts Charles V. Johnson, President-Elect Judge, Superior Court, King Robert C. Murphy, County, Washington Chief Judge, Court of Appeals of Maryland Gladys Kessler, Presiding Judge, Family Division, Vice-President Superior Court, District of Arthur H. Snowden II, Columbia Administrative Director of the Courts, Alaska Edward B. McConnell, Executive Director, National Dorothy T. Beasley, Center for State Courts Judge, Court of Appeals of Georgia Robert N.C. Nix, Jr., William G. Clark, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Chief Justice, Supreme Court Pennsyl vani a of Illinois John T. Racanelli, Stanley R. Collis, Presiding Justice, California Executive Officer, Alameda Court of Appeal, First District Superior Court, Oakland, California Thomas J. Stovall, Presiding Judge, Second Sue K. Dosal, Administrative Judicial State Court Administrator, District of Texas Supreme Court of Minnesota Clement C. Torbert, Jr., Haliburton Fales, 2d, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of White & Case, New York City Al abama Vernon M. Geddy, Jr., Gerald T. Wetherington, McGuire, Woods & Battle, Chief Judge, Eleventh Judicial Williamsburg, Virginia Circuit of Florida iv Table of contents Acknowledgments •••••••••••••••• tt ••••••••• ", ...................... vii Introduction: Background of gui de .......... """ ........ "" .... "........ ".. ".. """ .. """"" .... ".... ,,,, .. ,, 1 Significance for court management and statistical reporting •.. 1 Methodo logy """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""",,",,"""" 2 Continuing improvements ...••.............•........•...•....... 2 Appendix A: Prototype profile of the State Appellate Court Jurisdiction Guide for Statistical Reporting ..... 105 Append; x B: Survey sources """""."""""",,.,,"""""""""""""""""""""" 1 09 Appendix C: Final verification was received from these courts by publication date ..................•••...•...•. 115 List of summary tables Table 1. Law trained staff in state appellate courts, 1984 .... 5 Table 2. Structure of panels in state appellate courts, 1984.. 11 Table 3. Oral argument in state appellate courts, 1984 ..••.••. 17 Table 4. Use of expediting procedures in state appellate courts, 1 984 """ ...... "" ........ " .. "" .......... " .. " ...... "" .. "" .. """ .... ,, 23 Table 5. Method of counting cases in state appellate courts, 1 984 .......... "" .. "........ "........ ".. ".............. ".......... ".................. ".. " 2 9 Table 6. Mandatory and discretionary subject-matter jurisdiction in state appellate courts, 1984 ••••••• 35 PART I: Mandatory subject-matter jurisdiction •.....• 36 PART II: Discretionary subject-matter jurisdiction 37 Table 7. Some procedures for granting/denying discretionary review in state appellate courts, 1984 ••••••••••••• 47 Table 8. Sentence review in non-capital state offense cases, 1 984 ".... "............ "" .... "" ...... ".......... "...... ""................................ 52 Table 9. Route of appeals of administrative agency cases in state appellate courts, 1984 .........•••.....•.. 57 Table 10. Contents of opinion counts in state appellate courts, 1984 ... 0................................... 62 v List of summary tables (continued) Table 11. Data availability on manner of disposition in state appellate courts, 1984 ........••..•...••.••.......• 67 Table 12. Data availability on type of disposition in state appellate courts, 1984 .•....•.•...••.•.........•..• 73 Table 13. Length of time, in days, within intent to appeal (e.g., notice of appeal) must be filed from trial court judgment, 1984 ••••• •••••.•.••.•••.•.••• 80 Table 14. Length of time, in days, within which the trial court record must be certified to first level appellate court. Frequency, grantor and length of extensions, 1984 ..........................•....... 83 Table 15. Length of time, in days, within which the trial court record must be certified to the court of last resort, if the case comes from an intermediate appellate court, 1984 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.••••••• 89 Table 16. Length of time, in days, within which legal briefs must be filed in state appellate courts. Frequency, grantor and length of extensions, 1984 92 Table 17. Time periods, in days, within which state appellate justices/judges must \'Jrite opinions, 1984 .. •••..•.. 98 vi --.--- - ------ Acknowledgments This State Appellate Court Jurisdiction Guide for Statistical Reporting could not have been undertaken without the support and cooperation of the members of both the Conference of State Court Administrators7 and the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks. Completion of the jurisdiction gUide profiles made significant demands on their staff time and expertise7 and their cooperation and assistance were invaluable. Revisions and maintenance of the guide in the future should be much less time-consuming, except where court systems or information systems are substantially changed. We are especially appreciative of the "contact peoplell who directly contributed to this effort. A list of these individuals can be found in Appendix B. A special thanks to Penny Clifford and Richard Van Duizend who reviewed a draft of this Guide7 and provided guidance on its organization and formatting. Finally, this document could not have been completed7 in a timely manner, without the diligence of Brenda Jones in managing the logistics of the data collection effort, and the word processing skills of Pat MaddOX, Stacey Healy, and Cathy Meek in preparing the data collection profiles and the camera-ready document. The patience of this entire group was appreciated during this process. vii Introduction Background of guide Significance for court management and statistical reporting The goals of the Court Statistics and Information Management Project (for When studying state court systems, merly the National Court Statistics unlike studying the Federal system, Project), of the National Center for State researchers have difficulty acquiring any Courts are to collect, compile, analyze, sense of uniformity in jurisdiction and and disseminate comparable state court procedure--which is a likely explanation caseload statistics. These data are for the research void in studying state reported in the State Court Caseload appellate courts. This Guide is an impor Statistics: A nnual Report series. The tant step in providing an understanding of information gathered by this Guide is state appellate courts' jurisdiction and being incorporated into the 1984 edition organization, as well as sensitizing of the annual report series. readers to the political culture of each court. During