[PDF] The Quality Of Advocacy In The Federal Courts eBook

Author : Anthony Partridge
Publisher :
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 47,78 MB
Release : 1978
Category : Actions and defenses
ISBN :

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"A report to the Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States to Consider Standards for Admission to Practice in the Federal Courts."--T.p.

Author : Rachael K. Hinkle
Publisher :
Page : 110 pages
File Size : 11,37 MB
Release : 2007
Category : Expertise
ISBN :

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For years scholars have asserted that attorneys with more extensive expertise (either overall or in relation to opposing counsel) achieve a higher rate of success for their clients. However, there has been little direct investigation of how differing institutional features among courts might influence the impact of attorney expertise. This paper theorizes that the impact of attorney expertise on judicial decision-making is minimized in institutional contexts where a judge has significant access to neutral information (such as research provided by law clerks) in addition to the partisan information provided by counsel. A more complex method than those previously employed to measure attorney expertise is developed which incorporates information about an attorney's litigation experience, years of practice, relevant clerkships, subject-area specialization, Martindale-Hubbell rating, and law school achievements. The resulting index of attorney expertise is employed to compare attorneys' winning percentages in products liability cases in the federal district and circuit courts between 1995 and 2006. The results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the success rate of attorneys based on their expertise in the federal appellate courts where judges have relatively lower caseloads and more staff assistance than district court judges. However, in the district - courts where judges have less time and resources to obtain independent, neutral information - the winning percentage of attorneys with greater overall expertise than opposing counsel exceeds the baseline success rate to a statistically significant degree.

Author : William M. Richman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 46,74 MB
Release : 2012-12-20
Category : Law
ISBN : 0199367051

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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.